From PSI to open data – LAPSI is ready for a new round of legal questions

In February, 23 partners kicked off the LAPSI 2.0 thematic network on the legal aspects of public sector information in Leuven, Belgium. The network, consisting of academic institutions and stakeholders from 15 countries, will continue where the previous LAPSI network left off, and look at the remaining legal barriers hindering the full and open availability […]

European Union launches CKAN data portal

On Friday, to coincide with Saturday’s International Open Data Day, the European Commission (EC) unveiled a new data portal, which will be used to publish data from the EC and other bodies of the European Union. This major project was announced last year, and it went live in December for testing before today’s announcement. The […]

ePSI Open Data Days, Warsaw, February 21-23

The ePSI platform team have announced “three days of open data fun” in Warsaw next month. The big day is the 2013 ePSI platform conference on 22nd February, but you’re also all invited to a workshop on the 21st, and a hackday on the 23rd! ###At a glance What?: ePSI conference, workshop and hackday When?: […]

Let’s defend Open Formats for Public Sector Information in Europe!

Following some remarks from Richard Swetenham from the European Commission, we made a few changes relative to the trialogue process and the coming steps: the trialogue will start its meetings on 17th December and it is therefore already very useful to call on our governments to support Open Formats! When we work on building all […]

COMMUNIA statement on open access to EU funded Horizon 2020 research

Horizon 2020 is the EU’s proposed new programme for research and innovation, which would run from 2014 to 2020. The programme would create an “Innovation Union” with a budget of €80million, bringing together current research and innovation funding available through a number of sources. On 28th November MEPs are set to vote on the proposals, […]

Amendments Liberated: new features for Parltrack

The following guest post is by Stef. The European Parliament is one of the most notoriously impenetrable institutions that governs our lives. Shining a light into the murky corridors of Brussels and Strasbourg becomes increasingly vital as the reach of the Parliament grows. Opening up the EU to greater citizen scrutiny will help to improve […]

Visualising Europe’s Languages

Jonathan Van Parys of Where’s My Villo? fame got in touch to tell us about a nice little mini-project he’s just launched to coincide with the European Day of Languages, which is today: Launching on the 2012 European Day of Languages, languageknowledge.eu is a new website that visualizes language knowledge in Europe based on the […]

Call for research proposals: open data in developing countries

The Web Foundation and the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) are looking to fund case study research on the emerging impacts of open data in developing countries. Open data policies are spreading across the world: but how does open data play out on the ground in different settings? What is needed for the potential transparency […]

Open Media Challenge, September, Bucharest

The Open Media Challenge (OMC) is a two-day event, laying the groundwork for improving data journalism in Eastern Europe. The aim is to write code for free software which will solve real-world media problems around data aggregation and visualization. It will be a collaborative effort focused on Eastern European information collection and dissemination, and will […]

‘En boca cerrada….’: open data in Catalunya today

There is a popular expression in Spanish that says, ‘en boca cerrada no entran moscas.’ Its equivalent in English is ‘loose lips sink ships,’ basically meaning that you are better off just keeping quiet. This culture of secrecy, some would say discretion, is particularly true in Spain’s public administration, being traditionally pervasive at all levels. […]

On the way to the new market of information in Russia

On June 5th at the Higher School of Economics in Moscow a round table conference took place, devoted to the opening of state-collected datasets. It was convened by the Higher School of Economics (HSE) together with the Russian Office of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). Open data is the new trend in the state […]

Taking “utmost transparency” to the next level – at4am for all!

What? When?? Where??? How?!?! were the questions that got me started some 10 years ago now, on my free software journey that’s taken me to the heart of the European Parliament. As a young Swedish musician, politically innocent and ignorant as the next, I got worked up together with a bunch of newborn stallmanites unleashing […]

International Open Legislative Data Conference, July 6-7, Paris!

