Samos 2012 Summit Declaration

On Open Data and Interoperability for Governance, Industry and Society

Samos, Greece, 4th July 2012

We, the participants of the Samos 2012 Summit on “Open Data and Interoperability for Governance, Industry and Society” being active citizens, members of the academic and industrial communities, members of Public sector bodies and SMEs, as well as researchers of Governance and Policy Modeling, Public Administration Transformation, Government 2.0, Enterprise Interoperability, Information & Communication Technologies, Future Internet and Social Sciences

Recognizing:

• that knowledge and innovation are important means for tackling the global economic crisis while also being predominantly a key factor for sustainable economic growth and competitive advantage of enterprises;
• that today’s global challenges are complex in nature, characterized by non-linear development, cascade spreading and unpredictability, therefore requiring the collaborative effort of scientists, private and public institutions, and citizens;
• the strategic importance of information and communication technologies in dealing with collaborative and open governance, establishing and ensuring open and competitive economies;
• the global context of the development of information society, which necessitates the transcendence of national horizons into transnational collaboration schemes and programmes across disciplines;

Acknowledging:

• the European Digital Agenda 2020, which strives to foster information society development and to provide the building blocks for sustainable growth, for all citizens and businesses;
• the European Horizon 2020 Framework Programme  for research and innovation, which provides an evolving constitutional agenda for supporting scientific research and pre-competitive industrial development on information and communication technologies, social sciences, energy and environment, education and sustainable development;
• the Open Governance Partnership, that brings public sector information sharing and innovation forward, as the best mean of successfully tackling major societal challenges, which are becoming more urgent by the day;
• the Rome Declaration on CRIS (Current Research Information Systems) and OAR (Open Access Repositories), a joint declaration by the CRIS and OAR communities that identifies the need for the availability of high quality open data concerning publicly-funded research;
• the Future Internet Information Systems research roadmap and enterprise interoperability science base, initiatives of the FInES cluster aiming at providing enterprises and citizens with novel tools for productivity and growth;

We call upon:

the United Nations, the European Parliament, the European Union Presidency and Council of Ministers, the European Commission, National Governments, international organisations and NGO’s, elected representatives and decision makers within the industry, SMEs and every active citizen

To:

• Support research and innovation in the domain of Open Governmental Data so that major technical and non-technical barriers for the wider availability and utilization of open data are overcome to enable significant benefits both in the research and industry and in the domain of governance for evidence-based decision making, transparency. and public trust
• Support the deployment and use of Advanced Service Infrastructures, incorporating distributed and diverse public sector information resources as well as data curation, semantic annotation and visualization tools, capable of supporting scientific collaboration and governance-related research from multi-disciplinary scientific communities
• Support the promotion of a new participative governance model for the Public sector and the enterprises within a connected, inclusive society that is based on transparency, enhanced cohesion, public engagement and trust
• Support the promotion of research activities in the domain of Future Internet Enterprise Systems and Enterprise Interoperability
• Support the Interoperability Scientific Formulation through the endorsement and promotion of the Enterprise Interoperability Science Base development and the new Research Roadmap on Future Internet Enterprise Systems
• Foster collaboration towards the availability and interoperability of high quality open public sector information, supported by comprehensive metadata adhering to common international standards and enabling high degrees of utilization and reuse
• Foster collaboration among scientific communities, industry, SMEs and citizens, towards a global ecosystem where the immense potential of open, interoperable data for improved governance and decision making, economic gains and wealth creation will be exploited
• Embrace and apply the results of ICT research and innovation to improve interoperability and utilization of open data in the public sector, academia, industry and society at large.

In light of the above considerations, we have gathered at the Samos 2012 Summit on “Open Data and Interoperability for Governance, Industry and Society”, and now we call on all institutions and individuals addressed above, to take decisive steps at global, European, regional and local level regarding the development and adoption of new and advanced ICT solutions for Open Data and Interoperability - thereby providing the means for a proper response to the challenges of the future.