A common adage in open-source development known as Linus' Law states that "with enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow," indicating that if you can get enough people involved, hard problems become easier. This is what open data does for knowledge discovery and innovation. When looking for a needle in the haystack of data, it helps to have a more people looking. The best way to get more people looking is to make it cheap to look.

Lowering the cost to look, and thus enabling more people to get involved is precisely what Manchester City has begun to do. Opening the data up promises to lower barriers to entry for experimenting with new data-driven ways of understanding the game. With more eyeballs, this problem can become shallow.