"Interoperable Europe Newsletter" Newsletter Issues

Sharing & Reuse Conference 2019: what's new? (08/05/2019)

With only one month to go to the Sharing & Reuse Conference, taking place on 11 June in Bucharest, Romania, we are pleased to announce that several new speakers will be joining us on the day.

Save the date: SEMIC 2019 (26/04/2019)

The 9th edition of SEMIC, the annual semantic interoperability conference, will take place in Helsinki, Finland on 21 October 2019. The event is organised by the ISA² Programme of the European Commission in collaboration with the Finnish Presidency of the Council of the EU. The theme of SEMIC 2019 is ‘Linking data spaces for citizens’.

Shortlisted solutions for the Sharing & Reuse Awards 2019 made public! (26/04/2019)

We are pleased to announce the first results of the Sharing & Reuse Awards 2019. The second edition of the contest received 68 submissions from public administrations of 20 different countries, out of which 16 solutions have been shortlisted. Final results will be announced at the Sharing & Reuse Conference on 11 June in Bucharest.

ISA² Work Programme for 2019 adopted (25/04/2019)

The European Commission has adopted the 2019 revision of the ISA² rolling work programme on 26 March 2019. The new work programme includes 54 actions; 43 actions are ongoing from previous years and one is new. For 10 actions from the previous years, no additional funding is necessary to ensure their completion.

Report on Organisational Interoperability and Public Service Governance published. Participate in our survey! (26/04/2019)

Read the final report on the workshop on Organisational Interoperability and Public Service Governance that provides an overview of the workshop discussions and findings. To build up a greater store of good practices, we also invite you to participate in a related survey open until 10 May.

Access to Base Registries in a nutshell (26/04/2019)

Access to Base Registries is an action run by the ISA² Programme focused on helping public administrations to provide better public services to businesses and citizens. Learn about main objectives and benefits in the video.

How Access to Base Registries helps public administrations with information reuse (25/04/2019)

Instead of asking citizens for information that they have already provided, the Access to Base Registries Action tries to help public administrations to implement solutions that focus on the reuse of this information through base registries. Read the blog post by Peter Burian, Project Officer for Access to Base Registries.

Testimonial by Oleksandr Ryzhenko (26/04/2019)

Oleksandr Ryzhenko, Head of the State Agency for eGovernance: The Access to Base Registries recommendations are used for example for the development of the TREMBITA interaction system (X-Road based state registries’ interaction system) when it comes on the technical level of interoperability. Read the full testimonial.

Highlights from webinar on Specification of Registry of Registries (26/04/2019)

The Access to Base Registries webinar that took place on 8 April provided an opportunity to discuss best practices and share ideas on the creation of a specification for the registry of registries. Recording, presentations and other materials are available online.

Can artificial intelligence make sense of public administrations' data? (25/04/2019)

Public administrations are experimenting with – and in some cases already successfully using – various applications of AI: chatbots, text mining, image recognition, traffic supervision and many more. Can artificial intelligence make sense of public administrations' data?

Interim Evaluation of the ISA² Programme: Final Workshop (25/04/2019)

Over the past five months, Centre for European Policy Studies has conducted an independent interim evaluation of ISA² for the European Commission. At the final workshop, the results will be presented and discussed with stakeholders.

e-Governance Conference 2019 (25/04/2019)

e-Governance experts, decision makers, donors, and civil society groups will meet in Tallinn to discuss the challenges states face when engaging digital citizens. During, the event, don't miss the sessions with Head of Interoperability Unit, Natalia Aristimuño Pérez, and visit the ​ISA² stand.

Webinar: Mastering Joinup to your advantage (25/04/2019)

This webinar aims to provide you with all the needed background information, key concepts, and guidelines for effectively using Joinup to your advantage. You will also learn about upcoming features.