While the newly elected French National Assembly gets ready to choose its president, the question of its modernisation keeps arising. From the academic research world to the hacktivist perspective, parliamentary monitoring and studies are flourishing in France and all over the world. Methods and techniques may differ, but all share one common need: larger transparency […]

Will technology boost the fight against corruption in the Post-Soviet region?

Having come across the recent UNDP study on the role of social media for enhancing public transparency and accountability in Eastern Europe (download here), one cannot help feeling optimistic about the potential to raise the level of civic empowerment and to fight corruption in the post-Soviet countries. Looks like the Transparency Works event jointly organized […]

Applying Austrian Open Data Experiences in the Czech Republic

Open data in Austria enjoys support from various levels of the public administration, and as a result Austria is one step ahead of the Czech Republic. Last month, we held a seminar to learn from each other’s experiences. Austrian initiatives promoting greater openness of government data, such as the Open Knowledge Forum Österreich, have managed […]

Does Switzerland have no need for Open Government Data?

Switzerland is one of our incubating OKFN:LOCAL chapters in its last stage before full incorporation. Its core group of organisers, a talented collaboration from Geneva and Zürich who also founded http://OpenData.CH, are planning an Open Data Conference in Zürich on June 28th. Here’s a hello from Hannes Gassert and Andreas Amsler regarding the state of […]

Announcing the Open Data Handbook version 1.0

The Open Knowledge Foundation are proud to announce the launch of version 1.0 of the Open Data Handbook (formerly the Open Data Manual): Read the Open Data Handbook now! » The Handbook discusses the ‘why, what and how’ of open data – why to go open, what open is, how to make data open and […]

COMMUNIA’s response to the proposed amendments to PSI Directive

The following guest post is by Timothy Vollmer, policy coordinator at Creative Commons. It has been adapted from his post on the same subject over on the COMMUNIA International Association blog. Creative Commons and the Open Knowledge Foundation are institutional members of COMMUNIA. The mission of COMMUNIA is to educate about, advocate for, offer expertise […]

Opening Government Data in Bulgaria

The following guest post is by Boyan Yurukov, blogger and open government data activist. In the beginning of 2011 some open data was released by the Bulgarian government on www.parliament.bg. Visitors could export information of bills and members of parliament as XML or CSV. They could also download the votes of individual MPs or parliamentary […]

European Commission launches Open Data Strategy for Europe

The following post is from Jonathan Gray, Community Coordinator at the Open Knowledge Foundation. This morning Neelie Kroes, Vice-President of the European Commission and Commissioner for the Digital Agenda announced a new Open Data Strategy for Europe. I wrote a bit of background on the announcement on Friday for the Guardian Datablog, discussing what this […]

Corruption-busting data releases in Croatia

The following post is by Theodora Middleton, the OKF’s blog editor. Government transparency has been making the headlines over in Croatia, thanks to the amazing work of Marko Rakar, Croatia’s leading transparency expert. He has secured the release of all the public procurement data for government spending, dating back to July 1st 2009 in a […]

Working Group Update: EU Open Data

There’s always so much going on round the OKF community, and we want the blog to be the place where you can find out all about it! To that end, we’re going to start having updates from our different working groups, one each week. And here’s the first – from the working group on EU […]

Data & Journalism events in Vienna

The following guest post is by Markus ‘fin’ Hametner, a coder and organizer with a main interest in journalism. He works on an ambitious web journalism project and co-organizes the collide:vienna event series. A few days ago, I realized that Vienna’s normally-quiet landscape of events in the open data and journalism spaces will be quite […]

European Commission to adopt Open Data Strategy

The following post is by Theodora Middleton, the OKFN Blog Editor. News in from the European Commission, which has announced that they will be adopting a new Open Data Strategy from the 29th November. The aims of the strategy are to increase government transparency, and hopefully generate overall economic gains of around €40 billion a […]

