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Openness is worth fighting for so add your voice – “I support openness in digital, technology & innovation #TheOpenAgenda http://bit.ly/openagenda” Tweet this directly 

By Gavin Starks (@agentgav), CEO of the Open Data Institute (ODI)

The open data movement has become an unstoppable force across the globe.

Over the last decade we’ve seen a big push from governments to open up their data to be more transparent with their citizens. At the same time we’re seeing increasing evidence of the commercial value of open data and one of the reasons the ODI is here is to help unlock its social, environmental and economic value.

The World Wide Web was first envisioned 25 years ago by our President Sir Tim Berners-Lee (see his #theopenagenda post here) and we see the same principles applying in creating a web of open data. It is for everyone: it is for people in schools, and in any business, for people in their local communities to improve the quality of their lives, and to improve and manage the environment.

But we are at the very early stages of open data. It’s analogous to the state of the Web in the early 1990s, when consumers, businesses and the public sector were all just starting to understand its value.

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There is also a lot of confusion today. People incorrectly (but understandably) use the terms ‘open data’, ‘big data’, and ‘personal data’ as interchangeable. There is an area where they do all overlap but that is only a very small part of the ecosystem.

So we have a huge amount to do in terms of data literacy.

We are however, making incredible progress across the globe. At this year’s G8 Summit, the G8 leaders agreed to an Open Data Charter. This holds the promise of really radical transparency and should provide the catalyst for a shift in attitude towards open data around the world.

At the ODI Summit in October, we announced the creation of 13 ODI Nodes across the world (see here). Organisations and individuals from countries including the USA, Canada, Russia and France have all committed to joining the ODI’s network and our mission to promote open data on a worldwide scale.

Another element to this global movement is the Open Government Partnership in which over 60 countries worldwide are working together to try and open the data they hold as part of their asset base. This involves thinking about data as part of our national infrastructures and includes data on areas such as transportation, weather information, land registries, economic information, corporate registries and more.

Understanding open data’s economic value

One of the potential barriers, especially when commercial entities are considering opening up their data, is their understandable scepticism about the economic value. McKinsey published a report recently predicting that open data could be worth between $3 trillion and $5 trillion a year to the global economy.

Achieving buy in from corporates is the next challenge for open data, as it needs a big shift in mind sets. When companies do open up, they actually see a huge impact in terms of the innovation it generates which is of great economic value.

Many companies aren’t even using the data they hold, it just sits there inert, of no value to anyone. I sometimes think we should have a data moratorium. If you’re not going to use the data, why are you collecting it? If you’re not going to use the data, why don’t you just open it up? At the very worst you can hire the company or invest in the company that starts to make great value out of that asset.

One of the things that we’ve seen evidence for is that actually opening up the data can be one of the best ways of increasing its quality. So if you’re embarrassed about your data or you’re worried about people criticising you for how it’s stored and used, transparency is the best solution and the open data community can help you improve the quality of it faster than you can yourself.

Taking open data into the mainstream

Even in the public sector, there is often quite a big distance between the political rhetoric and true openness. In the UK, for instance, it needs a concerted effort. Often starting with Cabinet Office policy decisions, then individual departments publishing their own open data, and organisations like the ODI helping to train and build capabilities and standards, right the way through to grass roots organisations like the Open Knowledge Foundation or Open Rights Group applying pressure and providing expertise.

The NHS for instance recently started publishing all of its prescriptions data on a monthly basis. This wasn’t personal data but the name of the drug, the cost of the drug, when it was prescribed and where. A combination of doctors, people from the Open Healthcare Trust and the data analytics company, Mastodon C (the first start-up company to join the ODI’s incubator programme) then analysed the data and identified a potential £200m a year saving to the NHS through switching from licensed to unbranded drugs.

We need to start telling more stories like this to illustrate the benefits of open data. Once these examples come to light and people can see how it is relevant to their lives or to their business, you will see a systemic shift in thinking. Until then it’s just an unknown and people tend not to get that engaged with things they don’t understand. So we have a real responsibility to try and tell those stories in ways that are accessible and meaningful to a very broad range of people.

We need to get open data into the cultural conversation. There was a moment where someone talked about the Web for the first time on The Archers. There was a moment when someone first talked about climate change in an open forum. When we talk about really trying to bring open data into the mainstream and making it part of our national conversation, we have to demonstrate how it really impacts people’s daily lives, their voting habits or purchasing habits, how they choose a school, or health care.

We’ve put a lot of energy into making sure the stories that we’re producing at the ODI are told as broadly as possible. We’ve had news stories on the front page of the Financial Times and we’ve had stories in the tabloids. This is going to be a long journey but we’re investing heavily at the ODI in trying to make sure these stories are as broadly distributed as possible.

Overcoming the myths around personal data

One of the most important purposes of these stories is to counter any concern around people’s personal data. Personal data is not open data. You can explicitly make your personal data open if you choose to but our default position at the ODI is that personal data is not open. To overcome people’s natural apprehension around the security of their personal data, we need more transparency and a broader public debate. Increased transparency builds trust.

The idea of a personal data store is something that is starting to gain traction. In this instance, you store your own data in a repository controlled by you and then you can opt to share it with a third party. But to get to the point where people really understand the value of their own data and how to manage it will take time.

We must remember we are only at the beginning of the open data story but it holds the same promise of the Web itself to fundamentally disrupt and improve almost every area of human life.