Dr Andy Beck of Harvard Medical School in Reddit AMA thread:
Interesting question. I think there is a lot of value in actually showing the utility of open data, by using it creatively to answer important research questions. There are now huge public databases available and growing everyday (e.g., https://tcga-data.nci.nih.gov/tcga/ , http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/geo/ ). I think it’s powerful to show a student that using open data they can answer a question in 5 minutes that previously may have taken an entire PhD dissertation to complete. In addition, to advocating through use of data, supporting high quality open access journals is also a great way to advocate. [Source]