With the summer holidays just around the corner, people are planning trips to numerous places all over Europe. Finding the right travel destination is not always easy, with a lot of competitive destinations throughout Europe. And what kind of activities can be undertaken at your destination? Here, Open Data can help out - both for the preparation of your trip as well as for travel information on the spot. And there is Open Data for all kind of travel purposes, regardless of whether you are going to visit a city, explore nature or relax on the beaches. For instance, 695 datasets are found for "

The developer community in Denmark never sleeps, as shown by a new application developed for the city of Aarhus - the second largest city in Denmark. The Århusr P-huse app is available for download for both Android and iOS smartphones and provides users with an intuitive and easy to use application for checking in real-time the availability of parking garages houses of Aarhus. It uses the dataset available on the Aarhus Open Data Portal which is also harvested by the European Data Portal, more specifically, the datasets on the parking garages in Aarhus. Being the second largest city in Denmark

The European Data Portal harvests the metadata of Public Sector Information available on portals, both national, regional and local, throughout Europe. Currently there are 71 catalogues which are harvested, with a total amount of over 616k datasets available on the European Data Portal. These datasets are divided over 13 data categories. Data categories are categorisations of datasets linked to a common theme. The 13 data categories available on the European Data Portal match with the categories identified by the European Commission in the context of the revision of the European DCAT

Falling temperatures across Europe signal the start of winter season. The favourite season for those loving snow and the holidays. It is also the season which often brings an unfriendly guest: sky-high heating bills. In order to stay warm and comfortable during the cold and dark winters many people heat up their houses, resulting in a sharp rise of the demand for heating in the winter months in Europe. Demand for heating tends to fluctuate over the course of the day, determined by human activity, house size, climate, insulation, fuel choice and fuel prices. This results in the fact that the

While for some of us life in a city is associated with diversity, liveliness, and fast pace, for others living in a city can represent a real stress factor. This is an aspect that many local governments are trying to tackle in their quest to increase the quality of life of the city inhabitants. Where does Open Data come in in this scenario and how can it help make life in the city more pleasant? When we look at the most popular categories in terms of page views on the European Data portal, the categories ' Regions & Cities' and ' Transport' rank highest in terms of page views. The latter

Where do the 28 European countries plus Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland (EU28+) stand with regard to the deployment of Open Data? An overview of the most important findings of the Open Data Maturity Assessment, including Open Data Readiness and Portal Maturity. Where do European countries stand with regard to Open Data? What key policies have been set up? What are the key features of national data portals? To measure Open Data Maturity two key indicators have been selected. These indicators cover both the maturity of national policies promoting Open Data as well as an assessment of the

Can we see an acceleration in the development of Open Data Maturity in the 28 European Union countries plus Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland (EU28+)? A second assessment in a series of annual studies highlighting the most important findings of the Open Data Maturity Assessment has just been published. Open Data Maturity is measured by taking into account Open Data Readiness and Portal Maturity. These indicators cover both the level of development of further national activities promoting Open Data as well as the level of development of national portal features In 2016, on average, with 28

More and more European Union Member States are recognising the potential value of Open Data and are acting upon it. Open Data portals are in place, increasingly backed by solid Open Data policies. But it is not only the national level that matters. For a successful national Open Data initiative, the whole publication chain should be taken into account. Cities have an important role to play here. Specifically the larger European cities publish a lot of data on topics such as urban planning, tourism, and increasingly real-time data in the transport and mobility area, such as datasets on

To support organisations on their path to 'open by default', the Open Data Goldbook for Data Managers was created. This Goldbook, serving as a practical Open Data guide, is a summary of all you need to know to successfully implement an Open Data initiative within your organisation. You can expect this Goldbook to cover the basic organisational, technical and day-to-day challenges related to Open Data; from terminology to processes, from implementation to execution. The Goldbook includes 12 different sections. In the section ' Open Data in a Nutshell', it sets out the definition of Open Data

Today, 21 December, is the shortest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere also known as Winter Solstice. In many countries, this day to mark the end of autumn and the start of winter and is therefore celebrated. The most famous example of a tradition concerning winter solstice is the Stonehenge monument in the United Kingdom, of which one side is aligned with today's sunset. While a query on ' Stonehenge' on the European Data Portal results in only 6 Open Data sets, looking for ' winter' results in many more. What can these 920 data sets tell us about the new season? Perhaps not