European Data Forum 2014

PublicaMundi is a Gold Sponsor of EDF2014, the annual meeting point for the Data Economy in Europe.

The European Data Forum (EDF) is an annual meeting place for industry, researchers, policy makers, and community initiatives to discuss the challenges and opportunities of the Data Economy in Europe.

The next EDF will be held in Athens, Greece on March 19-20, 2014. The program will consist of presentations and networking sessions by industry leaders, academics, policy makers, and community organisers, and will cover a diverse range of topics, including research and technology development, training and knowledge transfer, and commercialisation.

The Data Economy, an emergent field of business based on the publication and use of data, is a key enabler for sustainable growth in Europe. Initiated by technological leaps, such as Big Data and Linked Data, and supported by several EU policy actions, such as Open Data and the Digital Agenda, the Data Economy engages a variety of stakeholders from across thematic domains and disciplines in the data value chain.

The potential benefits of the Data Economy are well documented. Open Data will reportedly lead to economic benefits of up to € 40 billion a year in the EU, while Open Data can help unlock $3-5 trillion in 7 sectors. Big Data, another game changer for growth, competes these days with investments in traditional infrastructure in terms of impact and thereby fosters investments in data management solutions. Linked Data is behind the new generation of web- and knowledge management solutions as well as behind the web of data (linked open data). Moreover, the Data Economy can act as a catalyst for solutions in a number of societal challenges and empower all aspects of government and industry as an integral component of ICT (Information and Communication Technology).

However, supporting and implementing the Data Economy so that it will result in tangible benefits is not straightforward. It is said that ‘data is the new oil’. But do engines exist that use this oil? Do we have factories that are powered by these new engines? Do workers understand how such engines work? Where is the oil coming from? What else can be produced with oil? Are there any side-effects of using oil? What happens to the horses I previously used?

Such critical questions from the Data Economy will be discussed at the European Data Forum, by the multi-disciplinary and ever growing community of stakeholders, in order to assess progress, discuss the emerging challenges, propose solutions, and collaborate to implement them.