friday lunchtime lecture: the value of open data to business - the open data 500 study, with joe...

Open Data Institute, 16 May 2014

The Value of Open Data to Business:

The Open Data 500 Study

joel@OpenDataNow.com

Setting the Stage

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My Journey Through the Datasphere

Setting the Stage

Open Data: Accessible, public data that

people, companies, and organizations

can use to launch new ventures, analyze

patterns and trends, make data-driven

decisions, and solve complex problems.

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Setting the Stage

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Setting the Stage

• Data for government accountability (government

spending, campaign finance, data on contractors, etc.)

• Regulatory data that government collects on regulated

industries (environmental measures, labor conditions,

health care costs, beneficial ownership, etc.)

• Scientific and research data collected by government

(biomedical research, weather and satellite data)

• Data that can be used as a business resource

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Four Kinds of Open Government Data

Opportunity: New Business from

Government Data

Government Data for Business

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Government Open Data Fuels Businesses in All Sectors

Health Education Energy Use

Financial Services Transportation

Government Data for Business

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Climate Corporation: Leading the Next Green Revolution

Climate Corporation offices in San Francisco

Government Data for Business

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Healthcare: The Next Big Frontier?

Government Data for Business

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Big Data Analytics to Predict Health Outcomes

Government Data for Business

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In-Depth Information on 40K Public Companies

Government Data for Business

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Using Data to Help SMEs Get Loans

Government Data for Business

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Data for Energy Savings

Ogi Kavazovic, VP Marketing & Strategy

Overcoming Obstacles to Being

“Open for Business”

Overcoming Obstacles to Openness

• Privacy concerns, fear, and confusion

• The cost/benefit conundrum

• The data-for-development dilemma

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Three Issues in Applying Open Data

Overcoming Obstacles to Openness

Overcoming Obstacles to Openness

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Confusion Over Care.Data?

Overcoming Obstacles to Openness

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Why Privacy Agreements Don’t Work: Got a Month?

A Proposal for a New Deal on Data:

1. You have a right to possess your data.

2. You, the data owner, must have full control over the use

of your data.

3. You have a right to dispose of or distribute your data.

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Alex “Sandy” Pentland, MIT Media Lab

Overcoming Obstacles to Openness

Overcoming Obstacles to Openness

• McKinsey study: $3 trillion annually worldwide

(government and nongovernment)

• 30 to 140 billion euros for Europe’s public sector data

• 2 to 9 billion British pounds

• $30 billion for U.S. weather data

• Tens of billions for U.S. GPS data

• Hundreds of billions for U.S. health data

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Cost/Benefit: Estimates of Value Vary Greatly

Overcoming Obstacles to Openness

“The commercial value of open data remains

untapped . . . in developing countries.”

Prasanna Lal Das, The World Bank

• Availability of good Open Data is a major limitation

• But: Mobile access is ubiquitous

• Information can be presented by phone, not laptop

• Government Open Data can be supplemented by

expert research or crowdsourcing

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The Data-for-Development Dilemma

Overcoming Obstacles to Openness

A Solution for Farmers in Ghana

Overcoming Obstacles to Openness

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Overcoming Obstacles to Openness

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The Overall Challenge:

Making Government Data Usable and Useful

Making Government Data Useful

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DATA Act: Both Parties Agree on Transparency Data

Making Government Data Useful

[Open Data is] going to help launch more

businesses. . . . It’s going to help more

entrepreneurs come up with products and

services that we haven’t even imagined yet.

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Open Data as a Presidential Priority (May 2013)

President Barack Obama

Making Government Data Useful

• “Presumption of openness”

• Machine-readable

• Reusable

• Timely

• Itinerary of datasets

BUT:

• Provides no new funding

• Doesn’t prioritize

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The Open Data Policy Requires:

Making Government Data Useful

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The Problem: U.S. Federal Data Today

Making Government Data Useful

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Enigma: Managing Open Data Is a Winning Strategy

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Making Government Data Useful

Socrata: Federal, State, City Data in U.S. and Other Countries

Making Government Data Useful

• Improvement in data quality, completeness, and

timeliness

• Feedback from data users to data providers

• Making life easier for open data companies

• Making life easier for government agencies

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What’s Missing?

A New Approach:

Open Data 500, Open Data Roundtables

The Open Data 500

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The GovLab’s Central Hypothesis

When governments and institutions open themselves to

diverse participation and collaborative problem-

solving, and partner with citizens to make decisions,

they are more effective and legitimate.

The Open Data 500

Beth Noveck, Founder & Director

The Open Data 500

To achieve collaborative democracy, we must open up how

government institutions work. We study three paradigms:

1. Sharing Responsibility

2. Getting Knowledge and Expertise In

3. Getting Open Data Out

Goals of the Open Data 500

1. Provide a basis for assessing the economic value of

government open data

2. Encourage the development of new open data

companies

3. Foster a dialogue between government and business

on how government data can be made more useful

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The Open Data 500

www.OpenData500.com

#OD500

The Open Data 500

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The Open Data 500

• More than 30 federal departments, offices and agencies

• More than smartphone apps

• More than weather and GPS

• More than Silicon Valley

• More than startups

• More than a few revenue models

What Open Data Business Involves

The Open Data 500

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The Open Data 500

The Open Data 500

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Open Data Roundtables: Now Getting Started

“New York University’s GovLab . . . is now hosting a

series of Open Data Roundtables to bring companies and

government data owners together. Specific, actionable

feedback from these sessions and others has the

potential to improve descriptions, formats, and

accessibility of government data.”

The Open Data 500

The Open Data 500

• Prioritize the most important datasets in each agency

• Improve each agency’s data and make it easier to find,

access, and work with

• Connect businesses with agency staff who provide data

• Foster continued collaboration

• Increase public awareness of Open Data and its uses

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Planned Outcomes of the Roundtables

The Open Data 500

• Increase survey response (now almost 40%)

• Gather financial data on Open Data companies

• Add in civil society organizations

• Hold interagency, cross-sectoral roundtables

• Replicate internationally (16 countries now

interested)

• Hold convenings on Open Data and business use

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Next Steps

For More Information

For More Information

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TheGovLab.org:

Visit Our Wiki, Subscribe to Our Digest

For More Information

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Learn about Open Data at OpenDataNow.com

For More Information

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Open Data Institute, 16 May 2014

The Value of Open Data to Business:

The Open Data 500 Study

joel@OpenDataNow.com