Tools and Weapons: The Promise and The Peril of the Digital Age

by Brad Smith

All of this provides cause for optimism about the future of open data, at least if we seize the moment. While some technologies benefit some companies and countries more than others, that is not always the case. For example, nations have never been forced to grapple with hard questions about who would be the world leader in electricity. Any country could put the invention to use, and the question was who would have the foresight to apply it as broadly as possible. Societally we should aim to make the effective use of data as accessible as electricity. It is not an easy task. But with the right approach to sharing data and the right support from governments, it is more than possible for the world to create a model that will ensure that data does not become the province of a few large companies and countries. Instead it can become what the world needs it to be—an important engine everywhere for a new generation of economic growth.