What Can Open Data Entrepreneurs Do for Development? | Voices

"Four years ago the World Bank Group opened its data to the public hoping innovators would find new ways to use the data. At the same time, a growing number of governments were also opening up their data – to be more accountable, and to spur economic activity around the data.  Today, the open data entrepreneur has emerged.  About 500 companies that use open data in their business have sprung up in the United States alone, and similar businesses are cropping up all over the world, even in countries with limited data — let alone open data.  So far, this open data-fueled sector is still small, but it promises to take the delivery of useful information to a new level as it grows.  In the United States, businesses are using utilities data to promote energy efficiency, education data to help find the best schools, and health data to allow people to check symptoms and make doctor appointments, to name a few examples. A 2013 study by McKinsey & Co. estimates open data could help generate more than $3 trillion a year in additional value for the global economy.  But can open data entrepreneurs help tackle global challenges and make a difference in developing countries, including in the poorest and most fragile countries? A recent World Bank event explored that question, bringing in one of the private sector pioneers in the use of open data, The Climate Corporation, along with Metabiota, a for-profit firm tracking emerging diseases in developing countries, and Joel Gurin, author of Open Data Now and the lead on a New York University-based project, Open Data 500.    The short answer is yes, they can and they already are, but they face some roadblocks ... The Climate Corp., for example, would face challenges in developing countries. The company’s insurance is designed to help farmers adapt to the effects of climate change and is based on hyper-local, field-specific weather, crop yield and soil data, as well as satellite and financial markets data. Could its sophisticated products be offered in developing countries? Product Manager Ines Kapphan says the question boils down to, 'Do these countries have weather measurements available? Often what we see is there is not a central agency where you can go for weather information.' She adds it would be a huge undertaking for the private sector to provide the same level of service in a country that lacks a weather station infrastructure and an agency that maintains the data ... Metabiota already works in developing countries and collects data on animal and human health.  The U.S.-government contractor has 200,000 specimens from 20 countries in its database. But its efforts to track emerging diseases and prevent pandemics could be more efficient if animal and human data were in one place and in compatible formats, says Product Manager Ash Casselman ..."