Australia launches study on how businesses use public sector data | Enterprise Innovation

"Australia has launched the first comprehensive study on how organizations are using open government data to generate new businesses, develop new products and services, improve business operations or create business value. The Open Data 500 project is being undertaken in collaboration with The GovLab at New York University. The government said the results of the study is expected to provide a basis for assessing the social and economic value of open government datasets. It will be used to develop a publicly available report that will help businesses to identify ways to reduce the costs of accessing government data, including licencing, versioning and control costs. Over time, the government also wish to identify value-adde public datasets not currently on data.gov.au and expedite the release of these datasets. Open data is free, public data that can be used to launch commercial and non-profit ventures, do research, make data-driven decisions, and solve complex problems.  Thus, the government encourages companies that use open data as a business or operation resource to participate in the Open Data 500 study."