Finding History in Open Data Trends

The Renaissance of the late 15th and 16th centuries has been attributed in part to the invention of the printing press by Johannes Gutenberg in 1440. The printing press made book printing much faster and easier, and led to an unprecedented spread of ideas and a rise in literacy among Europeans. In many ways, the enormous dissemination of information and subsequent cultural growth attributed to the printing press is paralleled in the 21st century by the development of the internet and the dissemination of open data.

The internet’s ability to compile, sort, and present all types of data instantly, from text to graphics to video, is a remarkable and culturally significant event. No other communication method has been able to join as many distinct users simultaneously. Much like the printing press, the internet has dramatically sped up the sharing of ideas and creation of new ones. Unlike books, the internet can change in real time. People in distinct geographical locales can now collaborate in real time on complex projects ranging from software development to architectural projects to curriculum design. This high-speed transfer of knowledge combined with the interactivity of the medium has made possible entirely new forms of beneficial communication, especially in the realm of open data.

Open data is information collected by governments about the public, including zip codes, municipal budgets, road conditions, parking meters, and a slew of other demographic and financial information. The internet’s highly adaptable nature, combined with its pervasive distribution, makes it the ideal vessel for instantaneously updating a global audience about literally millions of different topics. Governments and citizens can now communicate instantly and pool their resources to increase response times, more accurately allocate funding, and create projects that help address systemic needs.

Several governments and cities, including the United States, the United Kingdom, and cities such as Vancouver and Toronto, have launched open data portals. In select cases, citizens have been invited to submit applications that allow for a rapid parsing and easy display of open data on mobile devices. These applications have, in turn, fostered far more efficient and cost-effective methods of completing municipal business, including repairing potholes or faulty bike racks. In some cases, open data has actually allowed citizens to spot fraudulent financial institutions that were illegitimately making money off taxpayers.

While open data is still in the initial stages of development, the initial success of the technology makes it apparent that a kind of online Renaissance is in bloom. Much as the printing press removed barriers to communication and made information accessible to virtually all interested citizens, open data on the internet has fostered a kind of global cultural symbiosis, where citizens and government work in tandem to improve the overall quality of life.