Open Data and the Private Sector: Breaking Down the Walls
Over the last several years, the open data movement has embraced an agenda that could be described as “transparency plus.” The movement launched a decade ago with a focus on transparency, good governance, and citizen participation — critical uses of open data that are more important than ever at a time of fake news and disinformation. But the value of open data extends beyond transparency and accountability: Open data has been recognized as an important asset for business and economic growth.
The past several years have seen an increased focus on the value of open data to the private sector. Since 2012, we have seen the founding of the Open Data Institute with a focus on data’s business value; the benchmark McKinsey study that pegged open data’s annual value at U.S. $3 to $5 trillion; the sale of the Climate Corporation, a pioneer open data company, to Monsanto for about $1 billion; and the launch of the Open Data 500 and the Open Data Impact Map, which have documented the use of open data by thousands of companies worldwide.
These developments and others have demonstrated that open data has business and economic value that is just beginning to be tapped. Open data is not only a resource for innovative companies that apply it to entrepreneurial new ventures. The use of open data has also become part of the broader business practice of using data and data science to inform business decisions, ranging from launching new products and services to optimizing processes to outsmarting the competition. It’s especially valuable for SMEs, who often lack access to data or sophisticated analytical tools to process large datasets and can become key beneficiaries of open data.
At the same time, private-sector companies have started to contribute to the open data ecosystem by sharing their own datasets through data collaboratives. For all these reasons, the business perspective on open data has become a priority for many governments around the world as they plan and develop their data programs.
But despite the potential, there are numerous walls between government open data providers and the businesses with an interest in their data. Government data stewards may be unaware of how their data is being used, and how it could be used even more effectively if it were made more relevant, useful, and accessible to the private sector.
