Stockholm City understands the benefits of open data - who will be next?

Yesterday, the City of Stockholm launched the Open Stockholm Award competition. A competition where the city makes a number of its data sources available for anyone to build new, innovative apps with. The competition runs until May 13, when a number of winners will be presented in different competition classes. The fact that the city is taking this initiative is extremely valuable. Despite the fact that no one argues when the positive effects of public authorities providing their data are mentioned, it is unfortunately a fact that many public data owners drag their feet when it comes to the crunch. This is despite the fact that, since 2010, they have been legally obliged to hand over data in return for reasonable compensation.

 This is why there is a great need for good examples like the Open Stockholm Award.

The fact that a public actor sees the benefit of sharing our jointly funded and owned data hopefully paves the way for others to follow suit. The benefit of open data is not only that innovators are given the opportunity to develop new services and build new markets. The data-owning authority can also receive feedback and thus a better basis for the development of its administration and provide a better service to citizens. And citizens can be better served and more easily engaged in local community issues.

This was also mentioned, happily enough, by Sten Nordin, the Mayor of Stockholm, who in his opening speech pointed to the broad benefits of open data. This was also emphasized by Peter Krantz, Fredrik Sand, Magnus Höij and Anette Holm in a subsequent panel discussion on the possibilities of open data.

We hope that the City of Stockholm's positive attitude will be heard, both by Stefan Attefall (KD), the minister responsible for PSI, and by data-owning authorities.