Unlocking Value from Open Data | Tim Baker, CFA | LinkedIn

"Open data is extremely powerful. And while it may be free, it can power valuable new business models. But to reap the rewards of open data requires investment of time and care to transform it to intelligence. It sounds paradoxical: How can you create value from something that is free? Or stranger still: How can you create value while simultaneously giving something away? Yet open data – data or content that anyone is free to use, reuse, and redistribute – is now a viable route for both new and established businesses. Using open data for public good is not new. Florence Nightingale used data from the Crimean War to show that more people were dying from diseases acquired in hospitals than the battlefields, and John Snow was able to show that cholera was a water-borne disease by plotting deaths in London on a map and linking them to water pump locations. In all cases with open data, despite the immense power of it being freely available for use, investment of time and care is needed to transform it to intelligence ..."