The Power of Open Data and Crowdsourcing

"Open information, open data, and open access to knowledge may turn out to be the most important legacy of the past five years" tweeted Robert Zoellick, President of the World Bank, in April 2012.

And developing nations may benefit the most from open source software and crowd sourcing supporting analysis, enhancing public engagement, improving the utility and accessibility of energy models, and lowering the cost of data collection and management.

The paper, "Open Source Software and Crowdsourcing for Energy Analysis", co-authored by nine experts on energy decision-making, goes into detail about the huge upside of opening up resources and allowing communities to access them freely.

With creating new policies and deciding where to make investments among the most difficult choices facing developing economies, the ability to gain access to information, data, and engage with the public could help alleviate the time and costs typically associated with these initiatives.

Full document can be viewed at OpenEI