Tag conference

The Estonian Open Data Forum – Celebrating Progress and Recognizing Achievements

Anastasija Nikiforova 2 Comments

This October, I had the distinct honor of participating in Estonia’s premier event on open data, the Open Data Forum (Avaandmete foorum), organized by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications of Estonia, invited to talk about the role of academia and private sector in the open government data landscape. This annual gathering brings together industry experts, academic researchers, and government leaders to discuss key trends, achievements, and the future of open data in Estonia, along with highlighting the contributions coming from universities awarding the best dissertations developed by Estonian students. The latter made this event very special for me, as one of my students – Kevin Kliimask – was awarded for his outstanding bachelor’s thesis 🏆 🥇 🏅!

In his thesis –“Automated Tagging of Datasets to Improve Data Findability on Open Government Data Portals,” Kevin developed an LLM-powered interface to automate dataset tagging in both English and Estonian, thereby augmenting metadata preparation by data publishers and improving data findability on portals by users – as the practice shows their presence tend to be a challenge. E.g., our analysis conducted on the Estonian Open Data Portal, revealed that 11% datasets have no associated tags, while 26% had only one tag assigned to them, which underscores challenges in data findability and accessibility within the portal, which, according to the recent Open Data Maturity Report, is considered trend-setter. The developed solution was evaluated by users and their feedback was collected to define an agenda for future prototype improvements. The thesis has been already transformed into the scientific paper 👉 “TAGIFY: LLM-powered Tagging Interface for Improved Data Findability on OGD portals“ presented at the IEEE international conference (I posted on this earlier 👉 here).

As for my talk titled “Unlocking the Power of Open Data: The Role of Academia and the Private Sector in Building Inclusive and Sustainable Open Data Ecosystems,” I emphasized the need for a holistic approach to open data that transcends merely opening/publishing data, rather requiring adopting a systemic view that considers an open data initiative as an Open Data Ecosystem (also confirmed by Open Data Charter 👉here), as we deal not only with open data (availability), portal, stakeholders, actors, but also processes surrounding them, emerging technologies & different forms of intelligence, going beyond just Artificial Intelligence, whose role, however, is crucial (see our paper on the eight-fold role of AI in OGD).

As such, while discussing the main idea of ​​the talk – the role of academia & the private sector in the ODE, which as per me is at least four-fold, namely – data consumers, data providers, contributors to ODE sustainability & myth busters on the global stage (assigning “Made in Estonia” tag to OGD in addition to the one we have for e-government), I also expanded the general mantra of “Data For AI” to “data for AI, AI for data, data not only for AI and not only AI for data”.


A big thank you to the organisers, who gathered so many speakers (Cybernetica, FinEst Centre for Smart Cities, Riigi InfosĂĽsteemi Amet // Estonian Information System Authority (NCSC-EE), University of Tartu and many others) to discuss the highlights of today & tomorrow for Estonian Open Data and High-Value Datasets in particular as it was the main focus of the Forum – was happy to be part of these discussions!

The 25th Annual International Conference on Digital Government Research (DGO2024): a brief summary on presenter, track chair, panel organizer, and moderator roles

Anastasija Nikiforova 1 Comment

Last week, I had the pleasure of participating in the 25th Annual International Conference on Digital Government Research (DGO2024), organized by the Digital Government Society and hosted by National Taiwan University in the beautiful city of Taipei (Taiwan) under “Internet of Beings: Transforming Public Governance” theme. The conference offered an exceptional venue, warm hospitality from the local committee led by Helen Liu and her team, a rich social program, and an outstanding scientific program. The event featured well-selected keynotes and panels from prominent organizations such as Foxconn, the International Cooperation Center of TCA, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Taipei Urban Intelligence Center, and the Ministry of Digital Affairs. Key topics included AI, Smart City initiatives, and Data Governance, which facilitated extensive networking and brainstorming sessions.

