Microsoft announced Tuesday it is launching an Open Data Campaign to close the “looming data divide.” The goal is to help companies of all sizes use data to tackle some of the world’s biggest challenges, like climate change or the COVID-19 pandemic.
Brad Smith, Microsoft’s president, told Axios that about half of all the data created on the internet daily is being collected by fewer than 100 companies located primarily on the west coast of the United States and the east coast of China. This divide means only a few companies stand to reap the benefits of AI and data if this trend is left unchecked. Microsoft says it wants organizations, businesses and governments of all sizes to realize the immense value data has.
To do this, the company says it is publishing a new set of principles that will guide its approach to sharing data with others. Microsoft plans to make any of its own data that is “relevant to important social problems” open and invest in new tech that will make data more usable for everyone. The company will also employ tools to try to ensure data sharing is operationally secure and individuals’ privacy is protected.
Microsoft has also committed making the data in its future social impact initiatives “open by default” and will be launching 20 data collaborations by 2022, partnering up with organizations like GitHub, the Open Data Institute and New York University’s GovLab.
Data is rapidly becoming one of the world’s most important resources. The hope is that, if it is responsibly placed in more people’s hands, global crises can be solved more quickly.
“From climate change to the COVID-19 pandemic, it is clear that data plays a critical role in helping us understand these challenges and addressing them,” Microsoft said in a statement. “To fully realize the benefit of data, we need to develop the ability to share data across organizational boundaries in a way that is safe and secure, and allows the data to be used effectively. If ever there was a time to accelerate the world’s efforts around open data, it is now.”
