Fostering transparency and participation in the data-based society: A sustainable architecture for a social platform for Open Data

This paper focuses on innovative solutions to the problem of transparency in Public Administrations (PAs) by opening up public data and services so that citizens participation is facilitated and encouraged. We introduce the motivating principles and the architectural solutions to a Social Platform for Open Data, that is designed in order to provide a sustainable and re-usable framework to provide collaborative and social access to Open Data provided by PAs. Our overall objective is to propose a engage citizens by making them able to socially interact over Open Data, by forming or joining existing online communities that share common interest and discuss common issues of relevance to local policy, service delivery, and regulation. The proposed architectural solution is supporting the citizens in a collective relationship among them (as a network helping each other) and with PAs so that the information provided by the Public Administrations is shared, interpreted, personalized, made easier to understand and discussed to assess its meanings. The results and benefits of our approach, as well as potential impact in the pilot experiences that are planned, are also discussed.