The Open Data Symposium will be held in 2013 for the second straight year.
Under the circumstances surrounding open data, the national and local governments have been starting a wide diversity of initiatives since July 2012 when the IT Strategic Headquarters announced the "Open Government Data Strategy." Specifically, since our symposium of December 2012, various moves have been gathering momentum in Japan and overseas in connection with the use of open data.

In Japan, the Cabinet approved the "Declaration on the Creation of the World's Most Advanced IT Nation" as a new IT strategy for the country, on June 14, 2013. The promotion of open data is listed among the most important policies in this declaration.This policy requires Japan to achieve the disclosure level in other advanced nations by the end of fiscal 2015. Meanwhile, the private sector and NGOs are reinforcing activities toward wider and more effective use of open data.

Overseas, G8 leaders met in Lough Erne, Britain, on June 19, 2013, and signed the Open Data Charter, which sets out five strategic principles that all G8 members will act on, including the disclosure of government-owned data. Based on this charter, Japan and other member countries (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Russia, United Kingdom, United States, and the European Union) have disclosed their action plans in October 2013 to implement their commitments by the end of 2015.

Meanwhile, private businesses have begun to take action to take advantage of the growing trend toward open data. As part of such move, Monsanto has purchased the Climate Corporation, which provided insurance to farmers, for 1.1 billion dollars, to exploit its abundant weather-related open data.

Under these circumstances, we will at this symposium introduce you to new moves in Japan with respect to open data, with the aim of communicating the meaning and potential of open data and reinforcing our efforts to further promote open data across the country. At the same time, we will invite Mr. Richard Stirling from Britain. He played a key role in establishing the portal site "data.gov.uk" for the British government, which is a forerunner of the global open data initiative. He is also playing the Membership Programme Manager of ODI (The Open Data Institute). At this symposium, he will brief us on the latest overseas developments, and then we will discuss what Japan should do toward the end of fiscal 2015 to achieve the world's most advanced open data system.

For more details of the Open Data Symposium, click here