I was honored to contribute to this vibrant dialogue in multiple roles: presenter, track chair, panel organizer, and moderator. Together with my students and colleagues, we presented four papers, each reflecting our collaborative research efforts:

  1. Towards a Privacy and Security-Aware Framework for Ethical AI (Daria Korobenko, Anastasija NIkiforova, Rajesh Sharma). The proposed (conceptual at the moment) privacy and security-Aware Framework for ethical AI is centered around the Data, Technology, People, and Process dimensions, where each dimension is guided by a set of specific questions to encompass the overarching themes of privacy and security within AI systems, while the framework itself follows a risk-based approach (similar to the EU AI Act). As such, it is designed to assist diverse stakeholders, including organizations, academic institutions, and governmental bodies, in both the development and critical assessment of AI systems.
  2. Exploring Estonia’s Open Government Data Development as a Journey towards Excellence: Unveiling the Progress of Local Governments in Open Data Provision (Katrin Rajamae-Soosaar and Anastasija Nikiforova) that explores the evolution of Estonia’s 🇪🇪 OGD development at both national & local levels through analysis of indices, Estonian OGD portal, and a literature review. Findings reveal national progress due to portal improvements and legislative changes, while local governments lag in OGD provision, highlighting the need for future research on municipal OGD barriers and enablers.
  3. An Integrated Usability Framework for Evaluating Open Government Data Portals: Comparative Analysis of EU and GCC Countries (Fillip Molodtsov and Anastasija Nikiforova) develops a framework to evaluate OGD portal usability, considering user diversity, collaboration, and data exploration capabilities, and applies it to 33 national portals in the EU and GCC 🇪🇺🇸🇦🇶🇦🇧🇭🇦🇪, highlighting good practices and common shortcomings, emphasizing competitiveness of GCC portals
  4. Unlocking the Potential of Open Government Data: Exploring the Strategic, Technical, and Application Perspectives of High-Value Datasets Opening in Taiwan (Hsien-Lee Tseng and Anastasija Nikiforova). In short, data has an unprecedented value. However, availability of data in an open data format creates a little added value, where the value of these data [to the real needs of the end user], is key. This is where the concept of high-value dataset (HVD) comes into play, which has become popular in recent years (predominantly beforehand OD Directive by European Commission). Defining and opening HVD, in turn, is a complex process consisting of a set of interrelated steps, the implementation of which may vary from one country or region to another. Therefore, there has recently been a call to conduct research in a country or region setting considered to be of greatest national value. So far, only a few studies have been conducted, most of which consider only one step of the process, such as identifying HVD or measuring their impact. With this study, we explore the entire lifecycle of HVD opening in case of one of the world’s leading producers of ICT products – Taiwan. To do this, we conduct a qualitative study with exploratory interviews with representatives from government agencies in Taiwan responsible for HVD opening, namely Ministry of Digital Affairs, Ministry of the Interior, Ministry of Transportation and Communications, and the Ministry of Environment. As part of these interviews, we examine strategic aspects associated with HVD determination, technical aspects related to the dataset preparation stage (incl. data quality, granularity, update frequency, integration methods, or data evaluation), and application aspects related to the further assessment of the impact generated by HVD, identifying some good practices and weaknesses to be further examined and fixed.

I also chaired the track “Sustainable Public and Open Data Ecosystems,” which we launched this year with colleagues, on which I posted before. Although this is the very new track, we received a good number of contributions as it appeared to be very timely and we hope to see it to have a continuation, serving as a stage for the dialogue by Digital Government Society around the public and open data ecosystem in and for our digital future. At least this session has demonstrated the interest in such an environment – many thanks to all, who actively participated in this discussion. BTW, should you be interested in difference between public vs open data ecosystem, I encourage you to read our conceptualization and typology in our “Understanding the development of public data ecosystems: from a conceptual model to a six-generation model of the evolution of public data ecosystems” paper. We also are optimistic that the best contributions from this track will soon be available in a special section of the Information Polity Journal that we have recently launched.

