“These are the days of open journalism, reporters who can use the power of the web can produce stronger, better stories. Open journalism involves the person reading and commenting on the story as much as the original reporter, and with the power to shape and influence the news they see in front of them.”

“But how does that connect to data journalism? These are two segments of the same pie chart - and for data journalism to develop beyond just being the latest fad, it has to engage and involve the people reading the news as well as creating it.”

“It's important because data journalism has its roots in publicly available data. As soon as data.gov launched in 2009 it didn't matter how good or bad it was - the principle had been set: all government data must be public, and available in a form you can use. Since then, the world has been deluged in open data, with cities, states and regions around the globe publishing everything from detailed crime statistics to the locations of public toilets.”

http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2012/sep/20/open-data-journ...