Single digital gateway hackathon - Bucharest edition (25/04/2019)

The Bucharest single digital gateway hackathon is one of a series of high-level hackathons hosted across Europe. Citizens, businesses, professionals, students, NGOs… any creative minds can put their heads together to shape the all-in-one digital gateway for smarter e-services.

Programme for Sharing & Reuse Conference 2019 announced! (24/04/2019)

How were governments in Europe digitalised in last 10 years? Read new report (22/03/2019)

We are thrilled to announce the publication of a new study providing an insightful overview over the last 10 years of Digital Government development in Europe – the eGovernment factsheets 10-year anniversary report. The study commemorates the 10th anniversary of the publication of the eGovernment factsheets.

New version of European Interoperability Reference Architecture released! (25/03/2019)

The new European Interoperability Reference Architecture (EIRA) release v3.0.0 is available online! The new version includes significant upgrades and can be considered the state-of-the-art in the interoperability domain.

ISA² Interim Evaluation: consultation activities completed (25/03/2019)

The European Commission has completed the consultation activities conducted as part of the ongoing Interim Evaluation of the ISA² Programme. Running from December 2018 to 1 March 2019, the consultation activities resulted in 129 responses. Based on the collected data and desk research, an independent study is being created and will be presented on 7 May.

Overview of PM² Methodology Guide available in new translations (25/03/2019)

The European Commission has created a shorter version of the new PM² Methodology Guide, called PM² Overview. The aim is to further promote the introduction and use of the methodology in organisations that are just starting with it, in both the public and private sector. The booklet of 23 pages is available in several languages.

Video: European Parliament Crypto Tool in a nutshell (22/03/2019)

During the European elections, it is necessary to ensure secure exchange of data and prevent double voting. That is why the European Parliament Crypto Tool, supported by ISA², has been created! Watch the video interview.

How Crypto Tool helps make European elections fair (22/03/2019)

Read the blog post by Jérôme Stefanini, IT Project Officer. He describes how the European Parliament Crypto Tool was used for the European elections in 2014 and is already being used for the European elections that will take place in May 2019.

User testimonial: Gilles Feith, Luxembourg (25/03/2019)

Gilles Feith, Luxembourg Government Chief Information Officer: "The Crypto Tool has proven to be an invaluable resource for the exchange of electoral data between EU Member States." Read the full testimonial and more information about Crypto Tool.

Join us at the Sharing & Reuse Conference 2019! (22/03/2019)

The registration is now open for the Sharing & Reuse Conference 2019 that will take place on 11 June in Bucharest! Watch the invitation by Deputy Director-General of Directorate-General for Informatics at the European Commission, Mário Campolargo.

How to make the dream of the Semantic Web a reality? We need tools developers will use (22/03/2019)

Part of the dream of the Semantic Web is to enable machines to act on our behalf to find and aggregate information. Furthermore, software agents should be able to make decisions based on end user-defined tasks. So how far away is the dream?

ISA² Interoperability Test Bed in support of EU Member States (22/03/2019)

The ISA² Interoperability Test Bed is an online, web-based platform that provides a conformance testing solution to projects developing cross-border public services. Project owners can use it to define their conformance testing strategy as a series of test cases that users can execute in a self-service manner.

Registry of Registries (22/03/2019)

The Access to Base Registries team is pleased to invite you to the webinar on the Specification for a Registry of Registries on 8 April. The event is of particular interest to ISA² Committee Members and other service providers that incorporate information from base registries in their public services.

AI and Public Administrations (22/03/2019)

The webinar, organised by the Semantic Interoperability Community (SEMIC) of the ISA² Programme on 9 April, will offer the opportunity to explore the potential of artificial intelligence for public services. A particular focus will be given to the “semantics” perspective.

Catalogue of Services (25/03/2019)

The second webinar of 2019 organised by the ISA² Catalogue of Services action will take place on 10 April. The topics discussed will include the feasibility study on the modelling of the processes for delivering public services, analysis and modelling of proactive services and much more.

