Open Data Use Case Observatory

Data is a critical part of tackling the biggest challenges we face as society, and has been the foundation of many of the important technological innovations of recent years. New technologies, like generative AI, rely upon data to function - without data there would be no AI.

However, recent trends around the use of data have led to increased concerns over the risks of sharing data. Given the role that data plays in society, this disruption has wide ranging impacts. One example of this is recent moves by social media companies to restrict access to data about its users for research purposes, making it difficult for researchers to access such a rich dataset about society.

Against this backdrop there is renewed interest in the value of data and how the benefits of open data are spread. We are at a pivotal moment for access to data, and there is a need to ensure continued access to open and publicly available data to avoid a ‘data winter’, which would negatively impact society. More work is needed to ensure access to data to tackle society's biggest challenges, while supporting society, people and business to thrive.

Demonstrating the role of open data

Microsoft and the ODI have partnered since 2020 to advance the cause of trustworthy data sharing and collaboration, such that any organisation of any size can more easily collaborate around data and realise the benefits of the data economy.

Over the past six months, we have been working together to build the open data use case observatory, to communicate the importance of open data in tackling society's biggest challenges, innovation, and better business.

The observatory collates a wide range of examples of best practice to demonstrate the role that open data has played in these use cases. The observatory will feature a series of case studies of open data publishing and use from a range of different geographies, types of data, uses and languages. Use cases include the role of open data in developing Nobel prize winning technology for understanding human proteins, through to the identification of the most efficient electricity generation strategies in rural Uganda, to mapping supply chains contributing to deforestation around the world.

Through this work we want to demonstrate the role that open and publicly available data has played in key innovations over recent history. We hope to continue to add to the observatory in the future, with additional examples of important datasets as they emerge.

If you would like to learn more about the use case observatory, or would like to suggest a dataset to include in this work, please get in touch with the team at [email protected].