John Whitehead, chairman Data Futures Forum. Photo / Mark Mitchell
The potential for data to play a significant role in the New Zealand economy has long been recognised by the Government.
The first steps were taken in 2011 with the approval of new principles for managing the data and information held by government departments under the Open Government Data and Information Programme.
The strongest signals of the importance of data were sent at the end of last year, with the establishment of the Data Futures Forum to guide New Zealand's use of data into the future and establish the necessary infrastructure.
"New Zealand has a real opportunity here. If we can create an ecosystem for data, we can unlock huge value, but to do this we need to treat data as a national asset," says Data Future Forum Chair John Whitehead.
"The New Zealand Data Futures Forum has come to the conclusion that best solution for any country in navigating the data revolution is to use data at the same time to derive economic, social and personal value."
The forum brought together thought and industry leaders for a period of six months to articulate possible data futures and explore the opportunities, benefits and risks associated.
"The potential for New Zealand to unlock the value of data driven innovation and build on strong foundations of inclusion, trust and control is unlimited," Whitehead says.
The key to capitalising on the potential is recognising the inherent value of data and establishing frameworks and policies to exploit it. There is no silver bullet solution to this - rather it is a process which would require co-operation between government and the private sector.
The report says that: "in order to get value from the data we hold collectively, now and into the future, we recommend that in conjunction with businesses and communities, government develop a set of strategies to ensure all of New Zealand is best placed to use and benefit from our data-use ecosystem".
The foundations for New Zealand's data infrastructure should be formed on the basis of four driving principles according to the Forum's recommendations; value, inclusion, trust and control.
"The way this data-use ecosystem works is relatively simple. If people trust how institutions manage data, see benefits for themselves derived from data-sharing, and feel they have some control over how personal data is used, they are likely to support and actively contribute to collaborative data-sharing initiatives. The latent value of data is unlocked."
"Far from being trade-offs with achieving desired benefits, high trust, high inclusion and greater control are critical enablers for value creation through collaborative data-sharing."
The forum strongly advocates the Government legislate for the proactive release of open government data, in order to extend information sharing beyond central government. It sees getting the rules of the game right as the first step towards creating pathways for such further use and exploitation.
A broad review of legislation guiding the use of information and data topped the agenda of recommendations to emerge from the forum.
"We think legislation is required to get traction within government. Although open data is supported by government, progress would be sped up by introducing legislation that has a set date by which open data release must be in place. This includes removing barriers to the opening of key government data (health, education, tax energy), such as regulation and contractual arrangements."
In a submission to the forum, Spark called for strong Government regulatory support to create an environment that would ensure New Zealand remains on the vanguard of data.
"There has been considerable international thinking on how to manage Smart Data but so far there have been no actual regulatory implementations. We can build on this thinking and seize the initiative. By contrast to other countries, New Zealand can move quickly and flexibly to implement a new regime. The current New Zealand regime is recognised internationally and we can leverage this reputation as we move forward," it said in its submission.
To complement its call for an increased openness, the forum has proposed the establishment of an independent data council which would be responsible for guiding the thinking, advising government and data users, and developing best practice procedures.
"The time may have come for an independent body to promote the ethical and safe use of data," says John Edwards, New Zealand's Privacy Commissioner. "Promotion of the more effective use of data raises a range of questions about infrastructure and capability that are not as yet part of any organisation's mandate.
"There is also an important distinction between privacy and ethics in data use, and there is no body charged with providing advice on what constitutes ethical practice."
The proposed council would effectively serve the role of an ombudsman focused on data, but would also play a part in promoting data to New Zealanders and encouraging them to get involved and help to build the data eco-system.
While the frameworks for wider implementation of data-driven solutions are being established, the forum has recommended the creation of a number of catalyst projects and endeavours to illustrate the economic and social outcomes which can be achieved.
It proposes Government and business develop a set of clearly defined collaborative catalyst projects that demonstrate value by tackling real problems.
In its final report, the forum suggests "new transformational projects can be identified and existing work accelerated. The learnings and developments from the projects should feed into longer term strategies that look across sectors to make the best use of data in the longer term."
Whitehead says if the recommendations are followed: "we will see New Zealand lead the world in this space. The potential gains are limitless, including the ability to tackle immediate and real social problems".
The DFF produced examples of applications and services which could be enabled:
• Structural health: monitoring vibrations in and material conditions of buildings, bridges and historical monuments.
• Intelligent transportation systems: smart roads and intelligent highways with warning messages for unexpected events like accidents or traffic jams.
• Forest fires: monitoring combustion gases and pre-emptive fire conditions.
• Air pollution: monitoring CO2 emissions of factories, pollution from cars and farm gases.
• Smart grid: energy consumption.
• Water flow: in water transportation.
• Meteorological network: studying weather conditions in fields for forecasting.
• Energy and water use: consumption monitoring for advice on how to save.
• Smart lighting: intelligent and weather-adaptive street lighting.
• Waste management: detection of rubbish levels in containers to optimise collection.
• Noise urban maps: sound monitoring in bar areas and places people congregate.
A potential low-system is set to form on the northeast coast of New Zealand.