Open data to create power for the many, not the few

On the Web, you can find day to day datasets from train schedules to datasets you only use in specific circumstances. A manual intervention is needed in order to study the data, and a developer is needed to write the code to come to make the data usable. How can we make sure that robots can answer any question automatically, taking into account the datasets we publish? Pieter Colpaert is a post-doctoral researcher at the Internet and Data Lab (IDLab) – Ghent University – IMEC, taking up the role of Technology Coordinator of Smart Flanders. He holds a PhD in engineering technology from Ghent University since 2017. Back in 2012, he co-founded a not for profit organisation to promote Open Knowledge in Belgium and the iRail working group at this organization. The latter still is the most popular developer interface for public transport data in Belgium. Today, he leads the Linked Open Data Interfaces team at IDLab, researching how Open Data can affect our lives for the better.