apidays LIVE Paris - Responding to the New Normal with APIs for Business, People and Society December 8, 9 & 10, 2020 APIs for Governments: why, what and how Monica Posada, Project Manager of the API Study, Senior Researcher & Lorenzino Vaccari, Senior Researcher, External Consultant at the European Commission - Joint Research Centre

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APIs for Governments: why, what & how
APIs for Digital Government study findings
European Commission - Joint Research Centre
Digital Economy Unit
Monica Posada – API Research Project manager
Lorenzino Vaccari – API Research External consultant
APIdays Paris, Global edition
10th December 2020

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The Joint Research Centre (JRC)
European Commission's science and knowledge service carrying out research
to provide independent scientific advice and support to EU policy.
The JRC B6 Digital Economy Unit
Investigates how the on-going digital revolution and Information and
Communications Technologies are affecting the economy and the digital
transformation of Governments.
The APIs4DGov & API4IPS projects
API team analyses opportunities and challenges derived from API adoption for
the innovation of public administration and policy making .
JRC - Digital Economy Unit
APIteam context

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APIs, the New Normal & Governments
APIs role in the digital transformation of the public sector

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A Europe fit for the Digital Age
A Europe fit for the Digital Age
Actions: APIs’ links to policy making

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APIs support to Digital Government objectives:
To transform into a robust digital ecosystem
 Public Administration innovation
― flexible to adapt to the advances in technology
― able to rewire the interactions with citizens, business, infrastructure ..
To control and monitor digital environments
 Policy Making innovation
―Streamline information flows to support decision-making and monitoring
Why APIs in government?
APIs are technical enablers of the Digital Transformation of Government
CONNECTED GOVERNMENT

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API for Digital Government tools and reports
[1] APIs in Governments: why, what and how
[2] API Framework for Government
[3] API Framework Self Assessment Tool
APIs are technical enablers of the
Digital Transformation of Government

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APIs in governments
Landscape, motivations & implementation of API strategies in EU
- Research methods
- Trends, cases and cost and benefits of APIs in governments
- API standards and specifications and API best practices
- An API framework for governments and policy recommendations

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1. What is the status of API strategies in governments?
2. Which actions should be taken for government API adoption?
What?
• Trends, definitions, glossary, policy context
• Landscape: cases, strategies, standards,
best practices
• Key enablers, drivers, barriers, risks
Costs and
benefits
• Costs and challenges
• Benefits
• Social highlights
How?
• EU API framework
• Thematic areas and technologies to focus on
• Policy recommendations
Source: Licenced from AdobeStock.com

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Our research methodology
(Source: ICT Impact Assessment Guidelines, ISA2 Program)
• API strategies
• INSPIRE hack
• APIdays events
• 7 Case studies
• API experts
• Private companies
• Pilot
Governments sites
EU Policy web sites
Previous studies
ProgrammableWeb
Data catalogues
•
•
•
•
•
API strategies
FW validation
INSPIRE conference
•
•
•
•
• Cases
• Standards
• Best practices
• Trends
• Domains
• Technologies
• Costs
• Benefits
• Drivers
• Enablers
• Barriers
• Risks
• Strategies
• Recommendations
• Private sector
• Metrics
• Technologies
• Internal issues & gains
• State of the art in EU
• Technical issues
• Private sector solutions
• Knowledge transfer
• Validation
• Community building

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What: Trends in government APIs
Source: JRC, own elaboration based on ProgrammableWeb.com

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Government API analysis
When implemented, the API uptake is quick and massive
Approx. 5000 IT
systems which draw
data from DAWA
Unique point of access
for addresses for
everybody (OOP)
2500 developers
registered in the System
Around 50 apps developed
925 institutions and
enterprises connected, including
706 public sector institutions
99% of government services
covered
Circa 52,000 organisations as
indirect users of X-Road services
350m requests per year
Visitors per month: 8000,
average time spent using the data
interface: 20 minutes
10713 registered Map
Requester Initiators
(MRI), made up of 1502
companies and 1258
citizens
200,000 map requests a
year, for each request 6-7
utility company involved
Denmark’s Addressers Web
API (DAWA): A unique access
point for the addresses in
Denmark
Amsterdam city data:
a single portal providing
developers with a ReST
API
Flanders Underground
- Cable and Pipe
Information Portal
(KLIP): was created in
2007 following a gas
explosion in 2004 caused
loss of life
Madrid MobilityLabs:
an open and
interoperable API based
platform
Future Internetware
(FIWARE): is an open
platform which can be
harnessed by developers to
create and deliver smart, data-
driven solutions, applications
and services
Estonia X-Road: is an API driven
data exchange ecosystem platform
that was initially developed
between 1998 and 2001
Italian Digital
Transformation
Team: building a
specific API project
Three years national
ICT plan ‘API-first’
EU Standard
Based platform for
IoT and Smart
Cities
Source: JRC, own elaboration

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API as
product
Portfolio
management
API-enabled
digital
ecosystems
API cases in government
From single APIs to digital ecosystems
The Netherlands
statistical office API
French government
public API registry
The E015 system in
Lombardia, Italy

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• Reduction of costs
• Improve the quality of digital
assets
• Improve internal processes and
digital public services
• Enhance reporting flows in
government processes
• Improve access to (Open) data
Benefits: Efficiency gains
Source: Licenced from AdobeStock.com

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• Fostering innovation in the
public sector
• Enablement of digital
ecosystems
• Economic opportunities
• Help SMEs reducing costs of
establishing and running business
• Easier access to Open Data can further
stimulate new economic development
Benefits: Digital
transformation
APPLIFARM
(application
developer)
Data,
information
Functionalities
Other assets
French Ministry of
Agriculture and
Food
API
platform
API–AGRO
(platform manager
and API developer)
Application created
by using the API
End user of
the application
Digital assets
Actors
Products
API.gov.fr
Data.gov.fr
French Direction
interministérielle du
numérique (DINUM)
Data and API
portals
X-RoadZaragozaAPI-Agro

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• Implement a whole of government
platform vision and re-engineering
existing systems towards APIs
• Cultural change, need to acquire
new skills
• Increase the cyber-security
• Adhere to legislation (e.g.
adoption of GDPR)
• Improve the policy understanding
and support
Costs
Challenges
(Figure: A conceptual model for a digital information supply chain. Source: (Brenton et al., 2018)
(Source: DINUM - France)

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How?
Stakeholder consultation

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API standards and specifications
Number of documents (tot. 78)
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
Test
Performance
Licence
Design
Documentation
Security
Protocol
Resource Representation

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API best practices

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Framework for API adoption
& self-assessment online tool
https://ec.europa.eu/eusurvey/runner/APIFrameworkTool

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• Explicitly adopt APIs in governments
• Create and improve the ‘API culture’ in
governments
• Utilize and validate our API framework
• Become digital ecosystem aware:
Engage both public EU governments
actors and the private sector
Policy recommendations

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What’s next?
API essentials for public sector innovation
- Technical essentials: lifecycle management, discoverability, security
- Legal & organizational essentials
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APIs for the public sector & APIday
2020 & beyond
Workshop II. API technical essentials
API governance, Security & Specifications
Workshop I. API technical essentials
Public administration & private sector API co-design
Q1 2021:
API in government:
privacy, organisational & legal aspects
Keynote:
- API for the digital transformation of the public sector
- Reconcile EU data strategy with Green Deal objectives

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REPORTS
DATASETs
TOOLS & SURVEYS
EVENTS
API4DT Joinup collection – stay tuned!
Join our community and stay tuned:
Contact us directly jrc-apis4dgov@ec.europa.eu

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Thank you!
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