Driving Public Entrepreneurship

Open data innovation in
Denmark
Over recent years, the Danish government has taken
significant steps to open up access to public data and
encourage its widespread use to drive economic and
social outcomes. With the launch of the Open Data
Innovation Strategy in July 2010, the Danish National
IT and Telecom Agency aims to create “easier and
more uniform access to public data as raw material
for the private sector in the development of innovative
digital products and services, useful analyses, data
visualisations and data journalism.” 20
Although still in its early stages of development and use,
some entrepreneurs are already making use of publicly
available data to drive business growth. Often, the
insights from public data are used to inform business
planning and strategies. For example, many Danish
retailers are using data from the Danish Meteorological
Institute and demographic data to plan the sale of
ice cream, beer, skiing equipment and other product
sales driven by seasonal demand. Publicly available
data is also used to develop innovative products
and services. For example, the growth of the Danish
company Geomatic is attributable to publicly available
geographic and demographic data from a wide range
of government sources. The company combines these
information sources in new ways that allow them to
help businesses better understand their customers and
the market. 21
There are, at present, significant obstacles to
encouraging the widespread re-use of public data.
For example, many businesses and entrepreneurs do
not know that specific data exists; many public service
agencies are still not aware of the potentials of privately
re-using their data and there is no common standard for
how the data is made available or how it can be used.
To address the legal, economic and practical challenges,
the Danish government is working to develop an
overarching vision and a concept for how businesses,
entrepreneurs and citizens can access public information
in a standardised way. This may include creating a 'one
entry to public data re-use' policy as well as services to
improve access and foster innovation.
The drive toward greater use of PSI offers considerable
benefits for Denmark. A recent study estimates that PSI
could generate additional growth of at least 600 million
Danish kroner (more than €80 million) while at the same
time helping create better, smarter public services and
strengthening e-democracy. 22
18