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What a month! February may be the shortest month (at least, for those using the Gregorian calendar), but we’ve sure made the most of it. It seems to be the month of “the launch”: the campaign to Stop Secret Contracts; OKFestival’s website, ticket sales and Call for Proposals; Open Data Day 2014; Brazil and Spain as the two newest Chapters; a revamped Public Domain Review; a local City Census to complement the Country Census and resulting Index; and the Impact Stories competition for the Partnership for Open Data! Also, Open Knowledge Central published the results of the Community Survey taken at the end of the 2013 (huge thanks to all of you who contributed) and we’re digesting to learn how we can support the amazing Open communities better.

February is also known for St Valentine’s Day… If you are craving some romance in March, have a look at the ‘little book of love’, celebrated by the Public Domain Review.

Like the sound of what we’re doing? The Open Knowledge Foundation is a not-for-profit organisation – all our community services are provided openly and for free. We rely on the generosity of our institutional and individual supporters. Please visit okfn.org/support to find out more about becoming an Open Knowledge Foundation supporter.

OKFestival 2014 launched

We’re very excited to announce the Open Knowledge Festival 2014! This global, inclusive, and participatory event is taking place July 15th – 17th in Berlin, Germany.

With the main themes of Knowledge, Tools and Society – the three main levers of change – this will be a platform for the change Open Knowledge is making around the world. As for what the content will be, that is up to you! This will be a crowd-sourced event, built by the community. Visit okfestival.org/programme/ to see what sort of proposals we are looking for.

Early bird tickets are now available – get yours at okfestival.org/tickets/

Stop Secret Contracts

This month saw the launch of our new global campaign, Stop Secret Contracts. Together with over 30 civil society groups around the world, we are calling on world leaders to end secrecy in contracting.

Millions of dollars of public money are lost every year to fraud, corruption and lining the pockets of unaccountable corporations. Citizens have the right to know who is doing business with their governments and on what terms. Transparency in government contracting is crucial to democracy.

Sign up to the campaign to Stop Secret Contracts now.

Open Data Day 2014

This year’s Open Data Day was the biggest yet, with over 190 events taking place around the world. The global network gathered in person and remotely, with events from Nepal to Egypt, looking at everything from local government spending, to flood data, to mashing up public domain content into cool videos.

Lots of stories are reported on the Open Knowledge Foundation Community Stories Tumblr, and there’s a round up post on the blog.

We are proud to support Open Data Day, which has fast become a key date in the information activist calendar. The diversity of events produced across the world is a fantastic expression of the vibrant international movement which is building for open data.

New Chapters welcomed

The Open Knowledge ‘official’ network continues to grow, welcoming both Brazil and Spain as Chapters. They join Austria, Belgium, Finland, Germany, Greece, Spain and Switzerland as the group of organisations under the umbrella of Open Knowledge Foundation, making a real difference for Open Data and Open Knowledge in their areas and world-wide.

You can read more about the formalisation of Spain and Brazil, as well as what a Chapter is and how to become one, on our blog and Local Groups pages.

Impact Stories

How does Open Data and Open Knowledge affect you? This month, Partnership for Open Data launched the Impact Stories Competition.

Prizes are available – 1000 USD for the winner, and 500 USD each for the two runners-up – submit your story now (before the 24th March) to be in with a chance of winning.

Check out the blog post and website for more details, and share your stories with us.

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Theodora is press officer at the Open Knowledge Foundation, based in London. Get in touch via press@okfn.org