It is good to revisit the fundamentals.  These reports were part of the original discourse starting in 1992 on making data accessible.  The Earth Summit created Chapter 40. Information for Decision-Making which quite nicely lays out the importance of access to data. Down to Earth is the result of Rio +10. The GEOSS Data Sharing Action Plan brought together private sector, nations, research centres and NGOs to produce this comprehensive plan. You can read about the Data Sharing Principles of the multi million dollar data sets starting on page 137 of this document. It is a nice reminder that Open Data did not just show up as an idea in 2009 in Canada.  It has been simmering into a good broth for some time. Open data has become the base for a variety of soups appearing on actual menus and leaving the kitchen to nourish some real minds.