Copenhagen’s City Data Exchange (CDE) was a pilot to test whether public and private data could be brought together in a marketplace where organisations and individuals could share, buy or sell information. The collaboration involved the Municipality of Copenhagen, the Capital Region of Denmark and Hitachi; the two public bodies decided in 2013 to pursue a data marketplace, and Hitachi Consulting won the tender to develop it in 2015.1
Work began in May 2015, and the platform launched at Copenhagen City Hall in May 2016. It was intended to make data from different providers easier to find and use, while exploring whether exchange could support new applications for urban challenges. At launch, the marketplace included public and private data, with categories such as transport-related infrastructure, climate and environment, demographics, buildings and utilities.12
The project’s approach extended beyond building the platform: its team engaged citizens, companies and organisations to understand how data providers and users might participate and what would make exchange workable.1 The pilot ended in 2018. The city and region have since used its findings to inform internal work and policy, and the project’s lessons have also been considered relevant to national data-sharing infrastructure.1
Drawing on contact with about 1,000 people, the project recommended starting with concrete use cases to bring a data community together, creating a hub where that community could meet and get support, and setting simple standards and guidance for publishing data.1 The experience also exposed a practical challenge: later accounts report that the partners struggled to attract enough providers and users and to make the marketplace financially sustainable.7