Data, information and knowledge management for innovation

The potential for information to drive public sector innovation is immense and growing every day. This chapter considers the distinction between the interrelated concepts of data, information and knowledge, and the recommendations the OECD has made in this area, particularly the need for open government data (OGD) to maximise the public and private benefits from public sector information. The chapter identifies four interconnected phases in organisations’ management of information: sourcing, exploiting, sharing and advancing, and the challenges that arise from each one, along with examples of solutions to those challenges from around the world. It considers how data analytics, combining data from within and beyond the public sector, provide governments with improved foresight, delivery and performance. It also considers how innovation can be built into the work of an organisation by using feedback to create a continuously evolving information ecosystem exploiting the collective intelligence of staff and the public through such means as crowdsourcing and knowledge networks.