Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Italian Open and Big Data Strategy

  • Conference paper
  • First Online:
Electronic Government and the Information Systems Perspective (EGOVIS 2016)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNISA,volume 9831))

Abstract

In contemporary society, technology deeply changes our way of creating knowledge, making it active and dynamic. In light of that background, this contribution focuses on two key elements of knowledge creation, namely, open data and big data, highlighting their differences and their treatment under Italian law and discussing the projects and strategies developed in Italy. We will first look at open government data, whose ability to be reused enables them to act as tools for generating knowledge and offering new government services and products. We will then turn to big data, whose use carries complex legal and social consequences, and which also serve as a key tool for creating knowledge by making it possible to plot and forecast economic and social trends. We will finally consider the way open data and big data can be effectively used in combination to promote growth and forge an authentic open government in Italy.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    Open government lays emphasis on horizontal participation, enabling a decision-making environment to emerge where the public and the private can collaboratively engage on an equal footing in a dialogue through which to govern with the contribution of all through the Internet.

  2. 2.

    On the Web at http://okfn.org.

  3. 3.

    They also define open format data, meaning data available in a public, fully documented, and portable format (Art. 68(3)(a) of Legislative Decree 82/2005, replaced by Article 9 of Legislative Decree 179/2012, modified and enacted into Law 221/2012), and they also define the concept of reuse as the use of data pursuant to Article 2(1)(e) of Legislative Decree 36/2006: Reuse means that data held by a public body can in turn be used by natural or legal persons for commercial or noncommercial purposes other than its initial public purpose (Art. 1(1)(n-bis) of Legislative Decree 82/2005; the definition was inserted by way of Art. 9 of Law Decree 179/2012, amended and enacted into Law 221/2012).

  4. 4.

    This obligation applies to all entities referred to in Article 2(2) of Legislative Decree 82/2005 (CAD).

  5. 5.

    Art. 52(2) CAD. Further, Art. 52(3) CAD, provides that in drawing up public procurement contracts for products or services entailing the collection and management of public data, government authorities must include clauses enabling all natural and legal persons to remotely access and reuse that data, along with the relative metadata and databases.

  6. 6.

    Legislative Decree 33/2013 absorbs provisions such as Art. 18 of Law Decree no. 83 of 22 June 2012, amended and enacted into Law no. 134 of 7 August 2012. The decree repeals Art. 18 (replacing it with its own Arts. 26 and 27), which singles out specific kinds of public information as particularly relevant (this applies to any kind of subsidy, payment, or financial aid provided to businesses, professionals, private organizations, or public bodies), requiring government agencies to make such data available in an open format subject to penalties for failure to do so.

  7. 7.

    For this reason the National Data Protection guidelines require government agencies a notice to that effect under the “Administrative Transparency” section of their websites.

  8. 8.

    The portal is www.dati.lombardia.it, and the law is Regional Law no. 7 of 18 April 2012.

  9. 9.

    The portal is https://dati.lazio.it/, and the law is Regional Law no. 7 of 18 June 2012.

  10. 10.

    The portal is http://www.dati.puglia.it, and the law is Regional Law no. 20 of 24 July 2012.

  11. 11.

    The portal is http://dati.trentino.it, and the law is Provincial Law no. 16 of 27 July 2012.

  12. 12.

    The portal is www.dati.friuliveneziagiulia.it, and the law is Regional Law no. 7 of 17 April 2014.

  13. 13.

    The portal is http://dati.umbria.it, and the law is Regional Law no. 9 of 29 April 2014.

  14. 14.

    The portal is http://goodpa.regione.marche.it, and the law is Regional Law no. 9 of 29 April 2014.

  15. 15.

    The portal is http://open.toscana.it (data section), and the law is Regional Law no. 19 of 18 February 2015.

  16. 16.

    The portal is http://dati.veneto.it, and the law is Regional Law no. 2 of 24 February 2015.

  17. 17.

    The portal is http://www.regione.liguria.it/opendata.html.

  18. 18.

    The portal is http://dati.regione.basilicata.it.

  19. 19.

    The portal is http://opendata.regione.sardegna.it.

  20. 20.

    On the Web at http://www.opencoesione.gov.it.

  21. 21.

    On the Web at http://www.confiscatibene.it/it.

  22. 22.

    COM (2012) 11: Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on the Protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data (General Data Protection Regulation).

  23. 23.

