Issue A Wide World of Data

Summary

A Wide World of Data imagines comprehensive data treated as a public good. With incentives for sharing, a secure platform would let entrepreneurs, researchers and policymakers exchange and use large aggregated, anonymised user datasets and related analysis to support global innovation and discovery. Estimates vary, but yearly data generation could grow exponentially to one yottabyte, a million exabytes, by 2030. In a 2025 survey of academic researchers, about 80% said data should be openly available by default, yet only around 6% of businesses actively pursue the benefits of using and sharing data. The digital economy is expected to produce over two-thirds of new global economic value in the next decade. The expected gains are faster, more accurate modelling and a more level field between public and private actors, while the main risk is that even aggregated data could be exploited to identify individuals unless security is extremely strong.