The Internet has transformed scholarly research in many ways. Open access to data and other research output has been touted as a crucial step toward transparency and quality in science. This paper takes a critical look at what it takes to share social science research data, from the perspective...

While attention has been given to the uses of big data by network operators and to the provision of open data by governments, there has been no systematic attempt to re-examine the regulatory systems for telecommunications. The power of public authorities to access the big data held by operators...

Public sector information plays an important role in that it constitutes a powerful tool for bolstering democratic values and a solid base upon which to build our knowledge economy. Nevertheless, current legislation on different uses of public sector information does not allow for the creation...

In conjunction with the release of The Periodic Table of Open Data Elements: A User’s Guide, the Open Data Policy Lab (a collaboration between The GovLab and Microsoft) is pleased to present a completely reworked version of our Periodic Table of Open Data Elements, first launched alongside in...

The open data movement is gathering steam globally, and it has the potential to transform relationships between citizens, the private sector and government. To date, little or no attention has been given to the particular challenge of realizing the benefits of open data within an officially bi-...

The United Kingdom has been a leader in the open data movement – a new movement by governments around the world to open up the vast repositories of data they hold across agencies and departments, and to collect new kinds of data for public use. Open data is publicly available data that can be...

New national Open Government Data (OGD) initiatives are being launched on an almost monthly basis. From Brazil to Burkina Faso, governments are establishing open data portals and committing to make machine-readable datasets available for re-use. Similar patterns are being replicated at the local...

The interface between the legal systems triggered by the creation, distribution and consumption of Data is difficult to grasp, and this paper therefore tries to dissect this interface by following information, i.e. ‘the data’ from its sources, to users and re-users and ultimately to its...

What is the likely impact of the Open Data System on the notion of open government? The question of a general nature, in the Italian context has a specific importance, because of the limited spectrum of enforceability of the right of access to the information held by public bodies. The fact that...

Recently, Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg was on trial for the misuse of personal data. In 2013, the National Security Agency was exposed by Edward Snowden for invading the privacy of inhabitants of the United States by examining personal data. We see in the news examples, like the two just...