In addition, together with Hsien-Lee Tseng, we organized the panel “Sociotechnical Transformation in the Decade of Healthy Ageing to Empower the Silver Economy: Bridging the Silver Divide through Social and Digital Inclusion,” which addressed crucial issues related to the integration of aging populations into the digital economy and society. Our discussions focused on case studies from Taiwan and Estonia, two regions with significant aging populations and leaders in ICT and digital government. We explored several innovative initiatives:

  1. The Aged Dwelling Plan by the Ministry of Interior of Taiwan, which proactively delivers resources to those most in need through the Senior Living Needs Index Framework. It integrates cross-agency data such as household registration, building information, long-term care, low-income households, and open geospatial data.
  2. The Digital Silver Hub constituting the ecosystem fosters innovative solutions for the silver population, involving the public sector, private sector, academia, and end-users. It utilizes a collective intelligence model to address the challenges faced by older adults.
  3. Health Promotion, Technology Inclusion by National Taitung University aimed at achieving technological inclusion, this project focuses on non-discriminatory health promotion technology policies and activities for people with chronic diseases.

As such, our discussions highlighted the opportunities and challenges in supporting the Decade of Healthy Ageing, an initiative by the United Nations. Key themes included Data Management, Security, and Privacy, Digital Literacy and Regional Adoption, Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and User-Centric Design, Interoperability. Our panel concluded that there is no one-size-fits-all solution to the challenges faced by the aging population. Instead, it is crucial to recognize and leverage the capacities and strengths of each region to develop tailored solutions, whether they be social, technical, or sociotechnical. By doing so, we can create effective and sustainable strategies to support healthy aging and bridge the silver divide.

The conference also featured a working meeting on the new Digital Government Society Chapter, “Artificial Intelligence & Government.” I contributed to the discussions and look forward to continued involvement and impact in this ambitious initiative led by Fadi Salem.

In summary, DGO2024 was an incredibly insightful and productive week.

Guest Lecture for the Federal University of Technology – Paraná (UTFPR) on “Unlocking the symbiotic relationship of Artificial Intelligence, Data Intelligence, Collaborative Intelligence, and Embodied Intelligence for innovative urban planning and governance of Smart Cities”

Anastasija Nikiforova 1 Comment

This May, I had a pleasure to deliver one more guest lecture for master and doctoral students of the Federal University of Technology – Paraná (Universidade Tecnológica Federal do Paraná (UTFPR)) as part of Smart Cities course delivered by prof. Regina Negri Pagani. This time the topic of my lecture was “Unlocking the symbiotic relationship of Artificial Intelligence, Data Intelligence, Collaborative Intelligence, and Embodied Intelligence for innovative urban planning and governance of Smart Cities”.

In the pursuit of enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of Artificial Intelligence, it is imperative to explore synergies with other form of intelligence, such Data Intelligence and Collaborative intelligence. These forms of intelligence (along with Embodied Intelligence) constitute a new transformative paradigm of intelligence proposed by Verhulst et al. (2021) that offers potential for increased added value when synergized. However, their synergy requires understanding and harnessing the symbiotic relationship between these intelligences. The reimagination of decision making and problem-solving processes, is essential to unlock this symbiotic potential fostering more meaningful, but at the very same time more sustainable AI utilization. In other words, AI itself brings a certain value that can be (and must be) increased through integration with other forms of Intelligence. This, in turn, has a list of preconditions / prerequisites that must be satisfied by the above – Artificial, Data, Collaborative, and Embodied Intelligence – components. These prerequisites are diverse in nature and span both the artifacts in question, such as AI, data (type, format, quality, value, availability, accessibility, incl. openness), stakeholders’ skills and literacies, but also management and organizational aspects. In other words, each form of Intelligence influences the others, making it crucial to explore their interconnections. This talk endeavoured to uncover this intricate web of relationships between the three forms of intelligence, taking a step towards a more meaningful and intelligent approach to decision making and problem solving.

