Open AccessLink

The modern world is full of data – and so are companies’ databases. So what? There’s nothing new about this, but there’s one thing that is changing the playing field of data utilization – the increase in open data.

There’s a clear trend among companies with a long history and plenty of data. Companies that produce plenty of data are directing their service development resources towards big service entities. They don’t build all their data-utilizing service ideas themselves – instead, they let others build new services on their data. This business model emphasizes a modern “interest on interest” mindset: the groundwork laid by the company spreads around via service models provided by others.

One of the most important strategic choices for a new company is this: What should I do myself and what services should I acquire from a partner? In the era of apps and social communities this is one of the key questions.

Why is all of this important, then? Because in this game, there can be two winners – both the data providers and utilizers. Both need each other and both evolve as the other evolves.

Open data might well be the new black of the business world.

What’s your company’s take on open data? Do you produce or utilize it?

7.12.2017

Only a few weeks ago, we did not even dream that our equipment would save people from a fire or bring a whole new kind of content to the daily lives of Parkinson's patients - however, open data has made this possible.

So what happened? We published our Open AccessLink API at the end of October 2017. To be honest, we did not know what to expect. Certainly many developers would be excited, but would it really change anything?

Of course, during the first few days it is difficult to draw the final conclusions, but the reception of our launch was very positive and even puzzling. We got the feeling that we’re on to something special.

Then the floodgates opened up and we understood the power of the developer community. We decided to spread the “Polar open data” message in UltraHack, (LINK TO www.ultrahack.org) a hackathon event where young and ambitious people from different nationalities and various fields of expertise are challenged to solve the world's major concerns during one weekend.

Our goal was to support the teams working on the challenges and provide them tools to reach their goals. We soon came to realize that in only two days, startups and hackers create great new ideas and services that we could not have even imagined ourselves to be involved with.

Now we began to understand what kind of an effect opening our data would create. The developer community is full of new perspectives and innovations that help expand our business opportunities into completely new directions.

Here are two examples of the innovations produced by UltraHack.

Case RhythmWatch

The pharmaceutical company Orion challenged teams to help Parkinson’s disease patients to achieve better quality of life with gamification.

Several teams approached the challenge through big data. Team RhythmWatch made Polar Android Wear the heart of their work. They created a wonderful solution where data and technology help Parkinson's patients to be active both physically and socially. In addition, the application provides physicians with vital information about their patients’ condition to ensure continuous development of their rehabilitation plans.

Suddenly, what we had in front of us was a great solution to Orion's challenge, and our data and devices were the link that binds it all together. Without this developer team, we might have never have seen ourselves as part of the treatment of Parkinson's disease.

Case Fire!! Alert!! Escape!!

The team worked at OpenTrack, so they had the freedom to find new solutions to the problems they had encountered.

The team's goal was to save lives in the event of a fire. They built a solution where the location information of modern Wifi routers and fire alarms can be used to help in the event of a fire. Activity trackers can give rescue personnel information about a person’s location, heart rate and body position (whether they are on the floor). The device can guide the user towards the emergency exit and send messages to the emergency personnel.

There were several innovations like the one above, and all this was possible when we only gave the developers a challenge and the tools. We were impressed.

We understood that by opening up access to our data, we are the enablers of the next great innovations. This is what we want to keep on doing.