Towards Open Data Across the Pond

There is a general, international, and multifaceted trend that is shaping the global narrative towards openness as a default setting. The open data movement has been both influencing and influenced by the concepts of Open Government, Open Access, and Open Source; by Freedom of Information laws, and by the regulatory initiatives aiming at fostering the re-use of Public Sector Information. The general aim is promoting information availability, as free of restraints as reasonably possible, to reach a multiplicity of different goals. Transparency, efficiency, accountability, economic growth, and democratic participation are amongst the core values upheld, from an instrumental perspective, by the striving towards openness. This chapter highlights a number of international initiatives that revolve around open data, and that have been instrumental in framing the concept as understood nowadays.