The future of open data in Aotearoa

Writing in Scientific American last year, MIT Professor Cesar Hidalgo criticised the global open data movement for “a throwing-spaghetti-against-the-wall strategy, where opening more data, instead of opening data better, has been the driving force.”

Given where we began, the efforts of New Zealand government agencies to “open more data” have been impressive. But a decade on, it’s time ask whether our own “spaghetti” approach is working. Have we seen the transformative benefits to our society, economy and environment predicted by early open data advocates? And if not, what can we do to open data better in the years ahead?

Featuring:

• Ed Corkery, CEO, Koordinates

• Harkanwal Singh, Data Editor, NZ Herald

• Liz MacPherson, Government Statistician and CEO, Stats NZ

Image derived from "Auckland 0.5m Rural Aerial Photos (2010-2012)" from Land Information New Zealand. Made available under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 NZ licence.