Global Open Data Index 2014: Reviewing in progress

October was a very exciting month for us in the Index team. We spoke to so many of you about the Index, face to face or in the virtual world, and we got so much back from you. It was amazing for us to see how the community is pulling together not only with submissions, but also giving advice in the mailing list, translating tweets and tutorials and spreading the word of the Index around. Thank you so much for your contributions.

This is the first time that we have done regional sprints, starting from the Americas in early October in AbreLATAM/ConDatos, through to our community hangout with Europe and MENA, and finishing off with Asia, Africa and Pacific. On Thursday last week, we hosted a Hangout with Rufus, who spoke about the the Index, how it can be used and where it is headed. We were also very lucky to have Oscar Montiel from Mexico, who spoke with us how they use the Index to demand datasets from the government and how they are now implementing the local data index in cities around Mexico so they can promote data openness at the municipal level. We were also excited to host Oludotun Babayemi from Nigeria, who explained how Index that involves Nigeria can help them to promote awareness in government and civilians to open data issues.

Now that the sprints are over, we still have a lot of work ahead of us. We are now reviewing all of the submissions. This year, we divided the editor role from 2014 into two roles known as ‘contributor’ and ‘reviewer’. This has been done so we can have a second pair of eyes to to ensure information is reliable and of excellent quality. Around the world people a team of
reviewers are working on the submissions from the sprints. We are still looking for reviewers for South Africa, Bangladesh, Finland, Georgia, Latvia, Philippines and Norway. You can apply to become one here.

We are finalising the Index 2014 over the next few weeks. Stay tuned for more updates. In the meantime, we are also collecting your stories about participating in the Index for 2014. If you would like to contribute to these regional blogs, please email emma.beer@okfn.org. We would love to hear from you and make sure your country is represented.