In Italy, we have to fix the way we report Open Data and the PSI reuse. Take this post as a personal reminder to improve the Italian context where I live.

We have to start doing better things, and not only write a lot of articles full of details on what doesn’t work. I’m tired: we have to spread information across society touching Italians’ heart. We have to make people care about the hidden potential of Open Data. We need to start from something we really care about. That’s why good stories are needed.

Four years have passed since the launch of the Spaghetti Open Data community, and not so much has happened in Italian society, apart from a few very good stories, like the project Confiscati Bene or the Monithon initiative. I know: as an informal community, we are growing, both inside the Italian public administration and outside; but the changes and the effects in the real world aren’t enough.

The way we are speaking about the reuse of PSI needs to be fixed: it’s too technologically driven, maybe. We need sexier data, to work on and tell big and emotional stories, to make people more aware of the importance of this kind of thing. We need Open Data sets at a national scale, regarding the public health, the air pollution and all the data about the safety of public buildings, starting from our schools: these are all good starting points.

It’s a matter of what we can do to make our lives better, working on a common ground. I got my Eureka moment watching some insightful workshops that took place a week ago during the International Journalism Festival 2015.

A workshop was about data journalism, during which two different investigations were discussed about, published by Wired Italia, and written by some famous Italian data journalists, Elisabetta Tola and Guido Romeo, and Rosy Battaglia, an activist from an ONG called Cittadini Reattivi.

Building real commons on public health, starting from the data

There are two main data journalism investigations which are incomplete because of the lack of data. They are related to public health and the public safety: one is about the first large scale data driven investigation into seismic safety of Italian public schools. It’s called #SafeSchools.

The original investigation is available on http://daily.wired.it/news/politica/2012/11/09/scuolesicure-mappa-scuole-sicurezza-terremoto-143678.html

And the other one is about the Italian asbestos decontamination plan, and the actual mapping of all the contaminated locations and buildings. I mean, a complete map of buildings and contaminated places which has to be fully cleared.

This one is called “The asbestos cost”.