Unit 2: Select Impacts#

Now that we using databases we need to consider the impacts on individuals, organisations and governments of storing and accessing data.

The use, and in particular the re-use, of data across the economy underline the importance of data as a new form of capital for 21st-century knowledge economies. Data cannot be depleted as it can be re-used for a theoretically unlimited range of purposes. This can create beneficial spill-overs, where data can be re-used to open up significant growth opportunities, or to generate benefits across society in ways that could not be foreseen when the data were first created. [OECD, 2019]

The re-use of data as a public, private, or public-private platform to support a range of upstream social and economic activities has led some experts to consider data as an infrastructural resource. Data access and sharing can generate positive social and economic benefits for data providers (direct impact), their suppliers and data users (indirect impact), and the wider economy (induced impact).

Economic and Social Benefits of data sharing and access#

Transparency, accountability and empowerment of users#

Enhanced access and sharing is a key means for improving transparency and empowering users. Some examples include:

  • increasing transparency in the financial market can empower consumers so they become able to better compare existing offerings. This in turns can contribute to a higher level of competition in the market.

  • customers empowered to retrieve their data, move more easily to an alternative supplier, which puts competitive pressure on suppliers to keep prices low and compete on features.

  • enhanced access and sharing in science is critical for transparency and for scrutinising and replicating scientific results. Evidence suggests that the quality of scientific research depends on the extent to which the underlying data can be accessed by other scientists.

  • use of governmental open data by citizens can also help increase openness, transparency and accountability of government activities and thus boost public trust in governments.

Business opportunities including for data intermediaries and start-ups#

Enhanced access can also create new business opportunities for smaller and larger firms. For example

  • better access to open government data can allow entrepreneurs to develop innovative commercial and social goods and services.

  • enables many business opportunities for data intermediaries. Most end users prefer to rely on data intermediaries that access raw data to extract and present the embedded information in more user-friendly ways rather than directly use raw data. These intermediaries typically provide added-value services including advanced data analytic services.

Co-operation and competition across sectors and countries#

Enhanced access and sharing can facilitate joint production or co-operation with suppliers, customers or even competitors. This is not a new phenomenon. Joint research ventures or patent pools are well-known examples, where firms share common resources. Data access does not need to be open to the public, but may be limited to the partners who share their data.

For example:

  • the re-use of data enabled the integration of transport and navigation services across different means of transport

  • in science and research, data-sharing platforms (research data repositories) can reduce the cost of conducting research by enabling collaboration among researchers across disciplines.

  • besides co-operation, enhancing access to and sharing of data is also seen as a major enabler and even driver of competition.

Crowdsourcing new insights and user-driven innovation#

For data providers, enhanced access and sharing can provide significant economic and social benefits, even when data are made available free of costs. It can for instance enable new strategic partnerships, where organisations agree to share, or where a community emerges that creates additional value that a single organisation would not be able to create.

For example:

  • granting users access to their personal data can provide insight into their own consumption that can lead to changes in behaviour

  • users experiment providing indication of future opportunities for businesses.

Increased efficiency across society through data linkage and integration#

Enhanced access and sharing is an enabler of increasing value where data linkage across organisations and sectors is possible. This is because data linkage enables “super-additive” insights.

For example:

  • data linkage across institutions has been recognised as key for monitoring and increasing the efficiency and quality of the health care system.

  • data linkage and integration may also be critical for deploying smart applications across sectors, such as for smart cities. The data produced and collected in these cities are created by multiple actors.

Selecting Impacts#

The information above will help you identify additional impacts personal, social, economic and environmental impact which you can incorporate into your mind map