First Big Pharma Company Announces Support For Clinical Data Transparency Campaign: Who's Next?

It would be something of understatement to say that the spiralling cost of healthcare has become a highly-charged political issue in the US (and elsewhere). But wherever people stand on the funding of medicine, there is an implicit assumption that it works, and is worth even the exorbitant prices that pharmaceutical companies may charge. Sadly, that's often not true. 

On Techdirt.

How Open Data Can Save Money - and Lives

Yesterday I was writing about open access and open data in the context of the EU's Horizon 2020 initiative. Closer to home, I came across a wonderful real-life example of how open data can almost certainly save not just money, but lives.

On Open Enterprise blog.

Is The EU's New Directive On Clinical Trials Moving In The Wrong Direction?

It's a cliché that we live in a world increasingly awash with digital data. Even though it all comes down to 1s and 0s, not all data is equally important or valuable. Data about clinical trials, for example, is literally a matter of life and death, since it is used to determine whether new drugs should be approved and how they should be used. That gives clinical data a critical role in the approval process: results that support the use of a new drug can lead to big profits, while negative results can mean years of expensive research and development have to be discarded. 

On Techdirt.

Open Data Institute Gets Ready to Open Its Doors

Open data continues to spread around the world - here's a great recent summary of what's happening where. But simply making government data available is no longer enough: now we need to move on to the far trickier job of doing something with it.

On Open Enterprise blog.

Unleashing the Potential of Open Data

It seems a long while ago now, but June was a pretty hectic month in this neck of the woods, since it saw the final push to get ACTA rejected in the European Parliament. But of course, plenty of other things were happening then, and one in particular that I wanted to cover was the release of this UK Open Data White Paper entitled "Unleashing the Potential". 

On Open Enterprise blog.

Is Open Data A Boon Or A Bane?

Techdirt often writes about the benefits of openness and sharing. One area that is increasingly coming to the fore is open data -- for example, for some time both the US and UK have had major projects aimed at opening up the stores of data held by their respective governments, and other countries are rapidly joining the club. But amidst all the enthusiasm for such projects, it's easy to get swept away, and to accept the idea of open data uncritically. That's what makes this fascinating blog post entitled "Seeing Like a Geek" from Tom Slee so valuable, because he calls out what he sees as a serious problem with open data initiatives: 

On Techdirt.

Why Basic Company Data Must Be Open

Last year I wrote about the OpenCorporates project, which describes itself as follows:

On Open Enterprise blog.

Opening Up About the Open Data Institute

As I've noted before, open data is one area where the UK government shines - unlike open source, where it has yet to deliver the goods. One of its bright ideas was the creation of an Open Data Institute (ODI), which I wrote about at the end of last year. It still doesn't exist yet, but it does have a Web site with some interesting further information about its intentions.

On Open Enterprise blog.

EU Commissioner Kroes: 'We Are Now Likely To Be In A World Without SOPA And Without ACTA'

Neelie Kroes gave a keynote speech at this year's re:publica conference in Berlin (disclosure: I spoke there too) that brought together many of the themes she has touched on recently -- the open Web, copyright licensing, the potential of open data, and the need to provide enhanced Internet safety for children. Interesting and important as all those are, they pale into insignificance beside the following comment she made: 

On Techdirt.

Welcome to the Open Data User Group

Back in October I wrote about a UK government consultation on the subject of the proposed Public Data Corporation. The government has now responded with one of its well-written documents [pdf]. Here's part of the executive summary:

On Open Enterprise blog.

Do We Have a Right To Open Public Data?

The progress made by the open data movement is pretty extraordinary. A few years ago, data was something that only statisticians cared about, but today it is one of the most vibrant areas of exploration and innovation. I think that's in part because of open source's example of how opening things up allows people to experiment and make progress faster than keeping everything locked down.

On Open Enterprise blog.

Another Reason We Need Open Government Data: To Avoid Information Asymmetries

Can the future aggregate actions of people be predicted from relevant sets of data that describe them? That, of course, is what Isaac Asimov's invented mathematical discipline of psychohistory was supposed to do. Some Japanese researchers claim to have made some progress towards that goal: 

On Techdirt.

Open Data: Europe Starts to Get It

As readers of this blog will have noticed, open data is particularly hot at the moment. Whether that will endure is another matter, but for the moment we should be grateful for all the politicians jumping on this particular bandwagon, and we should grab the open data they are releasing with both hands while we can. Here's the latest convert, the European Commission itself:

On Open Enterprise blog.

From Open Source to Open Research: Horizon 2020

Last week I took part in a meeting at the European Parliament entitled “Horizon 2020: Investing in the common good”. Here's the background:

On Open Enterprise blog.

Who Owns The Data Collected About You From Devices Inside Your Body?

People have started to wake up to the fact that companies like Google and Facebook hold huge quantities of data about their users. That raises questions about who owns what there, and to what extent users should be allowed access. Now Hugo Campos is asking the same question about a different kind of personal data – that being collected by a cardiac defibrillator implanted in his chest: 

On Techdirt.

More UK Open Data Moves - and Why That Makes Sense

In striking contrast with its disappointing performance in terms of supporting open source, the UK government continues to take huge strides in the world of open data. Details about its latest moves are contained in this document [.pdf] that came out of the recent 2011 Autumn Statement:

On Open Enterprise blog.

Of Open Data Startups and Open Businesses

Last week I was invited to talk at the South Tyrol Free Software Conference which took place in northern Italy, in the city of Bolzano (disclosure: a paid gig.) As its title indicates, this was a more local, specialised conference than some of its more famous international siblings, but I was impressed just how much activity was going on. It was also interesting to see that open data was already a hot topic here - it's not just national holdings that are being opened up.

On Open Enterprise blog.

Please Respond to the PDC Consultation (and PDQ)

Last month I wrote about the UK government's "Making Open Data Real" consultation. That's actually just the first part of a double-headed enquiry into open government data. The other part concerns "Data Policy for a Public Data Corporation" (PDC). 

On Open Enterprise blog.

Well, I Do Declare: Washington and Open Government Declarations

There seems to be something in the air (maybe it's the crazy weather): everyone is making “declarations”. 

On Open Enterprise blog.

Making Open Data Real: A Response

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about the “Making Data Real”consultation, promising to post my response. I have to admit that replying to the questions it asks has been far harder for this than for any other consultation that I've responded to.

I should hasten to add that this is not from any failing in the consultation itself. Indeed, it is commendably thorough both in its exposition of the issues, and in terms of the questions posed. But that's almost the problem: it is asking very deep questions in an area where few people - myself included - have really managed to frame anything like coherent responses.

On Open Enterprise blog.