Hans Rosling, one of the founders of Gapminder, delivered an impassioned speech to an OECD forum on statistics recently, encouraging governments to make data more freely available. Gapminder's software, Trendalyzer, was recently acquired by Google. It is a superb tool that lets you compare countries over time by various statistical measures. Rosling, who is Swedish, said the hardest thing about building Gapminder was not getting the money, coming up with ideas, or making the technology work -- it was borrowing databases from tax-funded institutions. Such "database hugging" by public institutions hampers innovation, he said. He told how when he visited the U.S., he brought his American Express card to Wall Street, assuming that at such a citadel of capitalism, he would have to pay to walk the sidewalks. Instead, he could stroll unhindered to the door of the New York Stock Exchange. He said governments need to make data freely available so innovators and entrepreneurs can experiment with it.
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Also see a stream of Hans Rosling´s 18 minute speech and also access to the declaration signed by conference participants entitled "Official statistics are a key 'public good' that foster the progress of societies."
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