New report: Data journalism in Tanzania

Open Knowledge International and the School of Data are excited to announce the publication of a new research report into the state of data journalism in Tanzania. Data-driven journalism is an important and disruptive change in contemporary journalism practice. It is not a panacea solution to the fake news era, but it is a piece […]

Introducing the 2018 Class of School of Data Fellows!

This blog has been reposted from the School of Data blog. School of Data is delighted to announce its sixth class of fellows. From June until January 2019, the programme will allow fellows to deepen their data literacy skills and work alongside local partner organisations to enhance the data literacy network local to them. We were […]

Apply Now! School of Data’s 2018 Fellowship Programme

This blog has been reposted from the School of Data blog School of Data is inviting journalists, data scientists, civil society advocates and anyone interested in advancing data literacy to apply for its 2018 Fellowship Programme, which will run from May 2018 to January 2019. 8 positions are open, 1 in each of the following countries: Bolivia, Guatemala, […]

Join the School of Data team: Technical Trainer wanted

Background The mission of Open Knowledge International is to open up all essential public interest information and see it utilized to create insight that drives change. To this end we work to create a global movement for open knowledge, supporting a network of leaders and local groups around the world; we facilitate coordination and knowledge […]

Meet the 2015 School of Data fellows!

This is a cross-post from the School of Data blog, written by their Community Manager Cédric Lombion. See the original. We’re delighted to announce that after much difficult deliberation, our Class of 2015 School of Data Fellows have now been decided! We ended up with nearly 600 applicants from 82 different countries – so it […]

Call for Applications: School of Data 2015 Fellowship programme now open!

We’re very happy to open today our 2015 Call for School of Data Fellowships! Apply here Following our successful 2014 School of Data Fellowships, we’re opening today our Call for Applications for the 2015 Fellowship programme. As with last year’s programme, we’re looking to find new data trainers to spread data skills around the world. […]

We need you! Become a School of Data Fellow

Got data skills to share? Member of a community that wants to turn data into information? Know about a data journalism or civic activism project or organisation which need a push for using data more effectively? The School of Data needs you! We are currently broadening our efforts to spread data skills around the world, […]

Skillshares and Stories: Upcoming Community Sessions

We’re excited to share with you a few upcoming Community Sessions from the School of Data, CKAN, Open Knowledge Brazil, and Open Access. As we mentioned earlier this week, we aim to connect you to each other. Join us for the following events! What is a Community Session: These online events can be in a […]

The School of Data Journalism 2014!

We’re really excited to announce this year’s edition of the School of Data Journalism, at the International Journalism Festival in Perugia, 30th April – 4th May. It’s the third time we’ve run it (how time flies!), together with the European Journalism Centre, and it’s amazing seeing the progress that has been made since we started […]

Data Expedition: Investigate the Extractive Industries of Nigeria

UPDATE: there is now a dedicated page for the Nigeria Extractives Data Expedition here Who operates the often poisonous wells in the Niger Delta? How does the money flow between the contractors running the oil fields and the government? Join us for an online Data Expedition to Investigate the Extractive Industries of Nigeria, December 7, […]

Open Knowledge Foundation at Mozilla Festival – meet us!

At the Open Knowledge Foundation we love festivals – and attending is just half of the fun, we really like making things happen. So as soon as our friends over at Mozilla started building up their fabulous Mozilla Festival we decided to roll up our sleeves and join the party! Mozilla Festival will take place […]

Investigate the Garment Factories: new Data Expedition

In May, the School of Data community got together in a Data Expedition to respond to the Rana Plaza catastrophe. They built a crowdsourced database on garment factories and used it to expose the bad safety standards and non-transparency that contributed to the disaster. Now we are taking the garment factory investigation to the next […]

Open Data Training at the Open Knowledge Foundation

We’re delighted to announce today the launch of a new portfolio of open data training programs. For many years the Open Knowledge Foundation has been working — both formally and informally — with governments, civil society organisations and others to provide this kind of advice and training. Today marks the first time we’ve brought it […]

Using public data to flag tax avoidance schemes?

This post was jointly written by Jonathan Gray (@jwyg), Director of Policy and Ideas at the Open Knowledge Foundation and Tony Hirst (@psychemedia), Data Storyteller at the Open Knowledge Foundation’s School of Data project. It is cross-posted from the School of Data blog. Today OpenCorporates added a new visualisation tool that enables you to explore […]

Hola Escuela de Datos!

Today, we’re pleased to announce the launch of School of Data in Spanish! The Website was launched at the AbreLatam, on the 24th June, with a workshop focusing on building the Latin American network. This follows a series of warm up events thanks to the wonderful generosity of our hosts, in particular – the Hacks […]

Data Expedition story: Why garment retailers need to do more in Bangladesh

This post is cross-posted from the School of Data blog On May 25-26 almost 50 participants from several teams set out on a data expedition to map the garment factories. This is a report from the team comprised of Roy Keyes, Naomi Colvin, Sybern, Bhanupriya Rao and Daniela Mattern. The team used a crowdsourced database […]

Data Expedition: Tax Avoidance and Evasion – 6th June

Want to dig deep into tax avoidance and evasion? We have gathered a wide range of data on this sensitive topic and for one afternoon we’ll guide you through some of the key decisions to think about when writing a story on the topics. With tax evasion and tax avoidance currently such a hot topic […]

