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Making World Bank Open Data Usable: An Important Next Step

Abby Tabor | MyScienceWork | May 29, 2012
As of July 1, 2012, all data published by the World Bank regarding its development programs will be made available to all online. The Bank will also be the first major international organization to embrace Creative Commons licensing for its research products, making them free to reuse. This move has been hailed as a significant step forward for the open data movement and for development. At the same time, how useful will a slew of data be to development organizations on the ground, struggling to interpret their meaning? Opening up data will also need to be accompanied by incremental changes toward more transparent processes and greater communication.

Just as explorers, advancing into previously uncharted territory, will plant their flag on the new terrain, the World Bank is staking its claim as a leader in the realm of transparent, accessible data. From July 1, 2012, all published data from Bank-funded projects for international development and poverty reduction will officially be made available to the public via the centralized and searchable Open Knowledge Repository (OKR)...

Read more in the full article.