European Commission vice president Neelie Kroes has announced the commission’s new package of policies related to open data and public sector information. Jonathan Gray reports, “The announcement contained some very strong language in support of open data. Open data is the new gold, the fertile soil out of which a new generation of applications and services will grow. In a networked age, we all depend on data, and opening it up is the best way to realise its value, to maximise its potential.”

Gray continues, “There was little ambiguity about the Commissioner’s support for an ‘open by default’ position for public sector information, nor for her support for the open data movement, for ‘those of us who believe that the best way to get value from data is to give it away’. There were props to Web Inventor Tim Berners-Lee, the Open Knowledge Foundation, OpenSpending, WheelMap, and the Guardian Datablog, amongst others.”

The Wall Street Journal quotes Kroes as saying, “Already out there, many institutions have freed up their public data; and many people are making use of them. The UK, France and Denmark are leading the way in Europe; while all together, public sector information generates over 30 billion euros per year in economic activity, with services from geo-location services to weather forecasts. By opening up this resource fully, we could more than double the value of this activity – to around €70 billion. This opening up can generate tax revenues which far exceed revenue from any fees previously charged for the data.”

Read more here.

Image: Courtesy Flickr/ okfn

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