INTRODUCTION

The development of Gema (Map Manager) and Sisdai (System of Design and Accessibility for Research) is based on two main premises:

1) The information generated with public money should be public and for free.

2) The Mexican government is moving towards technological autonomy and independence; therefore, free software components should be conceived for development and use in the federal public administration.

INSTITUTIONAL CONTEXT

Gema and Sisdai have been developed by the Center for Research in Geospatial Information Sciences, A.C. (CentroGeo) and have been coordinated by the National Council of Humanities, Sciences and Technologies (Conahcyt), which is the Mexican government institution responsible for establishing public policies on humanities, sciences, technologies and innovation throughout the country.

ARTICULATION WITH ENI

Conahcyt created the National Informatics Ecosystems (ENI) to make available the results of research funded by the state, publishing open data, information visualizations, analysis and maps that help citizens better understand the country in which they live.

ENIs are collaborative and open access spaces that contribute to local and regional knowledge to address Mexico's priority problems by storing, processing, analyzing and disseminating humanistic, scientific and technological information. The topics addressed are: toxic agents and polluting processes, water, culture, education, energy and climate change, health, human security, socio-ecological systems and sustainability, food sovereignty and housing.

Gema and Sisdai are articulated with the ENIs, as contributions to open science. All of them are available in public portals.

GEMA

We will begin this talk by asking: is it possible to have a country where the government, academia, civil society, private sector and media collaborate to generate, publish and consume open data? And the answer is simple: this would be ideal, but today it remains a utopia.

Gema is moving towards institutional interoperability, but also exploring the incorporation of data outside the scope of government.

Conahcyt manages research projects with academia and we all know that historically scientific production has been shared mainly in specialized journals, books and research articles that generally involve payment.

Additionally, what happens to the data used as input in research? It usually remains within the research teams and is not published, hindering replicability, interoperability and methodological contrast.

This project contributes to open science by promoting free access to scientific research products (data, methodology, code, etc.).

In Mexico there are different national instances of data collection, integration and visualization, for example the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI), the Ministry of Health, the National Population Council (Conapo), the Executive Secretariat of the National Public Security System, among others.

To support the analysis and visualization of data, Gema has loaded layers of information from all of the above-mentioned agencies, making it possible to cross-reference official data with information derived from research projects.

Gema (in English Gem) takes its name from the combination of the first letters of the words “gestor” and “mapas” in Spanish, thus alluding to a precious stone, as well as to the gradual process it takes to become a real precious jewel, such as the constant transformation of data into information and knowledge, which results in an input of great value and importance.

As a Geospatial Knowledge Infrastructure, created in an open science environment and with accessibility criteria, Gema integrates a free data model, as well as tools so that users can explore, compile, visualize and share geospatial information related to humanistic, scientific and technological activity.

SISDAI

Beyond being a free software project, it is a design system that allows to establish rules, patterns and practices to ensure the consistency of complex, flexible and constantly evolving digital products.

Sisdai is built in an interdisciplinary way, considering criteria for accessibility, usability, data visualization, good code practices and user experience. Its structure is based on the atomic design methodology, which proposes that from simple elements -atoms- complex components and functions -organisms- are formed and, in turn, these form functional and robust templates and user interfaces under the same logic to be able to decompose them if necessary.

By using Sisdai you will be able to explore buttons, menus, graphs, maps, components, and others that will allow you to develop accessible interfaces. Also, if your native language is not English, you will have the opportunity to access documented code in Spanish! Sisdai libraries are developed using open source technologies, such as the Vue.js Javascript framework, OpenLayers, D3.js and Git.

Sisdai enhances the social impact of research projects by promoting technological autonomy and independence with the use of free software components. The Sisdai portal aims to enable as many people as possible to perceive, understand, navigate and interact correctly. This includes those with different disabilities: visual, hearing, motor, cognitive or neurological, as well as older adults and those unfamiliar with the Internet. The code repositories, libraries and documentation that comprise it are developed by Mexican work teams where the Spanish language is privileged.

There are currently 5 public code libraries in institutional repositories available for research teams.

CONCLUSION

ENI-Gema-Sisdai are open projects in favor of the nation, in which collaborations were carried out with more than a dozen research teams, institutions and public centers. There are more than twenty public portals of the ENI project, about 400 geographic layers with free format downloads in Gema and 5 open source libraries in Sisdai. All this is available in public sites.