Western Balkans Digital Summit (22/03/2019)

The event will bring together representatives of governments, businesses and academia in the region, with the aim of setting up a platform for the exchange of ideas on digital. Don't miss the presentation of Emanuele Baldacci on ISA², the ISA² session and pass by our stand!

Single Digital Gateway Hackathon (22/03/2019)

The Single Digital Gateway Hackathon kicks off with the Brussels edition. Teams will explore ways of designing and prototyping a user-friendly tool to provide feedback on the quality of the services and information used through the single digital gateway.

e-Society 2019 conference (22/03/2019)

The e-Society 2019 conference aims to address the main issues of concern within the Information Society. During the event, visit the ​ISA² stand in the expo area!

Register for the Sharing & Reuse Conference 2019! (18/03/2019)

The registration is now open for the Sharing & Reuse Conference 2019! The event is organised by the European Commission’s ISA² Programme, under the Romanian presidency of the Council of the EU. If you are interested in open source policies and strategies, and their implementation in EU countries, come and join us on 11 June in Bucharest, Romania.

Sharing & Reuse Awards 2019 – Deadline for submissions extended until 12 March (25/02/2019)

Great news! Public administrations interested in the Sharing & Reuse Awards have extra time to submit their entries. We are pleased to announce that the deadline has been extended until 12 March 2019, to accommodate all innovative and impactful entries.

Last chance! Give your feedback on ISA² by 1 March (21/02/2019)

Only a few days are left for providing feedback on the ISA² Programme in the ongoing public consultation. The deadline for comments is 1 March 2019. The results of the consultation will be used to improve the implementation of ISA² and its eventual successor programme to bring more value to Europeans.

EU Datathon 2019 - Launch of the open data competition (22/02/2019)

The third edition of the EU Datathon has been officially launched! Participants are invited to develop apps and interactive visualisations offering new services or public information insights to citizens, public authorities and businesses. Submit your project by 24 March 2019.

Improved version of European Legislation Identifier ontology is now available (21/02/2019)

The European Legislation Identifier (ELI) offers a consistent and elaborated mechanism to identify, reference, and reuse legal information on the web. The ELI ontology, which is the backbone for a pan-European interoperable legal information system, is now available in a new version bringing several improvements.

CAMSS in a nutshell (22/02/2019)

The Common assessment method for standards and specifications (CAMSS) will help you understand if an ICT standard or specification is fit for your purpose. Watch the video interview with the project manager Raul Abril from the Interoperability Unit at the European Commission.

CAMSS is "the" solution to understand standards and specifications (22/02/2019)

CAMSS offers its users three solutions: CAMSS Tools, CAMSS Assessments and CAMSS-as-a-Service. Learn in the blog post how they can be useful for you and what CAMSS is preparing in relation to the European Interoperability Framework.

The Core Person Vocabulary and the GDPR (25/02/2019)

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a big opportunity for semantic data modellers. Learn in the blog post how the solutions developed under the SEMIC Action, such as Core Vocabularies, can play a key role in this context.

Interview with Director-General Gertrud Ingestad (21/02/2019)

During the ISA² Mid-Term Conference, we recorded an interview with the Director-General of DG Informatics at the European Commission, Gertrud Ingestad. Watch the video to learn how the programme is boosting the full potential of the Digital Single Market in Europe.

Presentation of Catalogue of Services (22/02/2019)

The Catalogue of Services Action of the ISA² Programme supports public administrations that create and exchange information on public service descriptions. Watch the Prezi presentation to learn more about the current state of the activities under the action, ongoing pilots and next steps.

Startup Europe Summit 2019 (22/02/2019)

Cluj becomes the startup capital of Europe. Leading players in technology entrepreneurship and innovation in Central and Eastern Europe will meet key actors in innovation ecosystems from Western Europe. Visit the ​ISA² stand in the expo area!

