Finland Times

 

Prime Minister Alexander Stubb talking at the Open Finland 2014 fair in Helsinki on Monday. Photo – Str / Lehtikuva.

Open Finland 2014, a two-day seminar that began on Monday in the Wanha Satama exhibition centre of Helsinki, focuses on utilisation of open data.  

 

The Prime Minister’s Office has organised the event in cooperation with other parties, said a Government Communications Department press release. 

 

Prime Minister Alexander Stubb, who opened the event, considers open data and its utilisation to be an important trump card for Finland. 

 

Stubb said, “Sustainable growth and job creation requires businesses based on open data. The goal-directed opening up of public information resources will contribute to promoting open science and will create opportunities for the creation of a new kind of entrepreneurship and innovations. For Finland, digitalisation is a great chance to increase productivity and to open up new opportunities for civil society.”

 

The seminar is being attended by nearly 1,600 visitors over two days. The programme includes high-level Finnish and international speakers, 30 exhibition stands, and Finnish success stories relating to the opening up of information and utilisation of open data.

 

The keynote speakers are Beth Simone Noveck, an internationally respected open data visionary, from the USA, and Birgitta Jónsdóttir, a member of parliament representing the Pirate Party, from Iceland. Noveck, a professor of law, has developed open government in the USA and the UK and is director of The Governance Lab network which she founded.

 

Open data is public information and data that anyone can freely use for different purposes legally, free of charge and as far as possible in machine-readable format. Opening up public data this way will create opportunities for new businesses and innovative services, civic engagement and democracy, enhancing governance, and education and research, said the press release.