The Open Knowledge Definition (OKD) sets out principles to define the 'open' in open knowledge. The term knowledge is used broadly and it includes all forms of data, content such as music, films or books as well any other type of information.
In the simplest form the definition can be summed up in the statement that "A piece of knowledge is open if you are free to use, reuse, and redistribute it".
Infoenthusiasts may exult in the sheer volume of raw data, & just as industrial revolution society learned how to process a glut of "atoms," we must now learn how to process this glut of "information."
W. Jones. Morgan Kaufmann Series in Multimedia Information and Systems & Morgan Kaufmann Series in Interactive Technologies Morgan Kaufmann, Amsterdam, (2008)