The open data movement in the area of access to public (and other) information is a relatively new but very significant, and potentially powerful, emerging force. It has now been widely endorsed by among others Tim Berners-Lee generally acknowledged as the Father of the World Wide Web. The overall intention is to make local, regional and national data (and particularly publicly acquired data) available in a form that allows for direct manipulation using software tools as for example, for the purposes of cross-tabulation, visualization, mapping and so on.
The underlying idea is that public (and other) data, whether collected directly as part of census collection or indirectly as a secondary output of other activities (crime or accident statistics for example) should be available in electronic form and accessible via the web. There are significant initiatives in this area underway in the US , the UK and Canada among many many other jurisdictions.....more http://gurstein.wordpress.com/2010/09/02/open-data-empowering-the-empowered-or-effective-data-use-for-everyone/
