ABSTRACT
Endless accumulation of data covering most aspects of our society is an outcome of the growing role of information and communication technologies. This global development is very apparent also in the case of the public sector that accumulates huge amounts of data as it is delivering its services for the citizens. The empirical case analysis demonstrates the scope of innovation potential that the existing government information creates across the public sector. Examples of readily available public sector information assets include opening of national weather data that has already created US$1.5 billion markets for private enterprises according to Spiegler (2007). Another example that will be addressed in this chapter is public transport data, just to highlight an example of public data assets that still remain only poorly utilized to the benefit of the society. The cases where public data has been opened for re-use and further development portray most promising results. With the available technology citizens, communities and businesses seem to be both willing and able to innovate rapidly. The innovative outcomes are also creating significant value from existing but under-utilized public data assets.
