Transparency and Open Data. Why bother?

Data is the new raw material of the 21st Century a resource that gets more plentiful every day. Generated and disseminated by users of the Internet and World Wide Web a data deluge is changing our world. Data drives transactions and decisions of every kind. Transport, retail, health, education, leisure along with every aspect of our lives depends on an evolving data ecosystem. The science and engineering of data is fundamental to the modern world. The past two years have witnessed the emergence of a new strain of data - Open Government Data (OGD). Nation states, regional authorities and cities are all setting up OGD programmes. The reasons are numerous and compelling; transparency and accountability, the drive to improve public services, the creation of social and economic value are all seen as reasons to publish public sector information. The UK is a pioneer in this work having put thousands of datasets online. These range from maps tospending data, crime to education data. New engineering and technological approaches have emerged to open data - this linked data capability is a next stage in the development of the Web. This talk examines the rapid emergence of open data and the technologies that support it. It explores how government, business and higher education will benefit from open data and the threats on the horizon.