Data development rights

Innovation can and does provide enormous new benefits that were hitherto unobtainable: the capacity to seek the wisdom of the crowd through a touch of a button, or to engage in deeper forms of transparent democracy through citizen-centric processes is made possible through the power of data.

The ability to offer profound transparency in what have been largely opaque and complex spatial decision-making processes, for example, is a radical transformation in city governance. There is so much potential to innovate in cities, it is a virtual data goldrush. Data development rights - facilitating ‘airspace’ development over data fields - is one such rich seam of exploitation.

As cities recognise the data they have and the value this brings, there will be opportunities to lock this worth into the city’s future, rather than locking out future generations. OASC will work with cities to help them garner the most value, ethically and safely.