For over 40 years, CODATA has been the leading international organization concerned with improving the quality, accessibility, and usability of scientific data. The Information Revolution has provided unprecedented opportunity to ensure that scientific data are fully integrated in the fundamental workings and decision making of our society. Further, these data care critical to improving every aspect of society. In this essay, I describe how data plays these roles and outline an opportunity for the CODATA Data Science Journal to catalyze creation of a Data Commons to provide even greater impact.