Open Data Set Platform User Workshop Held by MOST to Promote Data Applications through Public-Private Collaboration

In January 2021, the Executive Yuan launched the four-year Taiwan Open Government National Action Plan, incorporating the principles of transparency, public participation, and accountability into public-private collaboration. The plan has five major pledges, among which “establishing an open data set platform for value-added applications” is to be implemented by the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST), the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications, and the Environmental Protection Administration. To facilitate exchange between relevant stakeholders and promote development of data applications, the MOST held the Open Data Set Platform User Workshop on 21 July 2021, inviting people from academia, industry, and government agencies to speak on topics such as fire and disaster prevention, earthquake data, air quality, water quality, aviation and satellite data sets, and application development and outcomes.

For example, Dr. Kuo-Hsien Hsu from the National Space Organization (NSPO) gave a talk on applications of satellite imagery in areas such as land use, agriculture and forest planning, environmental monitoring, and disaster assessment. Through holding the Essay Contest for FORMOSAT-5 Satellite Imagery Applications, the NSPO inspired high school students to show their exploratory ability and creativity regarding satellite imagery and geographic and environmental issues. The award-winning topics included reservoir water quality and eutrophication applications, dust hazards and their potential locations of occurrence, and so on.

Hsi-Ching Lin, Deputy Director-General of the National Center for High-Performance Computing (NCHC), spoke on how to use high-performance computing network nodes across Taiwan, civil Internet of Things (IoT) services, and public backbone networks to facilitate cooperation between the public sector, private sector and application fields. For example, farmers who practice contract farming can be assisted through advanced applications for cultivation and planting by collecting microclimate and farm soil sensor data. The workshop organizers also invited industrial, academic, and research experts to engage in dialogue, brainstorm, and give suggestions on topics such as encouraging open data in the private sector, promoting data economy ecosystems, and facilitating data applications through collaboration between the public and private sectors.

Minn-Tsong Lin, Deputy Minister of the MOST, stated that the data set platform maintained by the NCHC has collected all sorts of public and private sector open data and currently has more than 26,000 data sets. Whether a member of industry, government, academia, a research community or just an ordinary person, everyone can quickly obtain relevant data through this data set platform for topics of interest, and produce objective information through data analysis to understand a situation or plan for responses.

For the next four years, the MOST will hold data set platform user workshops annually. Deputy Minister Lin looked forward to seeing in the future valuable interaction, discussion, and a balance of the core values related to open data, including their use, social impacts, and personal information protection, facilitated through this platform.
Entire workshop sessions can be viewed on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTUyUoGR0mM.

Sources:Ministry of Science and Technology