How Rotterdam normalizes data sharing: step by step towards an Open Urban Platform
- Future Insight
- 2 hours ago
- 3 min read
Overhauling your digital infrastructure? That's not going to happen overnight.
To truly make a digital transformation successful, you need to simplify it and translate it into simple and concrete steps.
The challenge: 'putting the social task at the centre'
Many organizations still operate with their own systems, datasets, and processes. This sometimes leaves valuable data locked away, even though that same data could perfectly answer the question of another department, a policy advisor, or a citizen.
It is important that we work together on social challenges such as climate adaptation, housing construction, and energy transition. There is a need for a culture that makes cooperation a matter of course.
The step towards data donation
That is why the municipality of Rotterdam, together with Future Insight, is working on the gradual introduction of the Open Urban Platform (OUP) .
The central question: What opportunities do we see within the organization so that we can actively and responsibly share data, so that we can take social challenges a step further?
The approach is clear: start small, focus on one specific task, in one neighborhood, with the right people at the table. That process started this week with the Data Donors Dinner, organized by the Data Services team of the municipality of Rotterdam. This dinner (an initiative of the Data Management Team, part of the CIO Office, Data & Algorithms department) took place in the Euromast. During this trial run, administrators, advisors, citizens, and other stakeholders literally sat down together to share data.
This is what you need to do: the Rotterdam step-by-step plan for data donation
Step 1. Start with a recognizable task
Choose one specific issue that affects people. In Rotterdam, that's the Rotterdam Weather Response , focused on climate adaptation. The question is simple, yet relatable: What happens to my basement if Rotterdam floods?
By starting from a clear social mission, support for sharing data will naturally arise.
Step 2. Literally bring the right people to the table
During the Data Donor Dinner, administrators, GIS advisors, policymakers, citizens, and members of the governance board come together. They play the data donor game, collectively determining which data is relevant and which applications add value.
This provides insight into what is already available, what is missing and what can be shared, without direct obligations or additional workload.
Step 3. Build a digital showcase per target group
The insights from the dinner form the basis for filling the OUP's data and applications warehouse.
Each target group is given its own digital showcase : a library with data that is specifically relevant to that group.
For citizens, this means, for example, insight into their living environment, while scientists or policymakers gain access to other datasets.
Step 4. Appoint a data administrator
To keep supply and demand in balance, Rotterdam appoints a data administrator .
This monitors the quality and relevance of the data in the displays: what is interesting, current and valuable for the target group?
This creates a dynamic data market, without everything having to be available to everyone.
Step 5. Learn by doing and then scale up
The municipality is deliberately starting small: one district, one assignment, one try-out .
This keeps things manageable, lowers the barrier to participation, and creates room for experimentation. Starting small maintains a sense of urgency and builds support. Furthermore, the term "try-out" was chosen to reduce any hesitation about participating. It's okay for things to go wrong, and you won't be left with extra work.
After each try-out, an evaluation follows, after which the concept can be scaled up to other neighborhoods and themes.
From infrastructure to culture
The OUP is thus developing into more than just a technical infrastructure.
It will become a collaborative culture, in which data sharing becomes normal and urban challenges can be tackled faster, smarter and more transparently.
“By literally sitting down together, we make data sharing something human.”
The Data Donor Dinner demonstrates that digital collaboration doesn't start with technology, but with people. By involving them in a tangible setting, understanding, trust, and ultimately a culture of data donation develop.
This is how Rotterdam and Future Insight are building a future, step by step, in which data connects the city.
Want to know more?
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