Impact of ‘Open Data’ and its Effectiveness for Pakistan Social Issues: Learning from the UK Experience

Abstract

Developmental projects are essential ingredients of prosperity and well-being. Every nation has to ensure that her people are living in a perfect and safe sociopolitical environment. However, it varies from region to region and place to place. UK as a country is a big economy which is capable of giving its people the type of security they need. For this purpose, various types of strategies have been emphasized which enable the government to look for the benefit of its people. Open data system is one of these important developments which have been initiated by the UK government to provide huge access to databases. It improves their learning and knowledge, and gives the opportunity to think ‘out of box’. It also enables people to polish their learning skills and take things out of their resources and utilize them fully. Although, there is some compulsion on the use of private data sources, yet it is necessary to know that not all data are confidential. The research looks into the pros and cons of using open data systems and to assess its impacts on the social and political development in UK. The use of open data system is not only beneficial for the people to perform their daily life tasks, it is important to evade corruption and foster great accountability of national institutions. So, there remains feeble chance of witnessing corruption in the society that could cause chaos in the nation. The use of open data systems is important for boosting up innovation and creativity for a developing country like Pakistan. Open data system has been seen playing a big part in establishing a trend of innovative growth pushed by the availability of these resources. The influence and impact of ‘Open Data’ has largely been observed during the recent Coronavirus pandemic (Covid-19) where the government has utilized the data to tackle the disease in Pakistan.