    Under Article 11(1)(b) of Legislative Decree no. 196 of 30 June 2003, personal data may be collected and stored only for explicit, determinate, and legitimate purposes, and any other processing of the same data needs to me consistent with such purposes.

  24. 24.

    See the broader discussion in A. Mantelero [20].

  25. 25.

    See in that regard A. Mantelero [20] pointing out that information overload may even impair knowledge, considering the risk of confusing our sources and failing to judge their reliability.

  26. 26.

    On the Web at https://www.enisa.europa.eu/publications/big-data-protection.

  27. 27.

    Cf. M. Bogni, A. Defant [1] pointing out that the use of big data may also give rise to IP protection and confidentiality issues.

  28. 28.

    The term is used in A. Mantelero [20].

  29. 29.

    On the Web at http://www.disit.org/km4city.

  30. 30.

    LAMMA is a consortium between Tuscany Region and Italy’s National Research Centre (CNR), and its focus is on meteorology, climate science, geographic information systems, and geology. On the Web at www.lamma.rete.toscana.it.

  31. 31.

    Accessible through the Website http://servicemap.disit.org.

  32. 32.

    At http://www.disit.org/6726.

  33. 33.

    On the Web at www.sii-mobility.org.

  34. 34.

    On the Web at http://www.resolute-eu.org.

  35. 35.

    On the Web at http://www.sobigdata.eu.

  36. 36.

    The full description of the project is available at www.sobigdata.eu.

  37. 37.

    On the Web at http://byte-project.eu/.

  38. 38.

    On the Web at http://www.iia.cnr.it/?lang=en.

  39. 39.

    On the Web at http://blog.debiase.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/8328/files/2012/05/Decreto-GdL-Big-Data.pdf.

  40. 40.

    On the Web at http://www.telecomitalia.com/tit/it/bigdatachallenge.html.

  41. 41.

    On the Web at http://data.enel.com/blog/open-data-and-big-data?language=en.

  42. 42.

    On the Web at http://opendata.gse.it/opendata/.

  43. 43.

    On the Web at http://www.energy-home.it/SitePages/Home.aspx.

  44. 44.

    On the Web at http://www.finance.gov.au/archive/big-data/.

  45. 45.

    In that regard, A. Mantelero [20] suggests some tools that may be useful in reining in the information power wielded by the coterie of “data overlords.” These tools include the ability to freely access and share information, empowering a plurality of players, and supranational oversight bodies. A. Mantelero himself stresses the key role that open data can play in making information accessible.

References

  1. Bogni, M., Defant, A.: Big data: diritti IP e problemi della privacy. Il Diritto industriale, Ipsoa, vol. 2, pp. 117–126 (2015)

    Google Scholar 

  2. Carloni, E. (ed.): L’amministrazione aperta. Regole strumenti e limiti dell’open government. Orizzonti di diritto pubblico. Maggioli, Rimini (2014)

    Google Scholar 

  3. Castells, M.: The Rise of the Network Society. Oxford University Press, Oxford (2000)

    Google Scholar 

  4. De Pasquale, D.: La linea sottile tra manipolazione della rete e pubblicità. Il Diritto industriale, Ipsoa, vol. 6, p. 552ff (2012)

    Google Scholar 

  5. Di Donato, F.: Lo stato trasparente Linked open data e cittadinanza attiva. Edizioni ETS, Pisa (2011)

    Google Scholar 

  6. European Data Protection Supervisor: Privacy and competitiveness in the age of big data, preliminary opinion (2014)

    Google Scholar 

  7. European Data Protection Supervisor: Opinion 4/2015, Towards a new digital ethics, 11 September 2015

    Google Scholar 

  8. European Data Protection Supervisor: Opinion 7/2015, Meeting the challenges of big data, 19 November 2015

    Google Scholar 

  9. European Union Agency for Network and Information Security (ENISA): Privacy by design in big data, December 2015

    Google Scholar 

  10. Faini, F.: Trasparenza, apertura e controllo democratico dell’amministrazione pubblica. Ciberspazio e Diritto, Mucchi editore, Modena, vol. 1, pp. 39–70 (2014)

    Google Scholar 

  11. Faini, F.: Italian open government strategy in national and regional regulation. In: Kö, A., Francesconi, E. (eds.) EGOVIS 2015. LNCS, vol. 9265, pp. 271–286. Springer, Heidelberg (2015)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  12. Floridi, L.: The Fourth Revolution – How the Infosphere is Reshaping Human Reality. Oxford University Press, Oxford (2014)

