Two Chairs of Business Information Systems at the TUD Dresden University of Technology (TUD) are designing the new research project "Open Data for Citizens, Business and Administration". As part of the Smart City Dresden Model Project (MPSC), it aims to improve the visibility and use of freely accessible data from the open data portal of the state capital Dresden. Its research identifies needs and requirements for the use of open data in order to create added value for citizens, business and administration.

Since 2019, the state capital Dresden has been offering publicly accessible data sets from the city administration on an open data portal. These relate to topics from the areas of environment and climate, population, construction and housing as well as transport. This makes Dresden one of the pioneers in Germany. In February 2025, an analysis of German cities by the Berlin-based consulting firm Finatycs showed that the state capital provides the third most data records (1,117) after Hamburg and Berlin. However, there is room for improvement "in the findability and user-friendliness of the information provided".

Improving technical knowledge, data quality and application options

And this is precisely where the research project of the two TUD professorships of Business Information Systems, in Industry and Trade and in Business Engineering, in cooperation with the Municipal Statistics Office, comes in. In analyses and pre-tests, the team has already been able to identify the first potential deficits: a lack of technical knowledge on the part of users, insufficient data quality and a lack of knowledge about specific potential applications for the data sets.

The researchers are now conducting a large-scale, questionnaire-based survey over a period of six weeks . They are investigating which factors significantly influence the use of open data portals and to what extent users' personal characteristics favor or inhibit the initial use and reuse of open data.

Survey for Dresden citizens

Interested citizens of Dresden - regardless of whether they already have experience with open data or not - are cordially invited to take part in the survey at the following link: https://www.soscisurvey.de/ODPSurvey/?r=ddps. It takes about 10 minutes to complete and is completely anonymous.

About the Smart City Dresden pilot project

In the "Smart City Dresden model project" (2022-2026), which is funded by the German government, innovative measures are being tested in model districts of Dresden in order to make the city sustainable, socially oriented and liveable.

The project management of the state capital (in-house IT Services Organisation - EBIT) is working together with TU Dresden. The WISSENSARCHITEKTUR - Laboratory of Knowledge Architecture is responsible for the accompanying scientific and synthesis research. Research teams from several faculties also support urban smart city measures with specialist expertise.

About the open data portal of the state capital Dresden

The Dresden Open Data Portal was launched in 2019 on the basis of a city council resolution with the aim of digitizing the administration and increasing transparency. It makes neutral, open datasets from the state capital of Dresden available free of charge in machine-readable and standardized formats. The database covers 14 categories - from population, traffic and elections to infrastructure and the environment. The open data portal can be accessed at https://opendata.dresden.de/.

Contact

Dr. Katja Bley
Chair of Business Information Systems, esp. Information Systems in Industry and Trade
Phone: +49 351 463-33535
E-mail:

Richard Rau
Chair of Business Information Systems, esp. Business Engineering
Phone: +49 351 463-39935
E-mail: