How Big Data Can Help The Public Good

Instead of holding all their data privately, what if some of the world’s biggest data collectors chose to share some of their data in the interests of public benefit?

There are plenty of areas where that data might be put to use. Yelp’s data on restaurant reviews or place reviews, for instance, could inspire real estate planners on where to build next. The more data collected, the more value it might have outside of the industry or space it was collected for. The problem is, much of it is currently privately owned and not shared.

Perhaps what we really need is a nonprofit or foundation started by these companies where they could unlock some of that data. For now, this is just an interesting idea.