Here’s something counterintuitive given all the hoopla about big data: Gartner reports that open data may be more valuable for small and medium-sized businesses than big data is.
The article points out that there are a variety of techniques, especially APIs, that may allow easy sharing of data among employees, supply-chain partners, and customers.
It’s all about collaboration. The article says (my italics):
“There are several solutions that can be relatively easily employed by midsize firms to grow and even monetize their data assets; lightweight open data APIs, social networking, data exchange programs, data market places, and even search engines like Google can be used for sharing data with a wider audience. If done strategically, the information-sharing network effect benefits could pay off in big ways by resulting in improved collaboration with new and existing partners and customers as well as growing data assets that could be used and sold.”
As I wrote last year in my “Data Liberation Manifesto,” “Make data freely available unless there are substantive security and privacy concerns.” When in doubt, let it out!
