Open Data In EU: Big Data At Your Service Eurasia Review

abernard102@gmail.com 2012-08-18

Summary:

The increasing use of ICT for business, leisure and public services is leading to the accumulation of mountains of structured and in many cases unstructured data. But this so-called ‘big data’ should be seen as an opportunity not a problem. EU research and efforts to promote open data are helping to make sense and good use of this resource. Open data’ is the idea that certain data should be freely available to everyone to use and republish as they wish, without restrictions from copyright, patents or other mechanisms of control.  Inspired by the open source software (non-proprietary) and open access (academic publishing) movements, open data is broadly taken to mean the liberal movement, use, re-use or electronic distribution of data.  An important part of this ‘big data’ movement is the use for the wider benefit of society of the non-personal information that citizens share with their governments and public services... If this data is made open, it can have huge potential benefits,’ notes the Open Government Data (OGD) website, run by the Open Government Working Group.  According to Rufus Pollock of the Open Knowledge Foundation, opening up the data enables companies, individuals and the non-profit sector to build useful ‘apps’ and services, and it promotes democracy, government participation, transparency and accountability.  According to reports from the recent Future Internet Assembly (FIA) in Aalborg, Denmark, ‘Trends like ‘big data’ and the ‘internet of things’ (IoT), including ‘people as sensors’, are showing how citizens/entrepreneurs/innovators can develop new services and apps for the benefit of smart cities.’ FIA presenter Reinhard Scholl of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) said good examples include New York City’s Open Data initiative, Amsterdam’s Smart City programme, Catalonia’s Open Data Gencat and the Commission’s Open Cities challenge.  Best practices from the USA, according to Mr Scholl, include MIT’s ‘Track Trash’ experiment which used sensors to monitor where rubbish ends up. And Oakland’s data-driven ‘crime spotting’ service, he said, is helping the city improve security.  Public-sector information (PSI) is the single largest source of information in Europe, according to the European Commission’s ‘DG Connect’, and includes digital maps, meteorological, legal, traffic, financial, economic and other data. Most of this raw data could be re-used or integrated into new products and services for everyday use, such as car navigation systems, weather forecasts, financial and insurance services.  ‘Re-use of public-sector information means using it in new ways by adding value to it, combining information from different sources, making mash-ups and new applications, both for commercial and non-commercial purposes.  Public-sector information has great economic potential,’ explains the Commission on its dedicated PSI web-page...’" 

Link:

http://www.eurasiareview.com/16082012-open-data-in-eu-big-data-at-your-service/

From feeds:

Open Access Tracking Project (OATP) » abernard102@gmail.com

Tags:

oa.new oa.psi oa.business_models oa.publishers oa.licensing oa.comment oa.lod oa.mandates oa.green oa.copyright oa.best_practices oa.crowd oa.sustainability oa.patents oa.funders oa.mit oa.okfn oa.openaire oa.definitions oa.apps oa.soap oa.economic_impact oa.fia oa.nyc oa.smart_cities oa.amsterdam oa.catalonia oa.track_trash oa.oakland oa.weknowit oa.d4science-ii oa.europe oa.repositories oa.libre oa.policies oa.data oa.economics_of

Date tagged:

08/18/2012, 08:46

Date published:

08/18/2012, 04:46