A new project focused on creating an open data marketplace could mean 370 new jobs, Treasury Board president Tony Clement said Tuesday in Waterloo.
Clement was in town to announce $3 million in federal funding for the Open Data Exchange, a new initiative to be based in Waterloo.
“We need to tap into the tremendous commercial opportunity represented by open data,” Clement told an audience at OpenText.
“I really do believe that this is a real game-changer.”
OpenText is one of the organizations partnering to create the exchange. Others include Communitech, Desire2Learn and the University of Waterloo.
Those organizations are expected to contribute $3 million toward the project as well, with a further $50 million coming from venture capitalists or other sources.
The Open Data Exchange will “commercialize” the burgeoning world of open data by creating a marketplace where it can be traded, Clement said.
It will be based at the OpenText site initially, but is expected to move to uptown Waterloo at an undetermined point in the future.
