Data storm: Making government data pay
Data storm: Making government data pay By Michael Cross Technology reporter Data storm: EU governments may have to open their archives - which could include weather information - to business Here's the good news: Europe's fiscally squeezed governments are sitting on assets that could be worth 40bn euros ($52bn, £33.6bn) a year. The bad news is that, to realise those assets' full potential, governments have to give them away. For free, and without licensing conditions, to all comers, including multi-national corporations as well as to local start-ups. The assets are gargantuan archives of data that public administrations generate in the course of their public tasks. Such so-called public sector information can range from data sets about the weather and the natural environment to great works of historic art. Open opportunities Earlier this week, the vice president of the European Commission, Neel...