30 Jan 2012 mhausenblas   » (Journeyer)

Open Data – a virtual natural resource

A virtual natural resource? Doesn’t make sense, does it?

Let me explain.

Natural resources are derived from the environment. Many of them are essential for our survival while others are used for satisfying our wants.

… is with Wikipedia says about natural resources.

Now, some 150 years ago a handful of people saw the potential of petroleum which is nowadays the basis for a multi-billion dollar industry. Roughly the same holds for electricity. It’s not exactly that the crude resource is of much interest or, FWIW, might even be dangerous to handle – ever dipped your fingers into crude oil? ever touched a power outlet with bare hands?

However, as I already said a while ago, the applications on top of the natural resources are valuable and our modern society couldn’t do without it.

Back to Wikipedia. The Homo Digitalis lives in a digital environment, producing data almost as a side-product of the daily activities and depending on it as it drives the applications.

In this sense, yes, Open Data is the virtual natural resource #1 and here to stay.

When will you realise the potential of (Linked) Open Data?


Filed under: Big Data, Cloud Computing, Linked Data

Syndicated 2012-01-30 09:13:54 from Web of Data

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