EXCLUSIVE – Innovation and informed-decision making through high quality open data on Data.gov.sg – Kopitiam Bot

"In April 2015, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong described his vision of Singapore as ‘a safe and secure data market place.  A place where companies can easily conduct testing, and extract insights on market research, on consumer trends.  A place where data can be shared in order to unlock value and innovation.  A place where the Government releases many data sets to the public to build applications and services.’

Open data sharing is one of the key priorities in Singapore’s Smart Nation journey.  Opening up datasets and APIs (Application programming interface) can encourage citizens to make better informed decisions in their daily lives. It can drive innovation, with developers creating new applications and services for fellow citizens. It is about catalysing a civic innovation movement from the ground up.

Data.gov.sg was launched in 2011 as an open data repository of government datasets. However, the datasets and APIs were not as polished and standardised initially as they could be, nor as relevant and understandable to the layman.  The government subsequently shifted focus from quantity to quality of datasets, to ensure that data is machine-readable, and that it is easily understandable for the public. The public beta of the new portal was launched in July 2015."