For this session we are aiming to organise it according to the SPARK concept: https://www.ems2020.eu/programme_and_abstracts/on_the_programme/spark_sessions.html

The impact of Open Data policies across Europe is becoming obvious by the variety of national and international data portals, making available a growing amount of datasets. Since all of this Open Data can be freely used, modified, and shared by anyone for any purpose, numerous applications based on these datasets have been developed. In this context, also a number of National Meteorological Services are adopting an Open Data policy. The range of spatial data offered on such Open Data services is wide and can include model forecasts, radar data, current measurements and observations, a large amount of different types of climate data and many more.

As the data has often huge volume, cloud technologies provide often a very convenient way to distribute and employ the data. Therefore, it is more and more common, that Open Data content is made available also “in the cloud”. Moreover, the data sets are provided often also via GeoWebServices, e.g. in OGC compatible WMS and WFS formats.

The session invites contributions on both technical and user focused developments related to providing and using these freely available datasets. This includes amongst others challenges and solutions related to the following topics:

• The development of client applications based on Open Data
• New ideas where and how Open Data can serve society
• New open data sets
• The development of user friendly geoportals including
o Catalogue services
o Download services
o Visualization services
o Transformation services
• Tools and interfaces (APIs) for utilizing Open Data
• Opportunities and challenges regarding cloud technologies
o data sources, data formats, legal issues...

The aim of the session is to bring together the provider and current/future user of Open Data portals and cloud technologies across Europe, to share their experiences and requirements.