    Google Scholar 

  13. Garante per la protezione dei dati personali (Italian Data Protection Authority): Linee guida in materia di trattamento di dati personali, contenuti anche in atti e documenti amministrativi, effettuato per finalità di pubblicità e trasparenza sul web da soggetti pubblici e da altri enti obbligati, Rule No. 243, 15 May 2014 (Official Gazette No. 134, 12 June 2014), doc. web 3134436 (2014)

    Google Scholar 

  14. Garante per la protezione dei dati personali (Italian Data Protection Authority): Opinion no. 411, 18 September 2014 on the 2014–16 PSN, 2015–16 update, doc. web 3458502 (2014)

    Google Scholar 

  15. German Bundeskartellamt (Federal Cartel Office or FCO) and the French Autorité de la concurrence (French Competition Authority): Competition Law and Data (Report), 10th May 2016

    Google Scholar 

  16. House of Commons, Science and Technology Committee: The Big Data Dilemma: Government Response to the Committee’s Fourth Report of Session 2015–16

    Google Scholar 

  17. Istituto Nazionale di Statistica (ISTAT - Italian National Institute of Statistics): Resolution no. 20/PRES, 14 February 2013

    Google Scholar 

  18. Kemp, R.: Legal aspects of managing big data. Comput. Law Secur. Rev. 30(5), 482–491 (2014)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. Lathrop, D., Ruma, L.: Open Government: Collaboration, Transparency, and Participation in Practice. O’Reilly Media Inc., Sebastopol (2010)

    Google Scholar 

  20. Mantelero, A.: Big data: i rischi della concentrazione del potere informativo digitale e gli strumenti di controllo. In: Il Diritto dell’informazione e dell’informatica, vol. 1, pp. 135–144. Giuffrè, Milano (2012)

    Google Scholar 

  21. Marr, B.: Big Data: Using Smart Big Data Analytics and Metrics To Make Better Decisions and Improve Performance. Wiley, New York (2015)

    Google Scholar 

  22. Mayer-Schonberger, V., Cukier, K.: Big Data: A Revolution that Will Transform How We Live, Work, and Think. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, New York (2013)

    Google Scholar 

  23. Mockus, M., Palmirani, M.: Open government data licensing framework. In: Kö, A., Francesconi, E. (eds.) EGOVIS 2015. LNCS, vol. 9265, pp. 287–301. Springer, Heidelberg (2015)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  24. Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD): Data-Driven Innovation: Big Data for Growth and Well-Being, OECD Publishing, Paris (2015)

    Google Scholar 

  25. Palmirani, M., Martoni, M., Girardi, D.: Open government data beyond transparency. In: Kö, A., Francesconi, E. (eds.) EGOVIS 2014. LNCS, vol. 8650, pp. 275–291. Springer, Heidelberg (2014)

    Google Scholar 

  26. Rifkin, J.: La società a costo marginale zero. Mondadori, Milano (2015)

    Google Scholar 

  27. Sartor, G., De Azevedo Cunha, M.V.: Il caso Google e i rapporti regolatori USA/EU. Il Diritto dell’informazione e dell’informatica, vol. 4–5, p. 657ff (2014)

    Google Scholar 

  28. Tiscornia, D. (ed.): Open data e riuso dei dati pubblici. Informatica e diritto, nos. 1–2 (2011)

    Google Scholar 

  29. Williamson, A.: Big data and the implications for government. Legal Inf. Manage. 14(4), 253–257 (2014)

    Google Scholar 

  30. Yiu, C.: The Big Data Opportunity: Making Government Faster, Smarter and More Personal. Policy Exchange, London (2012)

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. CIRSFID - Interdepartmental Centre for Research in the History, Philosophy and Sociology of Law and in Legal Informatics, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy

    Fernanda Faini & Monica Palmirani

Authors
  1. Fernanda Faini
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Monica Palmirani
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Fernanda Faini .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Corvinus University of Budapest, Budapest, Hungary

    Andrea Kő

  2. Institute of Legal Information Theory and Techniques, Florence, Italy

    Enrico Francesconi

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2016 Springer International Publishing Switzerland

About this paper

Cite this paper

Faini, F., Palmirani, M. (2016). Italian Open and Big Data Strategy. In: Kő, A., Francesconi, E. (eds) Electronic Government and the Information Systems Perspective. EGOVIS 2016. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 9831. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-44159-7_8

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-44159-7_8

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-44158-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-44159-7

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation