"Open Government Data" movement

Overview
The "Open Government Data" movement is a civil society movement that uses predominantly social and economic arguments to encourage the opening up of government data. It claims that putting such information into the public domain can benefit society by creating conditions for more social inclusive service delivery and for more participatory democracy. They also argue that it can stimulate the economy by allowing the possibility for third parties (e.g. individuals, private enterprises, civil society organisations) to create new products and services using public data.

Source

 * Open Government Data: Towards Empirical Analysis of Open Government Data Initiatives, at 4-5.