Open Data Institute - News from official opening

Open Data Institute - News from official opening - http://www.theodi.org/news/odi-signs-agreement-world-bank-cabinet-ministers-herald-official-opening

"The Open Data Institute was opened by Cabinet Ministers, Francis Maude and David Willets today as news emerged of the Institute’s second formal affiliation. The ODI has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the World Bank, following news on Monday that the Omidyar Network will be the Institute’s first investor, bringing with it $750k over two years.


During the event, held at the Institute’s London HQ, Francis Maude praised the work of ODI co-founders, Sir Tim Berners Lee and Prof Nigel Shadbolt and its leadership team. He said:

'Open data serves three objectives. They are all complimentary and overlap. Firstly, for the public to scrutinise what we do, where we spend the money and how we fail. Second, to inform choice in public services. And thirdly, to encourage economic growth by incubating data orientated business. Data is a raw material and it fuels social and economic growth to enrich communities and citizens'.

...

Science and Training

The Technology Strategy Board (TSB) is seed funding the ODI with £2m a year for 5 years. The minister in charge of the TSB, David Willets said the ODI’s mission to train a new cohort of open data developers through its post-graduate diploma and other courses will be crucial:


'We need cutting edge scientists to write systems for the very large data sets that we have, making them more usable and adding to the flow of data. We need to generate skills to analyse data, this isn’t something you can’t do without education and training'."