The Business Value of Transparency and Openness

Location: HACK Cinema 1

Date & Time: Tuesday, Sept 18th, 16:00-17:30

Target Group: Business-minded open data people and open data-minded business people

Session Etherpad page: http://okfestival.okfnpad.org/business-value-of-transparency

Description

Businesses, from start-ups to corporates, are generally seen as potential users of open knowledge, but is there also business value in being open? Should corporates share their own data and why? What kind of business strategies are valuable in the era of shared resources?

Why your bank should sing! - It’s your money, and your data too?

Simon Redfern, The Open Bank Project, @simsysims

“Even as a long time hacker, composer and founder of the Open Bank Project, I never imagined my bank account would, one June afternoon, at the end of two hours hacking at an Open Data conference in Copenhagen, sing to me! Maybe the sound was cacophonic, but at least it tells a story: one sound representing money coming in, and one representing money going out.”

Data tells stories, but most bank accounts are locked behind proprietary systems and old school interfaces. The Open Bank Project aims to change that by providing a simple RESTful API onto your bank data. In May 2012, we opened the transaction data of the TESOBE bank account to the public using the Open Bank Project web interface and API.

The talk will detail how we got to this point and what have been the difficulties so far; banks we’ve been talking to, their concerns - and the technology we’re building. Banks seem reluctant to let their customers’ data leave their walled garden. We’re trying to show them that a more open ecosystem and letting go of data can mean good business for both them and their clients.

The power of open: business strategies in the era of shared resources

Javi Creus, Ideas for Change, Spain, @javicreus, javicreus[a]ideasforchange.com

Communities have proven in history their ability to cherish a shared resource in a resilient way. Empowered by communications they have grown in reach, capabilities and ambition. Ecosystems based in open standards and emergent strategies are succesfully competing in the market in almost any domain of activity: business (ej. ardurino, android), science (ej. open publising / data sharing) or culture (dj. Varkim / open film festival).

Most corporations that rely on their own internal resources cannot meet the pace of innovation and market development imposed by this new agregate players, and are exploring ways to benefit as well from the power of open.

This new strategic approach is what we call “The strategies of contribution”:

* What to share? which resources could be liberated? to which communities could we contribute

* Whom to cooperate with? how to design an open innovation ecosystem

* What to reserve? when contributing to create value for the whole ecosystem you must as well warrantee yourself a sustainable position in it.

Open Corporate Social Responsibility

Mika Metsämäki, Verso Globe, Finland

Different people see corporates actions differently. Feedback is always valuable for companies. The question is then how to engage consumers, employees and other stakeholders into the responsibility talk.

Opening up data related to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) offers new possibilities to communicate to consumers and to facilitate consumer-interaction regarding responsibility.

The talk gives initial ideas and encoureges to discussion on questions like: How to use companies’ and organizations’ open responsibility data? What kind of possibilities are available, how and where the information can be utilized, where can it be implemented and how, what benefits are there for using this information? Who can benefit from the data?

Session Host

Yulia Tammisto, Aalto University School of Economics