Apps 4 Germany Contest Launched

The Open Knowledge Foundation today proudly announces the launch of the Apps 4 Germany Contest. The Contest is organised by three civil society organisations (The Open Data Network, the Gov2.0 Network and the German Chapter of the OKFN) in cooperation with BITKOM (Federal Association for Information Technology, Telecommunications and New Media) under the auspices of […]

Open Data, Italy has awoken

The following guest post is by Vincenzo Patruno, who works at ISTAT – the Italian National Institute for Statistics. He has translated it from his original here. The week before last was probably the most important week yet for open government and open data in Italy. It started with the public announcement of the launch […]

Making the Open Government Partnership Work

The following guest post is by Matt Rosenberg, founder and editor of Public Data Ferret, a project of the non-profit Public Eye Northwest. In this special in-depth report, Matt looks at what it will take for the efforts of the recently formed global Open Government Partnership to succeed, taking in initiatives from across the globe […]

#ogdcamp opening talk from Neelie Kroes

The following post is from Jonathan Gray, Community Coordinator at the Open Knowledge Foundation. Here is the video and full text for Neelie Kroes’s address at Open Government Data Camp 2011. Ladies and gentlemen, dear friends, Opening up public data will foster the participation of citizens in political and social life, increase the transparency of […]

LAPSI Legal Workshop at OGD Camp 2011.

We’re very pleased that LAPSI will be joining us next week in Warsaw for a workshop on legal issues around PSI. In this post Cristiana Sappa and Claudio Artusio explain a bit more about what you can expect… Public sector information can be defined as the wide range of information that public sector bodies collect, […]

#ogdcamp 2011 is coming!

The following post is from Jonathan Gray, Community Coordinator at the Open Knowledge Foundation. The world’s biggest open data event to date, Open Government Data Camp 2011, is taking place in Warsaw next week. Our dedicated team of organisers has been busy working around the clock to prepare a veritable feast of all things open […]

Keynoting at the OGD Camp … Carl-Christian Buhr!

We’re pleased to reveal that Carl-Christian Buhr, from the European Comission, will be joining us at OGD Camp, to make a presentation including a video address from Neelie Kroes! ###About Carl-Christian Carl-Christian Buhr, an economist and computer scientist by training, is a member of the cabinet of Neelie Kroes, the Digital Agenda Commissioner and EU […]

Introducing OpenData.cz – open data initiative from Czech Republic

The following guest post is by Jindřich Mynarz, from the National Technical Library in Prague. Jindřich will be joining us at the Open Government Data Camp in Warsaw! I like to say that OpenData.cz is not a project, it is a state of mind. Its aim is to spread an open data mindset and to […]

AsktheEU.org: New one-stop portal makes requests for EU documents easy

The following post is a press release from AsktheEU and Access Info. On 28 September 2011, the 9th International Right to Know Day, pro-transparency human rights group Access Info Europe unveiled the AsktheEU.org web portal by which the public can ask for information from EU bodies. AsktheEU.org is a designed to radically simplify the process […]

EU Travel Bursary for Open Government Data Camp 2011

The following post is from Jonathan Gray, Community Coordinator at the Open Knowledge Foundation. The European Commission has very kindly offered to provide an EU travel bursary for Open Government Data Camp 2011. It will cover travel and accommodation for up to 30 participants from across Europe. You can find full details here: Here’s an […]

Registration for Open Government Data Camp 2011 is now open!

