Seven Resources for Learning About Open Data

I recently interviewed someone in the data/application integration space recently and asked for that person’s opinion on open data. He didn’t know what it was or, at least, he didn’t know off the top of his head during an interview that was actually about something totally different. So, at best, open data is not something we immediately recognize, even though it offers serious business potential. Basically, open data is any set of data that’s open for you to use, without concerns about copyright and all that legal stuff. Generally, it’s data collected by a government agency, but it doesn’t have to be: There are international agencies that offer open datasets as well, and you are certainly free to release your own datasets. Much of this information is just sitting there, waiting for someone to make smart and, governments hope, profitable use of it. And yet, many people don’t know about it. Part of that is because the datasets are actually fairly limited so far and not always “business-ready.” But the data is free. And some of this data is actually very valuable. In fact, entrepreneurs are already turning some datasets into a business model. Innovators like Google and Zillow have put open datasets to use to enhance existing services or create new ones. To help you get started with open data, I’ve put together a list of seven great open data resources.