Opening Access to Data

Historically, the evolution of language has given people the ability to share information and knowledge. Technology has changed the way information spreads. When people invented printing and books, we had a tool for sharing knowledge that was costly in terms of writing and production, but this method could attribute the knowledge to its author. The information was distributed based on the number of printed copies made.

Now that we have the internet, data can be duplicated freely and can reach every corner of the world in an instant. It is easy to separate the author from the work, so, at first, authors were reluctant to massively distribute their data in this uncontrolled way. Today, though, we have the open data movement which propels us towards an internet where data are free to use, reusable and easy to distribute, but can also easily be attributed and licensed. Linked open data are part of this movement. In exchange for access to open data, we now link to their source on the web.