open data : Let’s say your city releases a list of all trees planted on its public property. It would be a godsend – at least in theory. You could filter the data into a list of all the fruit and nut trees in the city, transfer it into an online database, and create a smartphone app that helps anyone find free food.
¶ Such is promise of “open data” – the massive troves of public information our governments now post to the net. The hope is that, if governments share enough of this data with the world at large, hackers and entrepreneurs will find a way of putting it to good use. (†802)
