For those looking for yet another reason to join us for OKFestival in Helsinki this September, the OKFestival Core Organising Team is proud to announce the inspiring public outcomes of our unconventional First Call for Proposals – and to request your participation for our Second Call to share your ideas in Finland.

As we’ve noted previously, because OKFestival is the first event of its kind, combining Open Knowledge Conference and Open Government Data Camp together for a week-long celebration of action and collaboration, we decided to take a risk by opening up over 2/3 of the week’s programme to you as festival participants.

So last month, we released the First Call for Proposals, crossing our fingers expectantly as we did it. A few of us on the Core Organising Team (photo) were, admittedly, a tad worried – would global communities rise to the challenge? Or would we be left alone in cyberspace without even a programme to our name? We presented the festival to audiences at FREE CITY in Tallinn, at Re:Publica in Berlin and to local stakeholders in Finland. And we waited in anticipation.

In the end, we didn’t have to worry at all. The response to our First Call for Proposals was both overwhelming and encouraging. Open knowledge and data enthusiasts around the world did take the reins – and now, a month later, we have a groundbreaking, action-focused programme planned in co-operation with citizen teams of Guest Programme Planners all over the world. For a summary of the Open Knowledge Festival planning process in 14 slides, see our first Slideshare presentation here.

As you'll see above, the First Call for Proposals allowed the Core Organising Team to determine the most important themes and salient ideas, the subjects of which are highlighted through our 13 guest-organised Topic Streams of 2012:

1. Open Democracy and Citizen Movements
2. Open Government Data
3. Open Cities
4. Open Design, Hardware & Manufacturing
5. Open Cultural Heritage
6. Open Development
7. Open Research and Education
8. Open Geodata
9. Open Source Software
10. Data Journalism and Data Visualization
11. Gender / Diversity in Openness
12. Open Business and Corporate Data
13. Open Knowledge and Sustainability

The breadth of these topics is quite diverse - indeed, the variance is somewhat unprecedented for an event of this kind. Going through the topics above and learning more about how their Guest Programme Planners are determining the programming on the Public Planning Wiki, it's hard not to feel a sense of excitement about what's to come.

For the Second (and last!) Call for Proposals, we encourage ideas that further enrich each of these themes with new perspectives. We want your lightning talks, lectures, panel discussions, workshops, hackathons and all things in between. Let's fill Helsinki's streets with innovative new ideas, new collaborations between civil society and government, and new projects that provoke openness in unexpected ways.

It is our hope that together, these themes will illustrate the importance of diverse understandings within open knowledge and open data communities - and we look forward to seeing even more of you get involved in this inspiring process.

The Second Call for Proposals is here. Deadline for submission is June 1st - go to okfestival.org for details. And feel free to mix and remix the Slideshare presentation above for your own uses - it's meant to be shared!

Following the fun we had at March’s Meet-up ‘launch’, we will be having another gathering of people interested in open data next Wednesday 16th May. Hosted by the Wash Bar, Edinburgh, from 19.00, come and join us to discuss ideas, projects and plans in relation to openness.

Lightning Talks will include Federico Sangati on crowdsourcing and education, ahead of his presentation at Dev8ed later this month, and a sneak preview of the hackathon that Open Biblio will be running 12-14th June in collaboration with OKFN’s Open GLAM and Cultural Heritage Working Group and DevCSI.

If you would like to give a lightning talk (informal 2-3 minute presentations) about anything related to open data or knowledge, contact naomi.lillie [@] okfn.org.

Sign up here and we’ll see you there!



For this and other events in Edinburgh and the rest of Scotland, sign up here.

​ How do we measure social progress? Academics and international institutions have struggled with employing measures of human development which go beyond GDP per capita: education, health the the economy, but then what values do we attach to these?

In countries like Italy stark regional differences have dominated over time. Particularly in times of fiscal austerity when the country attempts to recover from an economic crisis with major social consequences, seeing how and why the South and the North differ is an important step in a consensus-building process to find solutions and realise collaboration with the citizens.

The Open Economics Working Group of the Open Knowledge Foundation released YourTopia Italia – an application which gives the users a chance to input their priorities in eight categories of socio-economic progress:

• Labour Market
• Education
• Health
• Environment and Energy
• Science and Research
• Household Income and Inequality
• Public Safety
• Social Life

Each category is comprised of sub-indicators e.g. Neighbourhood Safety, Income Inequality, Problems with Air Quality or Friends Networks. While the Northern regions fare rather well in most indicators, which are highly correlated with income per capita, Social Life seems to be better in the Italian South, where more people get married, fewer people separate and more people meet friends in their free time.

