Open Data in Action

The Governance Lab (The GovLab) -- a research institution at New York University -- released the beta version of its Open Data 500 project -- an initiative designed to identify, describe, and analyze companies that use open government data in order to study how these data can serve business needs more effectively.

As part of this effort, the organization is compiling a list of 500+ companies that use open government data to generate new business and develop new products and services. This working list of 500+ companies, from sectors ranging from real estate to agriculture to legal services, shines a spotlight on surprising array of innovative and creative ways that open government data is being used to grow the economy -- across different company sizes, different geographies, and different industries.