Smart Dublin – Dublinked Open Data Platform

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CHALLENGES

1. Part of the challenge was to re-establish a new plan for Open Data to align with the Local Authorities’ own strategies and plans. It needed to build a new Open Data Hub to be shared by each of the 4 local authorities. It needed to address publishing process and data quality concerns. It needed to set out a reporting and compliance framework for local authorities to comply with the European Union’s PSI and Open Data Directive.
2. There were interoperability issues to address in terms of multiple data source formats and structures. Accessing data from various enterprise systems, to sensor network are each challenging technically. The platform needed also to integrate with various stakeholder reporting systems.
3. The four local authorities in the project are each of a different background, culture and Open Data maturity. For the programme to work as a whole it needed to engage each organisation well so that the wider region could be represented in a balanced way.

WORK DELIVERED

Strategic Planning, Road-Mapping & Stakeholder Engagement

Derilinx engaged with the Smart Dublin team to create a Strategy for t he Open Data component of the programme.

• This roadmap sets out the specific goals, and steps required to be taken to achieve them for each local authority partner in the project. This has been further energised in the response to the Secretary General of the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform Open Data Memo.
• For this planning work we take a services-led approach focussed on the service outcomes each local authority is planning to achieve in its divisions including housing, roads, planning, waste, etc. These strategies and plans must translate into practice in order to be realised.
• We have supported our client in putting a data role and lifecycle in place for its member local authorities.
• We engaged closely with the central Smart Dublin team, who were focussed on sub-projects including: Smart Docklands, Smart DCU, Dublin 8 and Smart Sandyford.
• Alongside the Open Data project has workstreams including:
  • Communications
  • Stakeholder Engagement including establishing Data Stewards
  • Leveraging the Open Data Liaison Officers Network
  • Establishing shared information and knowledge sessions.
• Open Data and Smart Cities are very transparently the sum of its constituent parts. The more successful programmes globally are those that highly engage their local businesses and residents. We participate actively in wider stakeholder engagement on the project and programme and support our client in its delivery on innovation and leadership ambitions. This has included supporting the programme in its collaboration with companies in development plans, supporting innovation and research and supporting Academia with related projects and data needs.

Design, Development & Maintenance of Smart Dublin Open Data Platform

• Derilinx is responsible for updating the CKAN Open Data Portal, managing the portal on an ongoing basis, and facilitating the publication of new datasets.
• Smart Dublin’s Dublinked Portal includes more than 30,000 user s per year across more than 300 datasets including Geospatial Datasets across a variety of themes.
• We have built some powerful self-service analytics capabilities for users across the portal allowing users to preview, interact, cut and dice information directly from the portal.
• Smart Dublin is focusing on a number of priority data domains that are relevant for their Smart City stakeholders, namely transport, waste, housing and flooding.
• Derilinx have built for a series o f APIs that are being used by developers and data analysts to access flooding data and microservices transport (Dublin Bikes) data and deliver analytical solutions to be used across public sector, private sector and citizens stakeholder groups for tangible impact.

* In 2024, Dublinked underwent a major upgrade to modernise the platform, enhance key features, and introduce new capabilities, ensuring its continued effectiveness and alignment with evolving data standards.

Some of the improved and new features included:

• Updates to existing features, such as the map on Dublinked.
• Refactoring the Moby, Bleeper, and Dublin Bike APIs to comply with the GBFS standard and implementing health checkers to provide alerts when they go down.
• Developing a new accessible parking bay indicator for Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown Council.
• Exploring potential solutions for improving data quality on the Dublinked platform by initiating discussions with Toronto’s open data team.