YourTopia Italia gives a chance to the user to adjust weights of their personal priorities and see how the map changes when some indicators are excluded altogether. A timeline visualisation also gives the perspective of how Italian regions have developed over time.

All YourTopias can be saved and shared through social media.

So, join our efforts: go to italia.yourtopia.net and define the YourTopia that reflects your vision of social progress!

The application was created with a dataset assembled from istat, and the source code of the application is released under an open license. This project is a result of a team work effort and follows up on ideas initiated during the Open Economics Hackday in January this year.

If you are at all familiar with the open textbook world, you’ve likely heard of the startup called Boundless Learning. Leveraging information in the public domain, as well as dipping into the enormous stockpile of learning that is Open Education Resources, Boundless Learning has a created a tool that hopes to eventually replace the traditional textbook model.

Just like “open” anything, however, Boundless Learning has not gone without its fair share of trouble from vested industry interests. Recently, the textbook publishing giant Pearson, along with MacMillan and Cengage, filed a complaint alleging copyright infringement. Even though Boundless Learning culls its information from material available to the public through Creative Commons licensing, the publishers allege that “Defendant [Boundless Learning] exploits and profits from Plaintiffs’ successful textbooks by making and distributing the free “Boundless Version” of those books in the hopes that it can later monetize the user base that it draws to its Boundless Web site. In short, to build its business on Plaintiff’s intellectual property rights.”

Boundless Learning, on the other hand, claims that the accusations are patently false. The startup states that it only uses information already in the public domain, and said in a Boston.com article, “you can’t copyright facts and ideas. When you look at educational information, it’s primarily facts and ideas.” Boundless Learning will soon send out a legal response, and has expressed disappointment that the textbook publishers didn’t communicate with Boundless Learning amicably before resorting to litigation.

So what does this mean for the open textbook movement? Can we expect more lawsuits of this nature against innovative businesses? For one, Boundless Learning has truly launched a paradigm-shifting product. Most open textbooks are presented to students in PDF format using e-readers and other devices. However, Boundless Learning has extended beyond just digitizing traditional books by offering more. Their content is distinctly interactive, and students may build upon Boundless Learning material in a way that closely resembles both Facebook and Wikipedia. You can study along with other students, help each other in the learning process, and do it all online. For free.

Lawsuits of this sort aren’t anything new, and it’s important for those of us who are believers in the open textbook movement that we understand what we’ll have to fight against to live in a more open society. While Boundless Learning may have been careless in copying the format of copyrighted textbooks, down to the pagination, it does offer a platform that is new, that goes beyond mere open versions of closed textbooks. It’s with this innovative spirit that we can effectively, legally, and affordably, make information available to all. The world is not yet open, but we can get it there.

This guest post is contributed by Katheryn Rivas, who writes on the topics of online university. She welcomes your comments at her email Id: katherynrivas87@gmail.com.

Last Friday (May 4), the Ministry of Planning in Brazil launched the final version of the Brazilian Open Data Portal. In line with the federal government policy to promote the use of free software in public administration, the portal was made using only free and open source tools. Among them is the Open Knowledge Foundation’s open-source data portal software CKAN. Moreover, the whole process of development of the portal was conducted with the participation of concerned citizens in an open way to promote open data.

Opening Data Openly

The development project of the Brazilian Open Data Portal takes the concept of social participation to the extreme. From the beginning, planning meetings and development forums were open to any interested citizen, announced in advance on open discussion lists and where possible relayed via live streaming video to the Internet (webcast) .

In each planning meeting, the development tasks were selected by a flexible development process, in which people present ideas of what they think is needed in small ticket records. At the end of the round, the tickets are grouped, categorized and prioritized. At the end of the meeting, the events were recorded in a publicly accessible wiki (INDA wiki), and a publicly visible task manager (Trac).

We engaged the participation of people from civil society and of civil servants, who collaborated in various ways. Some people were involved right through the process, while others made contributions along the way. We had contributions in the form of software development, design, and information architecture, among others. The latter began with an experimental “card sorting” conducted with the participants of the event Campus Party 2012 in Sao Paulo. This synergy between government and citizens working together for the common good is what we mean by open government.

The Portal has gone through several versions, but the most important are the first (a simple HTML page with a tagcloud of catalogue data), followed by its beta, a little more prepared and documented, and then the current version with a new set of features and extensive reference material and learning.

The dados.gov.br now has 78 data sets with 849 resources. These have mostly been catalogued based on a survey of data that public bodies already publish on the Internet, but that until then were scattered and lacked a central access point where the public could find them. They are, however, the tip of the iceberg compared to what there is to be opened around public data in Brazil.

Recognizing this and the urgency in meeting the new law on access to information, the Secretariat for Logistics and Information Technology is preparing a workshop to guide public bodies, on how to include their data in the catalogue. This will take place in early June.