As part of this talk we referred to the theory of multiple intelligences by Howard Gardner presented in his famous book “Frames of Mind: A Theory of Multiple Intelligences”. Then, we referred to the above mentioned intelligence paradigm proposed by Stefaan G. Verhulst, Peter Martey Addo, Dominik Baumann, Juliet Mcmurren, Andrew Young, Andrew J. Zahuranec in “Emerging Uses of Technology for Development: A New Intelligence Paradigm“. Then, we finally turned to the actual discussion on the symbiotic relationship of Artificial Intelligence, Data Intelligence, Embodied Intelligence, Collaborative Intelligence, and Generative AI uncovering this intricate web of relationships between these forms of intelligence, putting the above into several contexts with a focus on public & public and open data ecosystems. The later topics, in turn, covered some of my previous research (such as “Sustainable open data ecosystems in smart cities: A platform theory-based analysis of 19 European cities, ” “Identifying patterns and recommendations of and for sustainable open data initiatives: A benchmarking-driven analysis of open government data initiatives among European countries“, “Transparency of open data ecosystems in smart cities: Definition and assessment of the maturity of transparency in 22 smart cities“ etc.). As such, we tried to indicate future avenues in the light of changing paradigms (or need for such) for intelligences, data ecosystems, mechanisms for citizen engagement & processes (incl., but not limited to data governance & data quality management) accompanying these ecosystems


This followed up by the fruitful discussion with the participants of the course that I enjoyed very much. I can only hope that this lecture was just a little bit as interesting as my dear Regina characterized it! There is nothing better than hear an immediate invitation for the next editions of this course – will be glad to continue this tradition!

The International Conference on Intelligent Computing, Communication, Networking and Services (ICCNS2024)

CFP for The IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Computing, Communication, Networking and Services (ICCNS2024)

Anastasija Nikiforova Leave a comment

On behalf of the organizers (Technical Program Chair, Steering Committee, and finally publicity chair) of the IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Computing, Communication, Networking and Services (ICCNS2024), I am inviting everyone, who is conducting research in this area, to consider submitting the paper to it.

Call for Papers:

New advancements in wireless communication systems such as Fifth-Generation (5G), Beyond Fifth-Generation (B5G), and Sixth-Generation (6G) networks will allow for new and unprecedented services to be made available for users with nearly unlimited capacity. These services will be the core driver for future digital transformation of our cities and communities. This will be accompanied by a ubiquitous deployment of Internet of Things (IoT) infrastructure and supported by computing capacity that will be available at the edge of the network and in the cloud. This computing infrastructure will handle the processing of data generated by users and services. Such a complex and diverse system will require the applications running on the computing/networking infrastructure to be Intelligent, efficient and sustainable. Additionally, the infrastructure will require smart control and automation systems to integrate and manage its different components. Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its applications will play a significant role in the design, deployment, automation, and management of future services. This will include applications that will be running on the edge and on cloud servers, networking applications to handle the flow of data between the users and the computing system, and intelligent automation and management software operating on the system. The International Conference on Intelligent Computing, Networking, and Services is aiming to provide an opportunity to present state of the art research in the intersections of Computing, Networking, and Services that are supported by Artificial Intelligence.

Researchers from both the industry and academia are encouraged to submit their original research contributions in all major areas, which include, but are not limited to the following main tracks:

đź’ˇTrack 1: Artificial Intelligence Fundamentals

  • Artificial Intelligent Systems
  • Artificial Intelligent Theory
  • Artificial Intelligent applications in Computers and Communications
  • Artificial Intelligent and Robotics Technologies
  • Artificial Intelligent and cloud computing
  • Artificial Intelligent for Economic paradigms and game theory
  • Machine and Deep Learning of Knowledge
  • Artificial Intelligent based Distributed Knowledge and Processing
  • Artificial Intelligent for Human-Robot Interactions

