Editorial: Trends and Prospects of Opening Data in Problem Driven Societies

Abstract

In the last two decades open data has revolutionised the data landscape in the European Union. In the beginning of the 21 century government data was typically available at high cost accompanied by restrictive licences that only a few could afford. How different is the data landscape in 2022: in the EU27 thousands of government datasets are provided as open data, including many high value datasets and this may only be the beginning of the next wave of open data foreseen if the European Data Strategy is fully implemented. Europe is working towards this goal with the soon to be expected draft Implementing act on high-value data sets as part of the Open Data Directive, the proposed Data Act, and the proposed Data Governance Act.