The Open Universe Initiative

Abstract

The almost universal availability of electronic connectivity, web software, and portable devices is bringing about a major revolution: information of all kinds is rapidly becoming accessible to everyone, transforming social, economic and cultural life practically everywhere in the world. Internet technologies represent an unprecedented and extraordinary two-way channel of communication between producers and users of data. For this reason, the web is widely recognized as an asset capable of achieving the fundamental goal of transparency of information and of data products, in line with the growing demand for transparency of all goods that are produced with public money. This chapter describes the “Open Universe”, an initiative proposed to the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS) with the objective of stimulating a dramatic increase in the availability and usability of space science data, extending the potential of scientific discovery to new participants in all parts of the world.