text: What is, exactly, Public Data? A definition that is accepted almost implicitly is*"data that is of*
  
  *public interest, that belongs to the whole community, data that every citizen is surely entitled to*
  
  *know and use"*. This definition is so generic that accepting it together with the assumption that all 
  
  such data should be open as preached by the Open Data movement (online, as soon as possible, in 
  
  machine readable format with an open license etc...) doesn't create any particular problem or 
  
  conflict. 
  
  Real problems however start as it has happened all too often so far, whenever we assume more or 
  
  less consciously that "Public Data" in the sense defined above and data directly produced by 
  
  Governments and Public Administrations, that is what's normally called PSI (Public Sector 
  
  Information) are the same thing. 
  
  There is no doubt that Governments and Public Administrations produce huge quantities of Public 
  
  Data. But this is an age of privatization of many public services, from transportation to healthcare, 
  
  energy and water management. This is an age in which many activities with potentially very serious 
  
  impacts on whole communities, like processing of hazardous substances or toxic waste, happen 
  
  *outside*Public Administrations. The paradox is that, as Sasaki put it, this increased privatization is 