From Open Access to Open Data Markets: Increasing the Subtractability of Open Data

Much of earlier emphasis on open data as a public good has been focused primarily upon accessibility and has ruled out the role of rivalry in the creation of horizontal and vertical complements. Rather than framing open data as a public good, this paper positions open data as a common pool resource, which is subject to subtraction by commercial interests. Contrary to the prior depiction that the subtract ability of common pool resources is deleterious, we argue that subtraction is essential to attracting private investment. Specifically, making open data more subtract able, will not only attract further private and public use but also induce eventual releases of private and commercial data to form a marketplace of data complements. We further argue that most of the current open data initiatives should direct their attention towards the creation of a platform market to harness the distributed resources for creating digitalised innovation and services.