Shanghai sets up new committee to standardize public data

Shanghai established a technical committee for the standardization of public data on Wednesday to enhance governance of big data.

According to officials, the task of the committee is to establish rules and standards for the processing of public data so the government can better serve citizens through the sharing of data across online platforms of various departments.

Comprising around 30 member organizations including research institutes, government agencies and IT companies, the committee will work out detailed standards for the collection, measurement, analysis and utilization of public data, according to Liu Yingfeng, the secretary-general of the committee.

"Last year, we collected more than 10 billion public data entries from different municipal departments and sorted them into 10,000 categories, but the quality of the data is low — they are not well standardized," said Liu, also the deputy director of the Shanghai Municipal Big Data Center.

The committee's secretariat falls under the Shanghai Municipal Big Data Center, which was founded in 2018.

Chen Xuejun, director of the Shanghai market supervision and management bureau, said the city is focused on developing a one-stop government online platform which can provide individuals and corporations with easy access to public services.

"Setting standards will greatly enhance the capability of the platform," Chen said. "The value of data lies in its utilization, and establishing accurate standards is a prerequisite of using the big data."

Launched in 2018, the government's one-stop online platform now can recognize 237 different types of electronic certificates and licenses. It also offers a variety of services, such as paying traffic tickets and registering new businesses.

Chen Jing, secretary-general of the Shanghai municipal government, said the standardization of the collection, storage and utilization of public data will eventually "let the data run errands for the people".