Report Shows Growing Use of Open Data Across Govt, Industry

A new report by the Data Foundation and Grant Thornton highlights the growing use of open data across the government and the private sector, which has been helping officials manage their resources.

Grant Thornton said Wednesday the third edition of The State of the Union of Open Data report focused on the expanded use of open data in the areas of data standardization, use and publication and sharing.

The report involved interviews with more than 30 senior government and private-sector leaders. Majority of the officials said they saw progress on data standardization, data publication and data use at their agencies in the past year. Grant Thornton said 93.6 percent of respondents also expect open data to continue to improve government operations in the future.

“We know from experience the expanded use of open data as reflected in this year’s report will help accelerate improvements in government programs and services and allow agency leaders to make better decisions about how to allocate scarce government resources,” said Adam Hughes, director of marketing and government affairs for Grant Thornton.

Sarah Joy Hays, interim president of Data Foundation, said the government can utilize open data in various sectors, including healthcare, housing, education and national defense.