About data sharing

 

Data sharing means allowing third parties specifically permissioned access to datasets to generate value.

Governments, organisations, public bodies, third sector organisations etc., hold vast amounts of data. Some of this data can and should be made openly available; other data, for competitive or privacy reasons, very much should not. However, in between is a wide range of possible modes of data availability. Data can therefore be mapped on a spectrum, such as that created by the Open Data Institute (below) in which they differentiate between these various modes of data access via the legal basis for access. 

The Data Spectrum (Open Data Institute)

On one end of this spectrum is open data, publicly available for anyone to use, and often open government data, through data that is shared amongst specialist groups, such as research data, to data that is currently closed, such as stock lists, or sales reports. In this toolkit, therefore, we define ‘data sharing’ as the sharing of otherwise closed data within or between organisations. The impetus for this may vary. In this toolkit, we address how data of many types at the closed end of the spectrum can be selectively shared to create value for both the data holder and user.