Data Must Work Better for Everyone! | Stuart Coleman, Open Data Institute @ State of Open Con 2023

The State of Open Con 2023 has just kicked off in London and the EM360 team was there to interview business leaders and industry experts about everything open source and open data. 

Yesterday, we spoke to Stuart Coleman, Director of Strategic Business Development at the Open Data Institute about the latest trends and biggest challenges for the open-source industry and the future of open-source software within the enterprise landscape. 

Open data brings Innovation

When asked about the importance of open-sourced data in today’s world, Mr Coleman revealed that over the past few years, more and more organisations have started opening up their data. 

“Open data really has gathered momentum over the last decade. Increasingly, businesses are working to open up and often share their data, Mr Coleman said.”

“Over the last four or five years, things like the Pandemic have actually really helped provide a silver lining to make people and organisations realise that sharing data can not only help tackle shared problems but also build trust and opera opportunities to support them to innovate in ways they hadn't perhaps thought of before.”

Open Data is becoming increasingly prevalent 

Mr Coleman highlighted that the past few years have been extremely positive for the world of open data, and he hopes that the space continues to grow in the coming years. 

“I think it's it was quite an interesting excerpt in the talk this morning from one of the shadow ministers and she highlighted that actually, the role data and opening and sharing data can play in innovation and regulation, that the two can coexist.”

“We've seen that happen in sectors like financial services, where governments have mandated in certain countries that data needs to be shared across the banking sector.”

“I think the same opportunities could and should be applied to things like energy and climate. So hopefully we'll see more of that in the next few years," Mr Coleman said.