đź’ˇTrack 2: Intelligent Internet of Things and Cyber-Physical Systems

  • Intelligent IoT Applications and Services
  • Intelligent security for the Internet of Things and cyber-physical systems
  • Intelligent Internet of Things architectures and protocols
  • Intelligent Cyber Physical Systems (CPS)
  • Blockchain-based application in Intelligent Manufacturing: Industrial Internet of Things,
  • Blockchain and Secure Critical Infrastructure with Industry 4.0
  • Intelligent manufacture and management
  • Consensus and mining algorithms suited for resource-limited IoTs
  • Blockchain-based Controlled mobility and QoS
  • Blockchain-based energy optimization techniques in WSN
  • Blockchain-based Software defined networks

đź’ˇTrack 3: Edge Intelligence and Federated Learning

  • Distributed and federated machine learning in edge computing
  • Theory and Applications of Edge Intelligence
  • Middleware and runtime systems for Edge Intelligence
  • Programming models compliant with Edge Intelligence
  • Scheduling and resource management for Edge Intelligence
  • Data allocation and application placement strategies for Edge Intelligence
  • Osmotic computing with edge continuum, Microservices and MicroData architectures
  • ML/AI models and algorithms for load balancing
  • Theory and Applications of federated learning
  • Federated learning and privacy-preserving large-scale data analytics
  • MLOps and ML pipelines at edge computing
  • Transfer learning, interactive learning, and Reinforcement Learning for edge computing
  • Modeling and simulation of EI and edge-to-cloud environments
  • Security, privacy, trust, and provenance issues in edge computing
  • Distributed consensus and blockchains at edge architecture
  • Blockchain networking for Edge Computing Architecture
  • Blockchain technology for Edge Computing Security
  • Blockchain-based access controls for Edge-to-cloud continuum
  • Blockchain-enabled solutions for Cloud and Edge/Fog IoT systems
  • Forensic Data Analytics compliant with Edge Intelligence

đź’ˇTrack 4: Intelligent Networking in Beyond 5G (B5G) and 6G Wireless Communication

  • Intelligent Networking in Beyond 5G/6G Network Architectures
  • large-scale Internet of Things in B5G/6G
  • Vehicular networks in B5G/6G
  • Blockchain with lightweight computation
  • Service and applications for vehicular clouds in B5G/6G
  • Future internet architectures for B5G/6G
  • Intelligent networking services
  • Emerging networks in B5G/6G
  • Byzantine-tolerant FL
  • Churn-tolerant FL
  • FL for NGN and 6G
  • B5G/6G based IoT healthcare systems

đź’ˇTrack 5: Intelligent Big Data Management and Processing

  • Intelligent Data Fusion
  • Intelligent Analytics and Data mining
  • Intelligent Distributed data management
  • Distributed transaction for blockchain
  • Intelligent Data Science and Data Engineering
  • Protocols for management and processing of data

đź’ˇTrack 6: Intelligent Security and Privacy

  • Authentication and authorization
  • Applications of blockchain technologies in digital forensic
  • Privacy technologies
  • Blockchain-based threat intelligence and threat analytics techniques
  • Blockchain-based open-source tools
  • Forensics readiness of blockchain technologies
  • Blockchain Attacks on Existing Systems
  • Blockchain Consensus Algorithms
  • Blockchain-based Intrusion Detection/Prevention
  • Security and Privacy in Blockchain and Critical Infrastructure
  • Attacks on Blockchain and Critical Infrastructure
  • Blockchain and Secure Critical Infrastructure with Smart Grid

đź’ˇTrack 7: Blockchain Research & Applications for Intelligent Networks and Services

