The LIGO Scientific Collaboration and Virgo Collaboration actively pursue an open science pro- gramme. Gravitational wave strain data are publicly released through the website http://www.gw- openscience.org along with the information and tools necessary to understand and use the data. This contribution will give an overview of past and current activities related to this topic, includ- ing the recent release of the Catalog of Compact Binary Mergers (GWTC-1) and will give a sense of its impact on science, teaching and other applications.
