Author: Ivana Glavaš

POREČ, 26. travnja, 2017. – Grad Virovitica od danas je i službeno pametan grad.

Na WinDays konferenciji u Poreču gradonačelnik Virovitice Ivica Kirin, OpenDataStore COO Siniša Gavrilov i direktorica Sektora za male i srednje tvrtke u Microsoft Hrvatska Renata Šoić predstavili su nove digitalne usluge Grada Virovitice.

Nove usluge su dio naše OpenDataStore platforme. Od danas, građani Virovitice mogu preko ODS MyCity  (mobilne ili web aplikacije) prijavljivati komunalne nepravilnosti uočene na području grada, povodom kojih ćee komunalne službe pokrenuti postupak sanacije i obavještavati građane o napretku.

Objavljen je i ODS OpenDataPortal – Portal otvorenih podataka Grada Virovitice te se Virovitica pridružila Zagrebu i Rijeci kao jedinim lokalnim samoupravama koje imaju vlastite portale otvorenih podataka. „Otvaranjem javnih podataka Grada u strojno čitljivom obliku, ostvarujemo preduvjete za rast digitalne ekonomije te ovim putem pozivamo sve zainteresirane – građane, obrazovni sektor i poduzetnike – da svojom kreativnošću stvore novu dodanu vrijednost na dobrobit cijele zajednice.“, izjavio je gradonačelnik Ivica Kirin.

Čestitamo Gradu Virovitici!

OpenDataStore was finalist in two categories for EuroCloud Croatia 2016 Awards, nominated as both best horizontal and best vertical solution.

We convincingly won horizontal solution award as judges determined our solution best matched set criteria (privacy, data security, compliance, CRM, ERM, online storage etc.).

National EuroCloud organizations give awards for best cloud solutions and also serve as qualications for the same competition on European level. Wish us luck!

Last week we headed from Zagreb to some warmer parts of Croatia. Microsoft organized their annual WinDays conference in Poreč, and kindly invited us as speakers.

First presentation we participated in was ‘IT as tool for achieving strategic goals in local government management’ where our Business Developer Bojan Hadžisejdić shared his toughts and expertise on this subject.

Second panel we spoke at was ‘Case Study: Azure Infrastructure’. As all of our solutions are based on Microsoft’s Azure cloud service, Siniša Gavrilov took the stage with Jasminka Draženović form Ministry of Culture to present ODS DataStage. Ministry of Culture had a problem with converting their data to ‘machine-readable’ format, and we helped! They were the first public body to comply with EU Directives regarding open data, and we hope many will follow.

On March 31st we went to Microsoft here in Zagreb to present our new OpenDataStore Basic package. The event was imagined as an opportunity for city representatives to get new ideas on how can IT help them govern their local communities. As Microsoft partners, we got the opportunity to tell them all about our creative solutions.

ODS is a platform for giving data true power and flirting with what can be done with it. Basic package is a set of three applications:

1. ODS My City: web/mobile app for citizens to take photos, notes and submit irregularities seen around the city (garbage, broken signs, bumpy roads…)

2. ODS DataStage: web app for Data Officers that allows them to easily manage public data and publish it online, complying with all newest EU regulation

3. ODS OpenDataPortal: the name tells it all: with our help, any city can have their own page for publishing documents and datasets within 10 minutes.

Now you must be thinking, wouldn’t it be cool if every city had these apps? That’s our mission! Thankfully, city representatives at Modern Local Government Day agreed. After many requests and meetings and we look forward to do our part in creating #smartcity.

In a past couple of years there has been a lot of improvements in EU legislature regarding Freedom of Information and the Right to Re-use Open Data. Freedom of Information in Croatia worked like this: as a citizen you needed some information and assumed i.e. that Ministry of Administration has it. After filing an official request, Data Official has 15 days to answer. Very 20th century, right? That’s why European Union pushed for Right to Re-use Open Data: so all this is already available online, thus eliminating the need for interaction with public bodies and waiting for 15 days (if you are lucky to stumble upon a friendly Data Official).

For those of you new in this area, open data is all data public bodies (state and local) gather during their work. This of course excludes personal information or country’s military secrets…. You get the point. To give you few examples: a list of addresses and coordinates of all kindergartens in one city, financial data, lists of all public bodies, demographic statistics etc. There is massive amount of this data, and in order for it to be re-usable (meaning: so that entrepreneurs, NGOs and generally citizens can implement said data in their apps) it has to be ‘machine-readable’ (a format that software can read). Sounds complicated? Not really, it just means .pdf, .docx, and pictures are a big no-no, and .csv is very welcome. To get back to my point, Data Officials in public bodies (with background in law or management) had no idea what .csv was, let alone converting data form data base sources to ‘machine-readable’ sets and publishing it on Croatia’s new Open Data Portal (data.gov.hr).

Especially stunned by this new regulation was Ministry of Culture. They have a lot of cool and useful data and were experiencing a lot of pressure form citizens and NGOs to comply with new EU Directives and respective national laws. Their data was all published online as lists or search apps, but if you are a software and not a human being- quite useless.

In a time of panic mixed with excitement for the possibility of  being the most transparent Ministry in Croatia, OpenDataStore came to help. In a few weeks time, we had a solution called ODS DataStage. ODS stands for OpenDataStore- our platform created for giving open data true power and alleviating communication with citizens to another level.
ODS DataStage is a really simple and intuitive web application that connects with data sources, converts data from various data bases to .csv files and launches them on government’s open data portal. It can be implemented after doing an analysis on what kind of data public body in question has, and carefully separating what cannot be published. After initial setup, Data Officials use it to track recent changes on data sources and update accordingly, add new data or delete if not relevant any more. When using ODS DataStage public bodies have a clear and detailed view of their datasets. The app itself is located in Microsoft Azure environment which makes it easily scalable and perfect for avoiding additional infrastructure costs.

Ministry of Culture were the first to implement this solution, but many other public bodies showed interest and are in process of adopting ODS DataStage. We are thrilled to see public bodies in Croatia wanting to be more transparent and entrepreneurial-friendly. Since we are talking about European legislation, this law is exists in all 28 countries which makes it easy to slightly modify it if needed and offer it to public bodies all over EU.
At Omega Software, we are very excited about where open data is going. Our strong belief is that governments should use new technologies to be transparent on a new level. The state of technology certainly allows it, so why not use it? We see open data as an area where

a. politics with public administration,

b. civil society and

c. private sector

come together in building foundations for open, creative and more productive future.

Last Tuesday we stopped by Microsoft offices in Zagreb to present our brand new solution for publishing #opendata. Have you heard about it already? We’re really proud of it.
MEGB is a gathering of IT executives of Croatian public bodies that Microsoft organizes four times a year. We were invited to talk about ODS Data Stage and let us tell you a secret. Microsoft is also really excited about this solution as it uses their Azure cloud as infrastructure. ODS DataStage is a web app that connects internal data sources with government’s open data portal and publishes data in ‘machine-readable’ format.

The feedback we got at the buffet following the presentations made us so excited we almost forgot to eat.

Take a look at our slides:

ODS DataStage slides Croatian

ODS DataStage slides English