  • State-of-the-art of the Blockchain technology and cybersecurity
  • Blockchain-based security solutions of smart cities infrastructures
  • Blockchain in connected and autonomous vehicles (CAV) and ITS)
  • Blockchain Technologies and Methodologies
  • Recent development and emerging trends Blockchain
  • New models, practical solutions and technological advances related to Blockchain
  • Theory of Blockchain in Cybersecurity
  • Applications of blockchain technologies in computer & hardware security
  • Implementation challenges facing blockchain technologies
  • Blockchain in social networking
  • Performance metric design, modeling and evaluation of blockchain systems
  • Network and computing optimization in blockchains
  • Experimental prototyping and testbeds for blockchains
  • Blockchain networking for Edge Computing Architecture
  • Blockchain technology for Edge Computing Security
  • Blockchain-based access controls for Edge-to-cloud continuum
  • Blockchain-enabled solutions for Cloud and Edge/Fog IoT systems
  • Forensic Data Analytics compliant with Edge Intelligence

Three workshops are scheduled to take place as part of ICCNS that you cannot miss, namely:

🗓️🗓️🗓️ IMPORTANT DATES

  • Full paper submission: May 15thm 2024
  • Full paper acceptance notification: August 5th, 2024
  • Full paper camera-ready submission: August 20th, 2024

For any inquiries, please contact: intelligenttechorg@gmail.com.

Submit the paper and meet our team in Dubrovnik (Croatia) in September, 2024!

With best wishes,

ICCNS2024 organizers

Online International Training and Capacity Building Program-2024 (ITCBP-2024) for the School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi and my talk on “Data Management for AI Cities”

Anastasija Nikiforova 1 Comment

Yesterday, I had the honor of serving as an Expert speaker for an Online International Training and Capacity Building Program-2024 (ITCBP-2024) on “Data Management for AI Cities”, organised by the School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi (SPA FIRST) that invited me to deliver a talk on “Data Visualisation for Cities: City Based Applications”.

During this talk, we touched on several important aspects surrounding data management and visualization in and for cities, including:

  • Data management that was then deduced to data quality management of both internal and external data, departing from understanding these data to managing their quality throughout the DQM lifecycle (stressing that data cleaning is not the same as DQM), touching on several approaches to this with greater emphasis on the AI-augmented data quality management – existing tools, underlying methods, and weaknesses that should be considered when using (semi-)automatic data quality rule recognition, depending on the method they use for this purpose;
  • Data governance was then discussed, stressing how it differs from DQM, and what it consists of and why it is crucial, incl. within the context of this talk;
  • Data visualization & storytelling – role, key principles, common mistakes, best practices. As part of this, we covered strategies for selecting data visualization type with tips on how to simplify this process, incl. by referring to chart selectors, but also stressing why “thinking outside the menu” is critical, esp. within city-level data visualization (where your audience is often citizens or policymakers). We looked at the most common and/or successful uses of non-traditional types of visualizations, incl. tools to be used for these purposes, breaking them into those that require coding and those that are rather low- or no-code; noise reduction – simplicity – strategic accents’ use, as well as drill-down (aka roll-down) & roll-up use to convey the message you want to deliver while overcoming highlighting everything and thereby losing your audience. In addition, a UX perspective was discussed, including but not limited some aspects that are often overlooked when thinking about the design and aesthetic color palette, namely the color-blindness of the audience that might “consume” these visualizations and again, tips on how to use it easier – did you you known that there are 300 million color blind people? And that 98% of those with color blindness have red-green color blindness?

So what was the key message or a “takeaway” of this talk? In a very few words:

  • Understand your data, audience and story you want to tell! Understand:
    • your data,
    • the story it tells,
    • your target audience’s preferences and needs,
    • the story you want to tell
    • data suitability
    • data quality
  • Attention-grabbing visuals & storytelling is a key!
    • reduce noise to avoid audience confusion and distraction
    • use drill-down and roll-up operations to keep visualization simple
    • add the context to provide all necessary information for clear understanding
    • add highlights to focus their attention – add accents strategically
  • Consider design – the optimal visualisation type, chart design, environment design, potential color-blindness of your audience
  • Keep track of the current advances, but also challenges and risks, of data visualization in urban settings, incl. but not limited to (1) privacy concerns, (2) data silos, (3) technological limitations.

All in all, it was quite a rich conversation and I am very grateful to the organizers for the invitation to be part of this event and to the audience for the very positive feedback!