Tag Archives: Open Data

There is no shortage of books and articles lamenting and deploring the market power of the FAANGs and their unremunerated and potentially sinister use of personal data. 

The vision of Open Data is a compelling one. By giving consumers and smaller businesses (SMEs) the tools, the power and the confidence to access and use their data to demand more of their service providers.

A general purpose technology is one which can re-define entire economies and societies. It is now clear that Open Data, or digitised information fed into artificial intelligence (AI) machines capable of formidable feats of computational statistics, are such a technology.

The most powerful technology yet invented by man has had virtually no effect on productivity and, by extension, the overall standard of living. Yet computing was never about the technology, but always about the information. And information, to quote Heinz von Foerster, is “order wrenched from disorder.”

What would happen if we could identify and find and grant access to individual bits of data on the Internet as easily as we can reach people and companies through their internet addresses?

Consumers are increasingly restless about the trade they have made with Big Tech: free services in exchange for personal data. They do not believe they can do anything about it, but in fact they can. What Big Tech has proved is that data is valuable and powerful.

A SUMMARY AND FULL REVIEW OF THE DISCUSSION AT THE WEBINAR ON 27 JULY 2020 Part I