[open-government] Economic benefits of open data

[Julian Tait]

Hi,

Even the people in Washington would say that the figure is somewhat dubious. Although it could be argued that it is collective R&D.

One of the arguments that we use with the Open Data Cities project and the one that seems to have most traction at a local authority level - in Greater Manchester, UK at least, is that the cost of servicing requests that under  FOIA and Environmental Information Regulations. This is estimated at £3-4 million p.a. £38 million p.a for UK.

Although a proportion of the requests wouldn't be suitable for release as Open Data due to sensitivity of information, a significant proportion of requests would be reduced if there was a mechanism for proactive release.

Cheers

Julian