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Using open-source data in your own boards, and so on. To fulfil their
Open data use cases systems responsibilities, these organisations
Imagine if you could emulate the share data that can be used by others to
The added value from using open data changes observed in the property sector manage risks.
comes from better, quicker decision- in your financial information systems, It would not make sense for every
making, new products and services, based on integrating open-source data. business to invest in its own global
and improved risk management, Think about what you could do with your climate change forecasting model,
regulatory compliance, and asset register. No longer would it be a despite the exposure of all businesses to
accountability. couple of columns in an Excel climate risks such as those leading to
Open data can also facilitate spreadsheet. You could geotag it and business relocation or supply chain
innovative joint ventures. UK national place it on a GIS (geographical disruptions from projected sea level
mapping agency Ordnance Survey information system), link it with data on rises, flooding, or wildfires.
(OS) collaborated with MapServe, a climate risk exposure, risks of sea level Fortunately, there are many
London-based open-source platform rises, crime statistics, satellite images, applications or datasets that provide
for publishing spatial data and potential sources of pollution, resource easily usable data on the probability of
interactive mapping applications to availability, access to clean water, damage for virtually all locations across
the web, to produce a tool to help demographic information to help with the globe for different scenarios. When
developers, town planners, architects, workforce planning, transportation combined with data on the location of a
and surveyors with planning accessibility data, drone footage, or business’s premises, its logistics
application processes. This videos to manage and monitor repairs network, and the location of its
collaboration allows developers to add and maintenance. suppliers, it is possible to begin to
their project to OS maps to This new, enhanced asset register that identify how predicable threats could
demonstrate how their proposal draws on interoperable open data could seriously impact the business. That
protects the natural environment and greatly enhance strategic decisions on means the business can respond
provides people with access to assets and their protection, maintenance, proactively and doesn’t have to wait for
greenspaces and transport links, sale, and relocation, as well as help a catastrophe to occur and the expense
education, and healthcare. inform rental decisions or renegotiate to be incurred to fix it.
OS data also played a critical part insurance premiums.
in the UK’s COVID-19 vaccination
roll-out. The integration of road Risk registers Open data sources
network dataset OS MasterMap Perhaps the biggest benefit from the
Highways Network with data collected integration of open-source data could be There is a whole ecosystem of open
from in-vehicle GPS allowed the UK’s to your risk registers. data standards, protocols, and
National Health Service to minimise Often, risks come from changes organisations designed to help share
the travel time of 50 million adults to outside your business, evidence of open data, if you know where to look
2,000 proposed vaccination sites. which was previously considered too for it.
expensive to gather and difficult to
integrate into financial or business Open data collections and
The property sector is another example systems. Open-source data that provides foundations:
of the innovative use of open data. In the reliable, contemporary data on the state y DataHub.io.
analogue days, all the data you had when of systems that are the source of these y The ODI.
buying or leasing a property was an advert risks could make managing these risks a y Open Knowledge Foundation.
in a newspaper and two typewritten pages lot easier.
handed out when you viewed the property A 2022 survey of more than 3,000 UK International agencies: Social and
or physically went into a real estate agent’s adults, including more than 1,000 economic data:
office. If it was a really expensive property, senior business decision-makers, y World Bank Open Data.
you may have been sent a colour brochure suggests the preparedness of business y UNICEF Data.
by postal mail. Now, everyone has instant to deal with the challenges of the y OECD Open Government Data.
access to online video tours, photo sustainability agenda is low despite y Data Europa EU.
galleries, property price datasets, local known existential threats to their
crime stats, average income data, details of business models. National government sources:
local connecting roads and public Open datasets provide evidence that y Data.gov.
transport, school performance data, and would simply be far too expensive for an y Data.gov.uk.
even drone or satellite footage of the individual business to obtain but have y Data.gov.au.
property and its environs. You can even been collected, collated, and curated by y Statistics Netherlands.
find old images of the property relating to organisations responsible for managing
the previous sale and do your own these risks. These organisations include Geospatial data management and
comparison of changes since then. And planning regulators, universities, analysis:
the sophistication and richness of data on governments, producer organisations, y Open Data Cube.
these websites just keeps growing. international agencies, police, health

28 I FM MAGAZINE I October 2022