The Junta de Castilla y León (Regional Council of Castilla y León) is determined to support and promote the Open-Government movement as part of its day to day activities, always with the goals of transparency, collaboration and citizen-participation in its sights.

In March 2012 the Junta set up its Open-Government model, including the creation of an open-data portal displaying the whole set of public data made freely available by the regional government to its citizens.

To encourage the proper use and awareness of this open data and to power the generation of added-value applications and services, the Junta has now announced the Open-Data Competition, which awards prizes to projects that provide any type of web application or service by tapping into the Junta de Castilla y León’s open-data portal.

GMV is supporting this project as part of its ongoing pledge to the opening-up, reuse and harnessing of data and in recognition of the importance of transparency and support for budding talent. Not only is it sponsoring the competition but it is also playing a key role in the Junta’s Open-Government project. Large within this project looms the open-data portal, on which it has been working jointly with the regional government. This fulfills two of the main tenets of the open-government model, firstly transparency and secondly collaboration between the government and governed. This portal, with over 33,000 visits, has become one of the country’s most complete open-data projects.

The open-data competition is threefold: best cell-phone application, best web application or technological development and best student project. Each one has a 3000-euro prize, furnished by the scheme’s sponsors GMV, Oracle and Telefónica, plus free open-data consultancy. The deadline for submissions is 1 July 2013.

This project, together with the Junta de Castilla y León’s other open-government initiatives, aims to make this region a national benchmark in terms of transparency, collaboration and participation.