The portal is part of a larger project called the National Infrastructure Open Data – INDA. The general idea of ​​INDA is to establish technical standards for open data, promote training and support public bodies in the task of publishing open data. This entire process is done through intra-government cooperation and cooperation between government and citizens, always aiming to achieve a real platform for open government.

The Open Knowledge Foundation’s Open Biblio group, and Working Group on Open Data in Cultural Heritage, along with DevCSI, present BiblioHack: an open Hackathon to kick-start the summer months. From Wednesday 13th – Thursday 14th June, we’ll be meeting at Queen Mary, University of London, East London, and any budding hackers are welcome, along with anyone interested in opening up metadata and the open cause – this free event aims to bring together software developers, project managers, librarians and experts in the area of Open Bibliographic Data. A workshop will run alongside the coding on the 13th, and a meet-up on the evening of the 12th is open to all whether you’re attending the Hackathon or not.

What is BiblioHack?

BiblioHack will be two days of hacking and sharing ideas about open bibliographic metadata.

There will be opportunities to hack on open bibliographic datasets and experiment with new prototypes and tools. The focus will be on building things and improving existing systems that enable people and institutions to get the most of bibliographic data.

If you’re a non-coder there are sessions for you too. We will be running a hands-on workshop addressing the technical aspects to opening up cultural heritage data looking at best of breed open source tools for doing that, preparing your data for a hackathon and the best standards for storing and exposing your data to make it more easily re-used.

When and where?

• The main hackathon will take place over two days between 13th and 14th June at Queen Mary University of London
• On the morning of the 13th June we’ll be running the workshop addressed at the technical challenges to opening up metadata. So for those unable to participate in the hack due to time constraints or lack of coding know how – this is for you!
• On the 12th June – Tuesday evening (details TBC but will be a pub in central / east London!) – we’ll also be hosting a meet-up for anyone attending the hack and open data more generally. Whether it’s open bibliographic data, spending or government data that floats your boat all tribes are welcome!

Who is organising the event?

• Open Biblio – emphasising the utilisation of tools we’ve developed. We will be focussing on our existing tools and software, the most recent updates of which are available here: front-end BibServer / BibSoup, BibJSON, back-end BibServer
• Open Knowledge Foundation’s Working Group on Open Data in Cultural Heritage and Open GLAM
• DM2E – a new EU funded project devoted to enabling more cultural institutions integrate their collections into Europeana
• DevCSI – encouraging diverse thinking around software development and technical innovation

Who else is involved?

We’ve already lined up a whole host of speakers and groups who’ll be attending both the hack and the workshop. The list so far includes UK Discovery, CKAN, Europeana, Total Impact, Neontribe, The British Library with many more to be added in the coming days…

You’re giving your time and expertise – what do you get if you attend the whole hack?

• Accommodation at QMUL overnight on the 13th
• Food and drink across the 3 days
• The chance to work with experts in their fields
• Admiration and respect from your peers
• We could expound at length, but… go on, you know you want to (it’s free!)

How can I sign up?

• Register here for the 2 day hack
• Register here for workshop only
• Register here for Meet-up only

Please note, if you wish to attend all 3 events you should sign up for each, and the Workshop will run in parallel with the hacking on the morning of the 13th.

More questions?

Contact Naomi Lillie on admin [@] okfn.org.

See you there!

The next #OpenDataCBG meet-up will take place this Monday 14th May, at 7pm in the Panton Arms. Sign up now!

OpenDataCBG is back for its third bi-monthly meet-up!

The previous two meet-ups have been a huge success, with almost thirty people squeezing into the function room of the Panton Arms for an evening of talks, discussion and socialising.

On Monday 14th May we will gather in the Panton Arms from around 7pm, to get in a round of drinks before lightning talks kick-off at 7:30pm.

Give a talk

Confirmed to speak so far we have Tom Oinn, who will be giving a lively talk about Overtone, featuring a live demo of ‘things that change colour and go beep’.

There is still space for a couple more talks, so get in touch asap if you’d like to get involved.

Lightning talks are short 2-3 minute presentations on any topic related to open data. The talks are relaxed and informal, and anyone is welcome to join in! Contact laura.newman [@] okfn.org for more details.

Get involved

Whatever your interests – whether government, science, cultural heritage, hardware, design, transport, or something else entirely! – you are sure to find like-minded people eager to discuss your ideas and share their own.

Sign-up on our meet-up page and tweet using the #OpenDataCBG hashtag.

If you live in or near Cambridge, we hope to see you next week!

The Open Knowledge Foundation are currently recruiting for a Data Wrangler and a Data Visualisation Developer. If you’d like join our team, please visit our jobs page.

