API enabled digital ecosystems: the case of Lombardy

API enabled digital ecosystems:
the case of Lombardy
11 December 2019 APIdays Conference, Paris
Marco Panebianco
Chief of Digital Transformation strategy and governance Unit
ARIA – Azienda Regionale per l’Innovazione e gli Acquisti

Strategic goals
APIs & digital ecosystems in Lombardy
Region Lombardy and ARIA
Summary
Main workstreams & challenges

Region Lombardy: beauty and complexity
https://ec.europa.eu/growth/tools-databases/regional-
innovation-monitor/base-profile/lombardy
REGION LOMBARDY: beauty and complexity
10 Millions citizens +1500 Municipalities 816.000 companies 366.500 M Euro GDP

ARIA spa
The Regional in-house company focused on digital innovation
and public procurement
Digital
Healthcare
Digital
Government
Digital
Infrastructure
Public E-
procurement
500 employees
220 M Euro revenues
+600
business services for
citizens, private
companies and local
administrations
+900
software applications &
modules in operation

API strategy
Photo by Kai Wenzel on Unsplash
[Curiosity] Do you know that in Italian
«API» means «BEES»?

4 Steps towards a full Digital Government
E-Gov
Gov
Websites
and Online
services
Open data
& open
services
Publishing of
Public data &
services
Digital
ecosystems
API sharing and
digital
relationships
All is Digital
New processes
enabled by data
and algorithms
(smart machines)

Strategic goals
Openess and Digital relationships
• Fostering the growth of digital ecosystems and relationships
to leverage the digital transformation of Region Lombardy
and its territories
• Using an API-driven approach to open the overall Regional
Information System and spread «public value» to citizens,
private companies and other Public Administrations
• Encouraging public-private partnerships to share APIs and
co-design and implement brand new digital public services

API definition: a non-technical perspective
An application program interface (API) is a
set of routines, protocols, and tools for
building software applications.
Basically, an API specifies how software
components should interact
An application program interface (API) is a
service interface, technology
independent, which exposes business
functionalities that can be used to create
new digital services and new
relationships inside a digital ecosystem
Technical definition Business definition
HOW TO ? [FOR] DOING WHAT?

It’s so hard to show the API value to
stakeholders and non-technical people…
How can we solve this gap?
APIs are «interfaces» without a face
But …are these definitions good enough?
Photo by Brian on Unsplash

We could tell stories, powered by APIs
API storytelling

From APIs to Digital Ecosystems
[Curiosity] About 20 years Region Lombardy started the Healthcare Information System, a
first example of interoperable ecosystem connecting all the Regional Healthcare subjects
(hospitals, doctors, pharmacies, …) with a central regional node
Photo by Omkar Nilapwar on Unsplash

APIs & Digital Ecosystems
Reference scenario
Internal APIs
Public APIs Community APIs Restricted APIs
Closed ecosystems
(Healthcare, Urban planning,
Sustainability, Public Safety,
Education-Training-
Occupation …)
Open ecosystems
(opendata & geoservices)
Everyone
Public Administrations
and Private companies
Local and National
Public Administrations
WHOWHEREWHAT
Digital Information assets
Regional Information System
Community ecosystems

Public APIs and Open Ecosystems
Photo by Luca Nicoletti on Unsplash
[Curiosity] Lombardy has been publishing OpenData
and OpenGeoservices since about 10 years

The Lombardy Opendata Portal
• More than 3.300 public datasets
• All datasets accessible through
Rest APIs
• Datasets published both by
Region Lombardy and other
Local Administrations
dati.lombardia.it

The Lombardy GeoPortal
• GeoCatalog
• More than 250 maps available
through APIs
(Rest APIs & OGC Webservices)
www.geoportale.regione.lombardia.it

E015 digital ecosystem:
a public-private community ecosystem
[Curiosity] During the EXPO World Exposition (2015, Milan), about
22 millions of visitors used E015 APIs for getting info about public
transport, without knowing what were APIs and ecosystems

E015 digital ecosystem
An experience born to support EXPO 2015 World Exposition in Milan
The E015 Digital Ecosystem is a digital environment and organizational
model which favors the birth of new digital relationships amont different
subjects, both public and private, who want to value their digital assets and
enrich their end-user applications by using APIs
www.e015.regione.lombardia.it
E015 Board

E015 in numbers
E015
Applications:
80+
E015
Digital Relationships 400+
160+E015
APIs
E015
Participants:
600+

E015 in action
Some examples of applications

L15 application «Vivi la Lombardia»
A way to demonstrate the E015 potential

Closed Ecosystems
Photo by Luca Nicoletti on Unsplash
[Curiosity] In Lombardy there are more than
1500 municipalities which are potentially
interested to contribute to specific digital
ecosystems addressed by the Region

Closed digital ecosystems
• Thematic/Territorial
communities
▪ Healthcare
▪ Civil Protection
▪ Urban planning
▪ Waste management
▪ …
• Participants must satisfy
specific requirements
• Strong Digital relationships
• Personal & sensitive data
(GDPR)
• High level of Compliance to
specific laws or policies
• Mainly focused on data
exchange rather than
«app» creation• More than 300 APIs for restricted or internal use

What we are working on…
API
Communication
API
Marketplace
(business &
technical views)
API
Storytelling
API
Governance
Steering and
technical
committee
Maturity level
National and
European
collaborations
API
Management
API Manager &
Gateway
evolution
Centralized team
to support API
publishing
API
Monitoring
API
usage
reporting
API social &
economic
impact

API Maturity level
Where we are and where you should improve
Don’t miss next session, held by Mark Boyd on behalf of JRC
Region Lombardy and ARIA s.p.a. have been envolved in a
pilot project with the European Commission and Joint
Research Center (Ispra) to:
• Collaborate to the validation of the JRC/EC framework
proposal «Government API Best Practices and Guidelines:
Proposals for an Evidence-Based, EU-wide API Framework»
• Use the «Government API Framework Maturity
Instruments» proposed by JRC/EC to assess our API
programme and have a better understanding of what we
need to improve

Future collaborations & experience sharing
Region Lombardy and ARIA are open to collaborate
and share their experience with other Italian and
European public bodies and companies, in order to
demonstrate the value of using an API based approach
to foster the Government Digital Transformation
Let’s keep in touch if interested to propose API &
interoperability projects inside the next European
Commission Digital Europe Programme 2021-2027
Digital relationships are our goal but human relationships are the key to reach that goal
https://ec.europa.eu/isa2/news/european-commission-has-announced-investment-%E2%82%AC92-billion-align-
next-long-term-eubudget-2021_en

Thanks to all of you for your kind attention
and many thanks to Monica Posada for being my «voice» today
Feel free to contact me if we have some questions or if you want to share ideas
Marco Panebianco
Chief of Digital Transformation strategy and governance Unit
Azienda Regionale per l’Innovazione e gli Acquisti
ARIA S.p.A.
Email: marco.panebianco@ariaspa.it
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcopanebianco/

API enabled digital ecosystems: the case of Lombardy

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