Mobilising Data in a Knowledge Society

We address how the open data movement is fostering change in institutions, in data, and in social participation in the mobilisation of knowledge society. The idea of a knowledge society has been raised over the last two decades but the transition to such as society has not been realised. Up to the present time, discussion about a knowledge society have largely focused on a knowledge economy and information society rather than a mobilisation to a knowledge society. These debates have, however, taken place before the rise of open data and big data and the development of an open data movement. We consider the role of the open data movement in fostering transformation to a knowledge society. The characteristics of the open data movement that include the strong conviction of the value of open data for society, the attention to the institutional aspects of making data open in an inclusive way, the practical focus on the technological infrastructure are key in mobilising a knowledge society. At the heart of any mobilisation is an emerging open data ecosystem and new ways of producing and using data - whether 'born digital' data, digitised data or big data - and how that data, when made openly available, can be used in a knowledgeable way by societal actors.