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he internet, data science, and requirement to attribute and share alike.” Harnessing the
digital technologies have And open data is intended to be
both dark and bright sides. interoperable, facilitating collaboration
The internet was originally and cooperation (see the sidebar “Open wisdom of the
Tcreated to be a data commons Data Sources”).
where digital material could be accessed crowd has been
freely, shared, and integrated, but today Open data is here to use
Open, interoperable data, which means it
it can be a magnet for scammers, can be exchanged and made use of, is not and remains a
fraudsters, fake news, and trolls. It is
also bursting with high-quality, reliable a utopian vision; open datasets are there
data that can be used to create waiting to be used. Even the most winning strategy,
innovative products and services, make tech-hesitant will have already used
more sustainable decisions, and some open, sharable, interoperable data, and digital
address shared problems (see the although in many cases they probably
sidebar “Open Data Use Cases”). paid someone to provide them with
Finance professionals should be aware freely available data. I have seen far too technology
of the side of the digital world that is many expensive consultancy reports that
based on data sharing, open-source contain straight lifts from freely available has turbocharged
cooperation, and collaborative government or World Bank datasets —
possibilities, particularly to manage risk. properly referenced, of course.
According to the Open Knowledge Open data forms the basis of many this potential.
Foundation, “Open data is data that can apps, websites, and information systems.
be freely used, re-used and redistributed These systems combine different open
by anyone — subject only, at most, to the datasets to transform online experiences.
Take, for example, the widely used global
platform Tripadvisor. It seamlessly
combines reviews and images provided
by millions of consumers and marketing
material from individual businesses,
with open-source data such as location
data from tourism boards, satellite images,
mapping data, street view data, location
services, and weather forecasts.