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OpenCorporates

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OpenCorporates
Created byChris Taggart, Rob McKinnon and community
URLopencorporates.com
Launched20 December 2010; 13 years ago (2010-12-20)
Content license
Open Database Licence

OpenCorporates is a website which shares data on individual corporate entities under the share-alike attribution Open Database License.[1] It was created by Chris Taggart and Rob McKinnon,[2] under the auspices of their company, Chrinon Ltd,[3] and launched on 20 December 2010.[2][4][5] It has the aims of creating a URL with such data for every corporate entity in the world,[1] importing government data relating to companies and matching it to specific companies.[1]

The site also shows groups of companies which are legally part of the same conglomerate.[6] Basic company information is available in XML or JSON format using a subscription model.[1]

The OpenCorporates Advisory Board exists to advise OpenCorporates on policy, practice and principles, and to ensure that OpenCorporates remains true to its central mission of the opening of company data for the public good. It was formed by three members: David Eaves, Kaitlin Lee and Andrew Stott.[7]

The same team also operate OpenCharities, compiling data on registered charities.[8]

Recognition

Chris Taggart (pictured) created OpenCorporates with Rob McKinnon

In 2011, the site was an award winner in the OpenDataChallenge (3rd Prize App),[9] whose judging panel included web founder Tim Berners-Lee and Laura Creighton, who said:

This is an incredibly powerful and useful app. It combines information collected by scraping the web with Open Data from government bodies, with a new feature for crowdsourcing. It makes accessing government information about companies trivial. This tool is invaluable for those who want to find out more about what it is that corporations are doing. It is a remarkable step forward for transparency and accountability. I could play with this thing for days.[9]

In launching the competition, Neelie Kroes, Vice-President of the European Commission said of the site:

This is the kind of resource the (Digital) Single Market needs and it is encouraging to see that it is being built.[10]

The project was subsequently represented on the European Union's Core Vocabularies Working Group's Core Business Task Force.[11]

In early 2012, the project was appointed to the Financial Stability Board's advisory panel on a Legal Entity Identification for Financial Contracts.[12]

In July 2015, OpenCorporates was a finalist in both the Business and Publisher categories at the Open Data Institute Awards, the only entity to reach the finals in more than one category.[13] At the awards ceremony on 9 July OpenCorporates was announced as the winner of the Open Data Business Award, in recognition of its work with promoting data transparency in the corporate sector.[14] Hera Hussain, Communities and Partnerships Manager at OpenCorporates, said:

We’re delighted and proud to have won this award. When we launched OpenCorporates we had a vision for an open database with tens of millions of companies from all over the world. We’re now in sight of 100 million companies, used regularly by journalists, investigators, governments, even banks. This is a testament not just to the power of OpenCorporates, but of open data itself.[14]

The award was presented by Open Data Institute founders Sir Tim Berners-Lee and Sir Nigel Shadbolt.

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d "About OpenCorporates". Open Corporates. Retrieved 2 July 2011.
  2. ^ a b "Press Release: OpenCorporates launches". WordPress.com. Retrieved 2 July 2011.
  3. ^ "Corporate confidentiality, company relationships, and why this 'competitive advantage' is anti-competitive". OpenCorporates. 5 April 2012. Retrieved 6 April 2012.
  4. ^ Quilty-Harper, Conrad (20 December 2010). "Armchair auditors, sit up: OpenCorporates connects company information to Government spending". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Armchair auditors will be sitting forward today for the launch of OpenCorporates, a website that connects basic information about companies to the money they receive from the Government.
  5. ^ Taggart, Chris (20 December 2010). "OpenCorporates: why we're crying out for this database of companies". The Guardian. Retrieved 11 November 2011.
  6. ^ "Introducing CorporateGroupings: where fuzzy concepts meet legal entities". OpenCorporates. Retrieved 2 July 2011.
  7. ^ Advisory Board
  8. ^ "About". OpenCharities. Retrieved 2 August 2016.
  9. ^ a b "Open Data Challenge winners". Archived from the original on 16 August 2011. Retrieved 2 July 2011.
  10. ^ Kroes, Neelie. "Getting out the Data". Europa. Retrieved 2 July 2011.
  11. ^ "Core Vocabularies Working Group Members". Europa. 15 February 2012. Retrieved 6 April 2012.
  12. ^ "FSB Legal Entity Identifier (LEI) Initiative Industry Advisory Panel - Membership" (PDF). Financial Stability Board. 2012. Retrieved 6 April 2012.
  13. ^ "ODI Awards 2015 Finalists". Open Data Award 2015. Retrieved 13 August 2015.
  14. ^ a b "Celebrating Generation Open – ODI awards network thinkers who are changing the world". open data institute. Retrieved 13 August 2015.
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