EIF Workshop on Organisational Interoperability and Public Service Governance (21/02/2019)

Are you working on organisational interoperability and public service governance topics? Participate in the ISA² workshop with our experts Prof. Dr. Herbert Kubicek, Prof. Dr. Maria A. Wimmer, Dr. Efthimios Tambouris and others to share your insights and experience!

New Techniques and Technologies for Statistics 2019 (21/02/2019)

NTTS is an international conference series organised by Eurostat on new techniques and methods for statistical collection, production and dissemination systems. The Head of Interoperability Unit, Natalia Aristimuño Pérez, will chair a panel session on Data4Policy.

Winners of previous edition: how the Awards helped our projects (28/01/2019)

Watch the video with three winners of the 2017 Awards edition. They are sharing their experience with the competition and talking about the benefits it has brought to their projects.

How to make legislation ready for the digital age? Share your experience (25/01/2019)

In the world of rapidly developing technologies, it is important to ensure that legislation takes into account potential ICT impacts and fosters the take-up of digital solutions. Under the Legal Interoperability Action, ISA² is working on tools to help legislators create “digital-ready” law.

Interested in semantic interoperability? Read about SEMIC highlights in 2nd half of 2018 (25/01/2019)

In the past few months, the SEMIC team tackled various topics to help public administrations in Europe solve semantic interoperability challenges. This included updating data specifications such as DCAT-AP, sharing knowledge through studies, and setting up new pilots to test ISA² solutions.

New features and improvements. Check out Joinup roadmap for 2019 (28/01/2019)

Joinup, the platform for sharing and reuse of IT solutions, constantly aims at improving the quality of its services and user experience. In 2019, the Joinup team will develop new features such as the possibility to bookmark content or to subscribe to a newsletter through the collection. Learn more!

New PM² Methodology Guide published (25/01/2019)

The new PM² Methodology Guide is now available in the EU Bookshop. This 3rd edition of the open project management methodology supported by the ISA² Programme comes with a number of changes and reflects the collective work achieved in the past years.

Have your say in ISA² public consultation (25/01/2019)

Are you satisfied with the ISA​² Programme? Give us your feedback in the public consultation open until 1 March 2019. The consultation is part of the ongoing ISA​² Interim Evaluation. Learn more in the video interview.

Presentation on ISA² and Smart Cities (28/01/2019)

Check out the slides on the ISA² Programme and its link with smart cities by project manager Fidel Santiago. The presentation was part of the Connected Smart Cities Conference 2019 on 17 January in Brussels.

Catalogue of Services Webinar (28/01/2019)

The ISA² Programme is organising a webinar as part of its "Catalogue of Services" action. The aim is to present the objectives for 2019, discuss the contributions received from the Working Group and present issues opened on GitHub.

CNIS 2019 (28/01/2019)

The IX. National Conference on Innovation and Public Services in Spain will provide the opportunity to learn more about public administrations in the country and the important policy and technological changes they are going through.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! (14/12/2018)

Have your say! Participate in public consultation on ISA² (12/12/2018)

The European Commission has launched a public consultation on the ISA​² Programme. It aims at gathering feedback on the programme that reached now its midway point. The consultation is available in 23 EU languages and open until 1 March 2019.

Apply for the Sharing & Reuse Awards (12/12/2018)

The European Commission invites you to take part in the 2nd edition of the Sharing & Reuse Awards Contest. Have you been successfully working on digitalising public services? Share your experience by applying to this contest by 28 February 2019!

Interinstitutional Register of Delegated Acts celebrates its first anniversary (13/12/2018)

The Interinstitutional Register of Delegated Acts was launched on 12 December 2017. Since then, it has offered a one stop-shop for anyone interested in the lifecycle of delegated acts. The technical solution of the project was developed with support of the ISA² Programme.

New version of the European Parliament Crypto Tool available (13/12/2018)

A new version of the Crypto Tool was released. The tool ensures a secure exchange of data of mobile voters and candidates and prevents double voting. The new release will be used during the European Parliament elections in May 2019.