The following post is from Jonathan Gray, Community Coordinator at the Open Knowledge Foundation. We’re delighted to announce that registration for Open Government Data Camp 2011 is now open! This will be the biggest international open data event to date. An quick overview in numbers: 2 days of talks, workshops and code sprints 10 days […]

Austria adopts CKAN and CC-BY as nation-wide defaults

The following post is by Theodora Middleton, the OKF blog editor. Fantastic news from our fledgling Austrian chapter, the Open Knowledge Forum Österreich! The cities of Vienna, Linz, Salzburg, and Graz, together with the Chancellor’s office, have established the “Cooperation OGD Austria” – a new alliance bringing together federal, state, and city governments, as well […]

Estonian Spending Bubbles

The following guest post is by Tanel Kärp from the Estonian Academy of Arts. He’s a member of the OKF’s Working Group on Open Government Data. MeieRaha.eu (OurMoney) is the first interactive visualization of the Estonian budget which was initiated and built during 48 hours at a local hackathon called Garage48 for Public Services. The […]

Why censoring Slovak spending app means bad news for open data

The following guest post is by Eva Vozarova from the Fair Play Alliance in Slovakia. Eva is also a member of the OKF’s Working Group on Open Government Data. When we first started working on ZNasichDani.sk in October last year, it looked like a promising, useful idea. Creating a tool that would enable journalists and […]

Ireland’s 18 hour Open Data Challenge

The following guest post is from Dominic Byrne from Fingal Open Data. This post is cross-posted from the Fingal Open Data blog. We were at Ireland’s first Open Data 18 hour Challenge. Here’s what happened … Ireland’s first Open Data 18 hour Challenge took place in Dublin on 4th and 5th July, 2011.  Fingal County […]

We need international open government data principles

The following post is from Jonathan Gray, Community Coordinator at the Open Knowledge Foundation. We need a set of international open government data principles. Why? Because as the ‘open data‘ meme travels around the world – unlocking information from local, regional and national public bodies as it goes – we want to make sure that […]

UK Open Data Programme for 2011-12

The following guest post is from Andrew Stott, who sits on the UK Government’s Public Sector Transparency Board. In his former role as Director of Digital Engagement at the Cabinet Office, Andrew helped to set up the UK’s open data initiative. Today’s announcement about the next year of the UK Government’s Transparency and Open Data programme […]

Draft Bill on PSI access and reuse introduces openness of public information in Poland

The following post is from Theodora Middleton, Editor of the Open Knowledge Foundation blog. We’ve just heard from our friends at Centrum Cyfrowe in Poland, that the Polish Council of Ministers has adopted a draft bill amending the Bill on Access to Public Information and certain other laws. The amendments mean that all Public Sector […]

Release of DataCatalogs.org to map open data around the world

The following post is from Jonathan Gray, Community Coordinator at the Open Knowledge Foundation. We’re very pleased to announce an alpha version of datacatalogs.org, a website to help keep track of open data catalogues from around the world. The project is being launched to coincide with our annual conference, OKCon 2011. You can see the […]

What next for data journalism?

The following post is from Jonathan Gray, Community Coordinator at the Open Knowledge Foundation. We’re really exciting about our session on the future of data journalism at OKCon 2011 in Berlin. The session takes place on 30th June. From the blurb: In the past 2 years we have seen an explosion in the availability of […]

Launch of DonneesLibres.fr – Declaration on Open Data in France

The following post is from Jonathan Gray, Community Coordinator at the Open Knowledge Foundation. Several key open data organisations in France – including Regards Citoyens, Creative Commons France and Veni Vidi Libri – have clubbed together to draft a Declaration on Open Data in France: The declaration emphasises the importance of a legal and licensing […]

Open Government Data Camp 2011 is coming soon!

Open Government Data Camp 2011 is coming soon! You can find more at: We’re currently working with the excellent Centrum Cyfrowe Projekt:Polska to finalise logistics for the event, which is currently scheduled to take place on 21st October 2011. As with last year’s event, we will have lots of developers, designers, data journalists, public servants, […]

Who were the winners of Europe’s biggest open data competition?

The following post is from Jonathan Gray, Community Coordinator at the Open Knowledge Foundation. Today we’re pleased to announce the winners of the Open Data Challenge, Europe’s biggest open data competition. The 1st prizes for each category will be awarded later today by European Commission Vice President, Neelie Kroes at the Digital Agenda Assembly in […]