1

CITY OF NIS OPEN DATA

 

July 17

Since March this year the City of Nis has been working on the Open Data – Open Opportunities Project which has been implemented by the City of Nis Office for Local Economic Development and Projects in cooperation with the organization Palgo Smart. It is a project implemented nationally by the United Nations Development Program and the RS Office of Information Technology and Electronic Administration, supported by the United Kingdom Good Governance Fund (GGF) and the World Bank. By participating in this project the City of Nis contributes to the fulfillment of the strategic commitment of the Government of the Republic of Serbia in accordance with the Strategy of Development of Electronic Administration in the Republic of Serbia for the period 2015-2018 and the Action Plan for Implementation of the International Initiative Partnership for Open Government in the Republic of Serbia. At the press conference, held at Nis City Hall the results of the previous project activities implemented by the City of Nis were presented. Although the City of Nis, with this project, only makes the first steps in publishing data in open format, this project has achieved exceptional results, due to which the City of Nis has become the first local self-government in the Republic of Serbia that opened data sets of the entire City Administration, all organizational units at the secretariat level, a total of 17 secretariats and 12 public utility companies. By engagement of a working group formed of the representatives of all secretariats and public enterprises, 34 sets with more than 100 data sets are open and they are available for review, download and re-use on the National Open Data Portal (https://data.gov.rs ). From the large number of data published in open form, the public transport data are especially important for citizens which they can use through the Google Transit Service, then data on education, primary and secondary schools, agricultural land city heating energy data, water quality, parking zones and parking lots, spatial and urban plans, business premises owned by the City, construction and use permits, legalization and City of Nis Budget for 2019. All data sets were published with full respect for the rules regarding personal data protection, which is regulated in the Republic of Serbia by the Personal Data Protection Act as well as with the legal framework applicable in the territory of the European Union through the General Data Protection Act (General Data Protection Regulation, GDPR). Upon completion of the activities in this project the City of Nis will continue to work on further opening of data from its own competence, their maintenance and optimization of their use through membership in the national working group for open data, together with other state institutions, technical community and civil society organizations, academic institutions and experts dealing with open data. In a wider context the City of Nis recognizes the huge potential that open data have to create new opportunities for the development of the economy and employment, as well as new values ​​through new information, analyses and services. Since more than 150 companies engaged in advanced technologies have been active operating in Nis since November 2018, open data will be of particular interest and importance to new generations of entrepreneurs, startups and new companies, for future residents of the Scientific and Technological Park, which will start operating next year, as well as teams working from other common working spaces in the city. Open data is a prerequisite and key component of the future concept of the City of Nis as a smart city, which will enable better quality of life for citizens, from transport and education to water, waste and energy management. Finally, with this project, the City of Nis continues its strategic commitment to position itself as a city of advanced technologies, and its citizens are recognized as actors and bearers of technical and technological changes in the world.