Meredith Griffiths reported this story on Friday, November 27, 2015 12:50:00

KIM LANDERS: The Federal Government collects a lot of data - and now it's trying to encourage tech start-ups to use some of it to create new businesses.



Staff from the Prime Minister's Department have been touring the country this week promoting the program, and Meredith Griffiths went along to one of the sessions in Sydney.



MEREDITH GRIFFITHS: In a funky warehouse under the shadow of the Harbour Bridge, tech entrepreneurs are being told to delve into the data that Government departments are amassing all the time



DANIEL RINGROSE: We first are looking for founders who are strong and founders who are looking for making a real difference in the world. So we've started to look for dreamers.



MEREDITH GRIFFITHS: The entrepreneurs in attendance are being asked to trawl though Government data sets and use that information to pitch a business idea.



The successful applicant will then get nine months of mentoring by entrepreneurs, business consultants, public servants and venture capitalists.



The program is being rolled out by business consultant Daniel Ringrose, who works for a company called Pollenizer.



DANIEL RINGROSE: The intention is to try and drive businesses that use open data and get real value from open data. And if we can get that moving, then we're able to try and build something larger that the start-up ecosystem says, "There's some real big opportunities here. We want to get behind this and make more happen."



MEREDITH GRIFFITHS: Many of those in attendance were keen to apply.



ENTREPRENEUR 1: These data sets becoming available has really added a lot of grunt and power to what we're looking to do.



ENTREPRENEUR 2: About 30 per cent of the data sets are related to either business population or property. We could incorporate that data straight away in presenting maps and using filters tailoring it to giving better information to people searching for properties or trying to understand: "What's the value of my property and what's the change that's happening in that area that my commercial property is?"



ENTREPRENEUR 3: So I'm in the logistics space. We have a lot of inefficiencies with the way packages are delivered. Traffic information, energy savings, reducing carbon footprint: these are some of the things that we can solve with assisted Government data.



ENTREPRENEUR 4: We're a classic sort of startup technology company. We're about energy data in this case.



And to develop software tools for energy, the data has to come from somewhere. You can't just have a map sitting out there, unsupported by metering data from somewhere. And that's what's always been really hard in that area.



MEREDITH GRIFFITHS: The Federal Assistant Minister for Innovation, Wyatt Roy, says the pilot program is an opportunity to use the Government's data to change society and boost the economy.



WYATT ROY: Ultimately the Government would like to hand over as much data as possible. Of course we have to protect the privacy of our citizens and that would be at the front of our mind. But the more data that we can release in an easy-to-understand way so that our great innovators and entrepreneurs can grab this and take hold of the opportunity that it presents is a very exciting opportunity.



MEREDITH GRIFFITHS: There is some concern among some sectors of the community about the kind of data that Google amasses about us, that Facebook amasses about us. How is this different from the sort of data that those commercial companies mine?



WYATT ROY: Well, in many cases the data is very bland and it's not individualised data. It's sort of a big data set that doesn't go to any personal details. It just talks in very bland sort of numbers. You'd never be able to use it to track down and find anybody's individual data.



You could just see, for example, geospatial data or even you could see traffic flows from Government or you could see some of that big-picture data sets rather than in Google's case: I mean, they obviously have a lot of data on individuals - far more data on the individuals than in many cases the Government would ever hold.



MEREDITH GRIFFITHS: Entrepreneurs have just under a month to submit their ideas.



KIM LANDERS: Meredith Griffiths.