18 Facts About Open data

Open data is data that is openly accessible, exploitable, editable and shared by anyone for any purpose, even commercially.

Some Open data should be freely available to everyone to use and republish as they wish, without restrictions from copyright, patents or other mechanisms of control.

The goals of the open data movement are similar to those of other "open" movements such as open-source software, hardware, open content, open specifications, open education, open educational resources, open government, open knowledge, open access, open science, and the open web.

The growth of the open data movement is paralleled by a rise in intellectual property rights.

The philosophy behind open data has been long established, but the term "open data" itself is recent, gaining popularity with the rise of the Internet and World Wide Web and, especially, with the launch of open-data government initiatives such as Data.

Related searches

Open data can be linked data - referred to as linked open data.

One of the most important forms of open data is open government data, which is a form of open data created by ruling government institutions.

Concept of open data is not new, but a formalized definition is relatively new.

Access to, or re-use of, Open data is often controlled by public or private organizations.

Advocates of open data argue that these restrictions detract from the common good and that data should be available without restrictions or fees.

Creators of Open data often do not consider the need to state the conditions of ownership, licensing and re-use; instead presuming that not asserting copyright enters the Open data into the public domain.

For example, many scientists do not consider the Open data published with their work to be theirs to control and consider the act of publication in a journal to be an implicit release of Open data into the commons.

For example, some advocates contend that making government information available to the public as machine readable open data can facilitate government transparency, accountability and public participation.

Beyond individual businesses and research centers, and at a more macro level, countries like Germany have launched their own official nationwide open data strategies, detailing how data management systems and data commons should be developed, used, and maintained for the greater public good.

Opening government data is only a way-point on the road to improving education, improving government, and building tools to solve other real world problems.

Principles of Open Data are sometimes distinct depending on the type of data under scrutiny.

An exemplification of how the relationship between Open Data and commons and how their governance can potentially disrupt the market logic otherwise dominating big data is a project conducted by Human Ecosystem Relazioni in Bologna .

Second, opening data regarding online social networks interactions has the potential to significantly reduce the monopolistic power of social network platforms on those data.