Data Expedition: Mapping the garment factories

The horrific factory collapse at Rana Plaza in Dhaka has brought the business practices of global garment brands, as well their thousands of suppliers, into the spotlight. At School of Data we noted that corrupt and missing data were part of the story. Data on building permits in Bangladesh is largely unavailable due to lack of state […]

We’re Hiring! School of Data seeks Workshop and Project Coordinator

School of Data is hiring a Workshop and Project Coordinator! See below for details about the role and how to apply. ###About School of Data School of Data works to empower civil society organizations, journalists and citizens with the skills they need to use data effectively in their efforts to create fairer and more sustainable […]

Data Explorer Mission on Carbon Data

Sign up now for next week’s Data Explorer Mission on Carbon Emissions Data, a pilot initiative of our School of Data and P2PU, to help people explore a topic, while at the same time building their data skills through experimentation and doing. Image CC-By-SA J Brew on Flickr At the School of Data, we teach […]

Announcing the School of Data Journalism 2013 in Perugia

Update 21 March: To register for the School of Data Journalism workshops please fill in your name and email address in this form. <em> Cross-posted on<a href=”http://www.journalismfestival.com/”> journalismfestival.com</a> and the <a href=”http://www.okfn.org”>OKFN</a> blog.</em></p> The European Journalism Centre and the Open Knowledge Foundation are pleased to invite you to Europe’s biggest data journalism event, the School […]

Tony Hirst joins the School of Data

We’d like to extend a really warm welcome to Tony Hirst, who’s joining the School of Data as a Data Storyteller. Tony will be working part time for the School of Data in shaping the materials, masterminding the blog and running workshops. He’ll also be out and about on site visits to learn more about […]

Data Expeditions at MozFest

Expeditions into the Data Landscape: the School of Data goes to #MozFest. Find out what happened at MozFest – and see the tools and data sets to recreate it yourself! Saturday morning at MozFest. A sold out building, full of a thousand hackers, builders, makers, geeks, journalists, thinkers and more. And right at the top […]

Data Bootcamps: Hands on data literacy workshops for the world

As governments around the world start implementing open data initiatives, establishing a critical public able to analyse and contextualise the data released is paramount. To facilitate this the African Media Initiative and the World Bank Institute started to collaborate on a program to bring Data Bootcamps to places with Open Government Data initiatives. Data itself […]

The Data Bootcamp in Tanzania

This is a post from Michael Bauer a technologist, digital activist, and open data specialist with the Open Knowledge Foundation who is currently travelling around Tanzania and Ghana training people how to find, extract, and analyse public data. You can follow Michael’s travels in more detail on the School of Data Blog. I am on […]

OpenDataMx: Opening Up the Government, one Bit at a Time

On August 24-25, another edition of OpenDataMx took place: a 36-hour public data hackathon for the development of creative technological solutions to questions raised by the civil society. This time the event was hosted by the University of Communication in Mexico City. The popularity of the event has grown: a total of 63 participants including […]

Development Data Challenge

Over the weekend of 25th and 26th August, the second event in a series of ‘Development Data Challenges’ took place at the Guardian’s offices in London. What is a ‘Development Data Challenge’? Development Data Challenges are an interesting concept. They draw together a disparate group of people (we had development experts, coders, designers, data wranglers, […]

Open Data – Chennai

This is part 2 of 5 of the Open Data India Series. You can read the first post ‘Open Data – Bangalore’ on the OKFN blog. Chennai, formerly Madras, is only a short train ride away from Bangalore. Laura and I hadn’t been intending on travelling to Chennai on this trip, but a mail from […]

OpenDataMx: Open Data Hackathon in Mexico City

  This weekend Mexico City will host OpenDataMx, a Hackathon of public open data lasting 36 hours, during which participants will develop creative technical solutions to solve various civil society problems. Programmers, designers, members of civil society organizations (CSOs) and government officials are invited to participate in OpenDataMx and collaborate in web and mobile solutions […]

Open Data – Bangalore

Laura and Lucy from the OKFN team recently travelled to India to learn where the challenges and opportunities for open data in India lay. This is part 1 of 5 of the Open Data India Series. The Bangalore data scene is huge. A bustling IT and data mining industry means that you are never far […]

Data Wrangling Handbook Sprints: July 18th in Portland! July 19th everywhere!

We’re taking the Data Wrangling Handbook on the road! We’ll be in Portland, Oregon this Wednesday, July 18th from 3-7 pm at Collective Agency, 322 NW Sixth Ave (between Everett and Flanders), Suite 200. (Buzz “200″ when you arrive.) View Map Then, to keep the ball rolling, we’re following up with a virtual sprint on […]

Laying Foundations for the School of Data

Recently, a small team gathered in Berlin for the School of Data kick-off sprint. After three days fueled by coffee, felt-tip pens and a multi-coloured array of post-it-notes, the sprint left us with a true appreciation of the amazing community we are working with, and an exciting new structure to underpin the School of Data. […]

Kick-starting the School of Data!

Earlier this year, we announced plans to launch the School of Data. Thanks to the generous support of Open Society Foundations and the Shuttleworth Foundation, we’re now ready to go! We’re holding a kick-off sprint next week, and we invite you to get involved. What is the School of Data? The School of Data is […]

Announcing the School of Data

The following post is by Rufus Pollock, Director and Co-Founder of the Open Knowledge Foundation, and Philip Schmidt, Co-Founder and Executive Director of Peer 2 Peer University. Today, we’re announcing plans for a School of Data. The School will be a joint venture between the Open Knowledge Foundation and Peer 2 Peer University (P2PU). We […]