Abstract
AbstractWe are living in a data‐centric society, with governments and businesses increasingly looking at what they can do to gain insight and improve the flow of data. Encouraging the release of data as ‘open data’ is one measure that would remove barriers to access, increase use and facilitate downstream data innovation. Using examples from firstly the non‐geoscience and then geoscience sectors, this paper outlines three factors that can lead to a successful open data programme. These are (1) having a clear strategy with a well‐articulated vision; (2) ensuring that data are not only free but also technically accessible and delivered under an open licence; and (3) continued investment in the programme to ensure its long‐term success. However, not all data can or should be open, and organizations and governments must be careful that their interventions do not have unintended consequences that might reduce incentives to collect, maintain and share data. A primary concern is the financial sustainability of a dataset, but this also extends to other risks that would prevent the data being widely shared such as the inclusion of personal data or third‐party intellectual property. In these cases, use of a data‐sharing risk assessment framework, and the application of the FAIR principles of findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable can be used to increase data sharing and maximize the benefits that can be realized from geoscience data.
Highlights
Data-driven innovation is changing the way we operate as a society
When looking again at the Transport for London's open data initiative, this paper argues the success can be attributed to three key factors: 1. Having a clear strategy with a well-articulated vision: In Transport for London's case, their strategy was to move people around London more smoothly and efficiently
While measuring and quantifying the benefits of geoscience data is multi-layered and complex, it is clear that its use and reuse plays an important role in any society
Summary
Data-driven innovation is changing the way we operate as a society. With exponential growth of data being collected and published, governments and businesses are increasingly interested in what they can do to improve the flow of data to users and gain new insights from that data. By opening up access to this data, significant new areas for mineral exploration were identified which resulted in increased exploration activity and higher financial benefit This included, for example, airborne survey data flown by the Geological Survey of Western Australia which was used by exploration companies to identify areas likely to contain uranium deposits (Fogarty & Sagerer, 2016). The programme's data policy provides full, open and free-of-charge access to the Earth Observation data captured by the satellites This data and information have a range of applications in sectors including oil and gas, urban monitoring, insurance for natural disasters and agriculture, so has a wider reach than just the geosciences. This investment was expected to generate economic benefits of between EUR 16.2 and 21.3 billion, with additional social, environmental and strategic benefits (PwC, 2019)
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