OpenBudgets.eu: A Platform for Semantically Representing and Analyzing Open Fiscal Data

Abstract

Budget and spending data are among the most published Open Data datasets on the Web and continuously increasing in terms of volume over time. These datasets tend to be published in large tabular files-without predefined standards-and require complex domain and technical expertise to be used in real-world scenarios. Therefore, the potential benefits of having these datasets open and publicly available are hindered by their complexity and heterogeneity. Linked Data principles can facilitate integration, analysis and usage of these datasets. In this paper, we present OpenBudgets.eu (OBEU), a Linked Data-based platform supporting the entire open data life-cycle of budget and spending datasets: from data creation to publishing and exploration. The platform is based on a set of requirements specifically collected by experts in the budget and spending data domain. It follows a micro-services architecture that easily integrates many different software modules and tools for analysis, visualization and transformation of data. Data is represented according to a logical model for open fiscal data which is translated into both RDF data and a tabular data formats. We demonstrate the validity of the implemented OBEU platform with real application scenarios and report on a user study conducted to confirm its usability.

Political determinants of government transparency: Evidence from open government data initiatives

“…Sayogo and others (2014) assessed open government data portals from 35 countries, developing a framework to evaluate open data initiatives. Furthermore, numerous studies have pinpointed limitations within these portals, offering recommendations to enhance their functionality and address existing challenges (see e.g., Lourenço, 2015; Marienfeld et al., 2013; Matheus et al., 2014; Musyaffa et al., 2018; Safarov et al., 2017).…”

National Budget as Linked Open Data: New Tools for Supporting the Sustainability of Public Finances

“…OpenBudgets.eu [19] is an European project that provides to civil society, NGOs and public administrations a platform, tools and data for boosting fiscal transparency policies. As a subproject focused just in public administrations, the OpenSpending project (https://openspending.org) made accessible a platform for sharing and visualizing data by means of standardized views.…”