Page 209 - Are You Future Ready?

Chapter Three - Right Place

1990s, people in Hong Kong established an underground
observatory on rich information that attracted many fans.

As a result, the HKO decided to set up its own website in
1996, which has been a great success with continuously
enriched content since then.

By 2016, the total traffic of the HKO website reached 100
billion pages, equivalent to 40 inquiries per day by each
person in Hong Kong. The website is cost effective in that
each inquiry only costs the organisation 0.3 cents.

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Open data can promote trust

With all data open to the public, “The citizens would not

criticise the HKO for hiding facts. This greatly decreased
the public’s dissatisfaction and mistrust, resulting in
rational interaction between the HKO and the public,” Lam
concluded.

Trust is a lubricant for reducing friction between the
government and its people. This will help to drive our city
forward. As such, I do hope that the government and the

public sector can increase data transparency to facilitate
mutual trust and social innovation.