There is a general, international, and multifaceted trend that is shaping the global narrative towards openness as a default setting. The open data movement has been both influencing and influenced by the concepts of Open Government, Open Access, and Open Source, by Freedom of Information laws, and by the regulatory initiatives aiming at fostering the re-use of Public Sector Information. The general aim is promoting information availability, as free of restraints as reasonably possible, to reach a multiplicity of different goals. Transparency, efficiency, accountability, economic growth, and democratic participation are amongst the core values upheld, from an instrumental perspective, by the striving towards openness. This chapter highlights a number of international initiatives that revolve around open data, and that have been instrumental in framing the concept as understood nowadays.