Open data policies lead to opportunity, collaboration, and growth

WASHINGTON – June 16, 2020 – In today’s information-driven world, data has become a core piece of global responses to complex challenges. From global health pandemics to climate change and beyond, open datasets help people craft smart responses to existential threats. And although data sharing is more important than ever, several barriers prevent global stakeholders from fully realizing its benefits.

BSA’s new policy agenda “Open Data: Bridging the Data Divide” offers a path forward to facilitate greater sharing, collaboration, and experimentation with data resources while protecting privacy and promoting trust. These new models to close the data divide will help ensure that people and organizations of all sizes can use data to unlock new opportunities and foster economic growth.

“Governments and industry must partner to share data more openly. This collaboration will stimulate economic opportunity and growth,” said Victoria Espinel, President and CEO of BSA | The Software Alliance. “Open datasets empower organizations of all sizes to innovate and tap into the economic potential of emerging technologies like AI. BSA urges public interest organizations, industry leaders, and other interested stakeholders to advance policies that democratize data.”

To enhance the collective benefits of data, BSA recommends a series of initiatives to:

1. Promote effective government data sharing: Government-generated data can serve as a powerful engine for creating new jobs, promoting economic growth, and enabling innovation. BSA supports efforts to create a federal commission to enhance open government data, appoint a federal chief data officer, advocate for state government open data laws, enhance interoperability of government data, and support open data trade commitments.
2. Promote greater industry data sharing: BSA will work to identify technical, legal, and organizational challenges and create recommendations that protect competition, enhance privacy, promote the development of data sharing tools and best practices, and share computing and data resources.
3. Promote privacy-enhancing technologies and data governance structures: BSA supports policies that enable value-added uses of data without compromising confidentiality. These include initiatives that leverage emerging technologies to enhance privacy and enhance opportunities for data collaboration.

To read “Open Data: Bridging the Data Divide,” visit: https://www.bsa.org/policy-filings/bsa-open-data-agenda