Speakers' presentations (13/12/2018)

Videos recordings (13/12/2018)

Conference Photo Gallery (13/12/2018)

One year with the LEOS team: what I learnt about community growth, Agile and user-centric design (12/12/2018)

As we are approaching the end of 2018, I would like to share with you what I have learnt this year while working on LEOS. ​LEOS is an open source software designed to help those involved in legislation drafting by facilitating efficient online collaboration.

Why turn fiscal data into Linked Open Data? (13/12/2018)

Watch the teaser on a project of the EU Open Data team making EU budget data available as RDF data. This way it is possible to turn the data into Linked Open Data. The project is supported by ISA².

New study on the Single Digital Gateway published (12/12/2018)

A study was done to provide the technical basis for the implementation of the Single Digital Gateway Regulation. Read about the proposed IT architecture, the business, functional and technical requirements and the interoperability questions that will need to be addressed.

Follow the ISA² Mid-Term Conference via live stream (27/11/2018)

The ISA² Mid-Term Conference: Linking Public Administrations, Businesses and Citizens will take place tomorrow in the cultural house Flagey in Brussels. Didn’t you register? You can follow the event via live stream!

Participate in the ISA² Interim Evaluation (27/11/2018)

As the ISA² Programme reached its midway point, the European Commission has launched its interim evaluation. It will include many consultation activities such as the kick-off workshop on 30 November, distribution of questionnaires at the workshop and the ISA² Mid-Term Conference, targeted interviews, a targeted online survey and a public consultation starting in December.

New study on the GDPR Data Portability and Core Vocabularies published (23/11/2018)

Read a new study that examines the use and application of Core Vocabularies and, more specifically, the Core Person Vocabulary as a potential enabler for the GDPR data portability. It also assesses how public administrations in the EU could comply with these provisions using Core Vocabularies.

Discover the latest DCAT-AP release (27/11/2018)

A new version 1.2 of the DCAT Application Profile for data portals in Europe (DCAT-AP) is available. DCAT-AP provides a common specification for describing public sector datasets in Europe to enable the exchange of descriptions of datasets among data portals.

ICT 2018 (27/11/2018)

ICT 2018, the key European ICT research and innovation event organised by the European Commission in cooperation with the Austrian Presidency of the Council of the EU, will be hosted in Vienna. Visit the ISA² stand during the event!

Paris Open Source Summit (27/11/2018)

The European Commission's Open Source Observatory (OSOR), supported by ISA², will hold a two-hour session at the Paris Open Source Summit. It will be dedicated to security and national policies on the use of open source software in public administrations.

European Open Source & Free Software Law Event (27/11/2018)

As part of its annual conference cycle, this year the European Open Source & Free Software Law Event (EOLE) will take place during the Paris Open Source Summit 2018. At this event Patrice-Emmanuel Schmitz, Joinup Legal and Licensing Expert, will present the concept of the Joinup Licensing Assistant.

1st CEF eTranslation Conference (27/11/2018)

CEF eTranslation allows digital public services to become multilingual. The 1st CEF eTranslation Conference will showcase how CEF eTranslation helps you achieve this goal. Don't miss the presentation of our colleague Susanne Wigard on Improving Semantic Interoperability in European eGovernment Systems.

Interview with Frank Leyman on digitalisation of Belgian administrations (23/11/2018)

ISA² had the opportunity to discuss with Frank Leyman, Manager of International Relations for BOSA, Belgium, about the digitalisation of public administrations in the country. Digital Belgium strategy has enabled growth in e-invoicing, e-commerce and many other digital public services.

GovSec, a system for safe cloud adoption across European Commission (23/11/2018)

GovSec is an open source tool to help you get to the cloud. The tool reduces the time and costs you would spend to prepare for security of IT systems. Its easy-to-understand guidance combines governance guidelines, best practices and helpful documentation. GovSec is an initiative of ISA².