Into the era of open data in government

DATA is fast becoming one of the most critical assets for businesses and government organisations. It is also fast gaining significance in the lives of common people as our lives become increasingly digitised. Be it assessing business performance, averaging test scores in schools, or forecasting the weather, data-based information is already pretty much part and parcel of our everyday lives.

At the same time, smart cities are being built on data. In smart city concepts, once- siloed government departments are now connected and data is shared over digitised platforms for better cross-departmental coordination and planning. Citizens of smart cities too will be empowered with more access to data so that they can ask questions of it and find answers to their own questions.

For instance, open data policies will allow for citizens to analyse publicly available data to find information about things that concern them, such as education, healthcare, housing, transport, utilities, etc, and make more informed decisions.