Enabling and Promoting Sustainability through Digital API Ecosystems: An example of successful implementation in the smart city domain

Recent studies have recognized that digital ecosystems can enhance the transformation of enterprises and the sustainability of cooperation networks by enabling a regulated and governed exchange of data between different stakeholders according to common rules. Thanks to digital ecosystems, data can be effectively distributed and leveraged to build innovative services in various contexts, such as smart cities or corporate solutions. In this paper we apply the Cefriel Digital Ecosystem Toolkit approach, which was first adopted to foster digital interoperability during the 2015 World Exposition in Milan, Italy. The goal of this lightweight approach is to combine technologies for building API-based solutions with governance processes and common participation guidelines. Moreover, we argue that this approach fosters data sustainability responding to the FAIR (Findability, Accessibility, Interoperability, Reusability) principles for data management and stewardship. Since 2015, this approach has been applied in several projects and featured by the European Commission’s JRC and the US NIST. The Cefriel Digital Ecosystem Toolkit approach now supports the creation of many-to-many digital relationships between stakeholders operating in various domains, allowing the discovery and reuse of digital assets owned by companies and organizations of any type and size, as well as supporting the development of added value services for citizens and other end-users.