At the Open Knowledge Foundation, we build tools and communities to create, use and share open knowledge – and to help others to do the same. In recent months, we have become involved in a growing number of open data projects, and two new positions have now been created within our team.

We are seeking two data experts to join us as a Data Wrangler and a Data Visualisation Developer. Read on to find out more about what the roles involve.

Data Wrangler

We’re looking for a data wrangler who is excited to tell stories through data. You will work on various datasets, to understand them and to tell their story to a broader audience. You will also be involved in training efforts, creating and teaching courses in data analysis to technical and non-technical audiences.

Your role will be exciting and varied, and will include:

• Work on the School of Data, building learning challenges and course content (see our previous post for more information on the School)
• Research for our new data blog, coming soon.
• Collaborations with our Working Groups, for example the Working Group on Open Economics
• Work on OpenSpending, one of our flagship projects.

Skills

We are open to people from a wide variety of backgrounds; whether coding, visualisation, journalistic, statistical or otherwise. We are seeking someone who has:

• Experience in data analysis and statistical methods
• Experience with data cleansing, ETL patterns
• Good written communication skills
• Experience with R/Stata/SPSS
• Coding skill in a modern script language, e.g. Python, Javascript.
• Basic skills in information/data visualization

If that sounds like you, please visit our jobs page to find out more.

Data Visualisation Developer

As a Data Visualisation Developer, much of your time will be spent on our flagship OpenSpending project.

OpenSpending is about mapping the money. We want to make government finances accessible to advocates, journalists and citizens. Our goal is to collect budgeting information from across the world and to present it in a form that promotes understanding, analysis and participation. Some of the questions we ask are:

• How much is government spending on health? Is expenditure growing or shrinking? How does this translate into results?
• What are the proportions of different government programmes? What is spending on prisons compared to schools? How much is Ghana spending on education compared to Nigeria?
• How much tax do I pay into which area of government?

Our day-to-day work has many facets. We work on the core platform, undertake journalistic projects as part of “Spending Stories”, which won the Knight News Challenge in 2011, and work with organizations and civic activists world-wide to set up local budget transparency projects.

Your role with us

You’ll help us to create new visualizations to answer spending questions through meaningful, visual narration.

Skills we’re looking for:

• Strong visual design skills
• HTML5/Javascript visualisation experience
• Familiarity with several visualization toolkits (e.g. D3, Raphael)
• Experience with cross-browser compatibility
• Plus (but optional): Knowledge of Python

Basically: send us some demos of good stuff you’ve done.

Come and join us!

For more information, please email jobs [@] okfn.org. Applicants should send a CV and covering letter/email to jobs [@] okfn.org, highlighting their relevant skills and suitability for the job. If you’re interested in the Data Visualisation job, we would also be keen to see some demos of your work.

On Saturday 29th April, at the International Journalism Festival in Perugia – 6 months of work on the Data Journalism Handbook was unveiled: the Data Journalism Handbook was launched.

The Handbook contains contributions from over 70 of the world’s leading data journalists.

The book’s contributors are a “who’s who of data journalism”, says Simon Rogers from the Guardian. There are pieces by data journalists and data wranglers from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, the BBC, the Chicago Tribune, Deutsche Welle, the Guardian, the Financial Times, Helsingin Sanomat, La Nacion, the New York Times, ProPublica, the Washington Post, the Texas Tribune, Verdens Gang, Wales Online, Zeit Online and many many more from across the globe.

It is now freely available online at datajournalismhandbook.org and a print version is from O’Reilly can be pre-ordered and will be available as an e- and print book within the month.

The book was launched in the session ‘You too can be a Data Journalist’ and we hope it will inspire budding data journalists to try data journalism out for size. If you missed it, or any of the other sessions at the festival, check out this Storify (abridged below) for highlights, videos and the crib sheets from the sessions.

Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-S0627-0300 / CC-BY-SA

During the re:publica (Germanys biggest Internet-related conference, which is increasingly international) we will host three little Meetups. From May 2nd to 4th we will be waiting for you at the Wikimedia Tent at 6:15 PM CEST. We will have a space to relax, chat and discuss new ideas, cool talks and new projects. To enter, you will need a valid re:publica Ticket. Check out our Wiki for more details.

After the re:publica Hangout, we will meet at the new office of Wikimedia Germany on May 8th at 6.00pm for our regular monthly meetup. We will speak with some people from the newly formed Wikidata-Allstar Team to learn about this new and exciting project. Also OKFN’s Joris Pekel will tell us more about the Open GLAM activities of the Open Knowledge Foundation. Check our Wiki for more details on this too!

See you guys in Berlin!