Note: This post is by Jindřich Mynarz, one of the talented organisers of the OKFN’s newest Local Chapter in the Czech Republic. In Prague? Come to the Chapter’s first meetup next week. 

The year 2011 has seen a sustained growth of interest in open data and open knowledge in the Czech Republic. There’s been a lot of discussions about the openness of the public sector, an uptake of open data principles, and an increasing investment in open data projects by NGOs, citizen activists, and other informal groups. Many successful open data events have taken place, such as the e-Democracy Day, Big Clean and Průhledná politika online offline (Transparent Politics Online Offline). Interesting applications have appeared, such as SmogAlarm, an Android app for tracking current levels of air pollution, or VášMajetek.cz (YourProperty.cz), which collects and publishes information about auctions of public property coming from different sources.

To match this progress, we have just entered the incubation phase for the Czech Chapter of the Open Knowledge Foundation. This step is intended to support, coordinate, and spur the potential that we have recognized in this promising turn of the affairs towards a greater transparency and wider use of open data practices.

Open Society Fund Prague, the organiser of the meetup, will introduce the concept of an umbrella website serving as a dispatcher for various projects working with open data. Come and learn about what is planned and discuss the direction that it should take.

We would like the members of the Czech open data community to get to know each other in person and listen to what you are working on in your open data activities and hacks. This meetup is for you to learn from your peers about their new projects – and to explore the extensive beer menu in the venue. Come up and join the open data community!

Date and time: December 14th 2011, 7:00 PM (CET)

Registration: http://goo.gl/wLC7C

Meetup: http://goo.gl/1bqQp

Venue: Kulový blesk, Sokolská 13, Praha 2 (map: http://goo.gl/Vn2aX, Foursquare: http://goo.gl/lGgvB )

Twitter hashtag: #opendatacz

Organiser: Open Society Fund Prague (Michaela Rybičková)

Note: Thanks to Flickr user ‘Steffy‘ for the photo of Prague.