🚀 Trustworthy AI for the Open Data Ecosystem – OKFN Newsletter End-of-Year 2025

Hello Open Knowledge community,

As December invites reflection and planning, we are sharing with you today OKFN’s Annual Report 2025 – an accessible, month-by-month overview of our work over the past year. We demonstrated that technology can be done differently and explored open and commons-based governance mechanisms and tools to democratise data and AI. Check it out!

Over the past few weeks, we have announced a series of partnerships.

Together with the Patrick J. McGovern Foundation, we will build four hands-on pilots and multilingual AI literacy curricula, while advancing trustworthy AI in the global open data ecosystem.

Together with OpenForum Europe and the Open Source Initiative, we are creating the Open Technology Research Network (OTRN), a hub for advancing research on openness and its intersections with various sectors of society.

Together with datHere, we will develop shared services and co-design project proposals around CKAN to strengthen the landscape of open, interoperable data across public and private sectors.

We have also engaged in numerous in-person interactions with both new and existing allies. We travelled to Brazil to attend two significant events on the global digital infrastructure agenda. In Rio de Janeiro, we took part in the OpenForum Academy Symposium, advocating for DPI governance as a commons and sharing the process of developing version 3 of the Open Definition. In Brasília, we attended the annual meeting of the Digital Public Goods Alliance (DPGA) as members, articulating the adoption of the two DPGs we maintain: CKAN and Open Data Editor.

Today’s newsletter also features our newly released videos, which explain in plain language what CKAN and Open Data Editor do and how they generate impact. We have also gathered experiences from our communities in South Africa, Cambodia and Ghana, and we invite you to participate in the launch meeting for Open Data Day 2026.

You can also read the conversation with biostatistician and epidemiologist Travis Gerke as part of the 100+ Conversations project. He discusses the barriers to open science, the promise and pitfalls of AI, and why we need to rethink how we share health data.

Enjoy the reading, and wishing you a restful end-of-year break.

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In 2025, we demonstrated that technology can be done differently: in an open, long-lasting, resilient and affordable way, to solve people’s problems. It was a turbulent and monothematic year, with a great deal of noise surrounding the AI bubble. We also embraced this trend, but in our own way: we explored open and commons-based governance mechanisms and tools to democratise data and AI.

Check out our report for a quick overview of our strategic objectives in videos and the top moments of Open Knowledge in 2025.

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Strategic Funding to Enhance Sector-specific AI Literacy and Develop Trustworthy AI for Open Data 

We are excited and grateful to announce an important initiative for the next year, with the generous support of the Patrick J. McGovern Foundation (PJMF). To tackle the need for applied AI literacy in high-impact social sectors and bridging open data and trustworthy AI, we will develop four hands-on pilots and multilingual, theme-based AI literacy curricula with partners from civil society, and, in parallel, pilot the collaborative development of a Model Context Protocol (MCP) for CKAN, enabling AI-generated responses to be fully traceable back to their source datasets.

We are excited to continue working in 2026 to strengthen the digital infrastructure and capacities that give communities power over the systems that affect their lives.

↪ Read the full announcement

A Strategic Partnership to Advance Open Technology Research 

Open Knowledge Foundation (OKFN), OpenForum Europe (OFE) and Open Source Initiative (OSI) are joining forces to strengthen the global open technology research community and advance evidence-based policymaking around open technologies. Starting 2026, the Open Technology Research Network (OTRN) will provide a platform for coordinated research, joint collaboration, joint fundraising, improvement of dataset quality and accessibility, and knowledge exchange.

The partnership will focus on three key areas:

• Joint collaboration around a shared research agenda
• The development of the Open Technology Research Network (OTRN)
• Co-organisation of a reimagined annual symposium building on the legacy of the OpenForum Academy Symposium

The announcement was made during the OpenForum Academy (OFA) Symposium in Rio, where Renata Ávila and Ramya Chandrasekhar presented discussions relevant to the open movement, such as governing Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) as commons and a global, inclusive process to develop version 3 of the Open Definition.

Our journey started with a content partnership that turned into a co-leadership of the research network. We are excited to see this initiative unveiled in 2026.

↪ Read the full announcement

Strengthening Open, FAIR, AI-Ready Data Infrastructure Powered by CKAN

Open Knowledge Foundation (OKFN) and datHere have established a new partnership to advance open standards and AI-ready data infrastructure tooling, standards and practices. A core pillar of the partnership is the shared commitment to CKAN, the industry-standard solution for publishing, managing and making data Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable (FAIR).

↪ Read the full announcement

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CKAN and Open Data Editor showcased at the Annual Members Meeting of the Digital Public Goods Alliance

The Open Knowledge Foundation attended and took an active role in the activities around the Annual Member Meeting of the Digital Public Goods Alliance, alongside 22 governments. Latin America led the discussion, with Brazil launching the first National Center for Digital Public Goods (CNBPD) hosted in the University of Paraná and dedicated to coordinating national initiatives to support free software, open technologies, and digital public goods.

Many of the sessions OKFN cohosted, together with the Government of Brazil, the Government of Singapore, the Government of the Dominican Republic and the Interamerican Development Bank, were mainly focused on the urgent work across all DPIs to invest in data infrastructure, open standards and data quality, before they embark on more complex efforts to incorporate AI. Without robust data governance, standards, tools and capacities for data quality, all AI efforts fall apart.

We also collaborated on conversations about the privacy, sustainability, and scalability of DPGs, and how an exit to the commons could be a viable strategy for many DPGs used intensively across governments and public interest institutions, which could maintain and inform better the tech roadmaps and localisation efforts in different economic and social realities.

In partnership with an observer, OKFN also started an expert dialogue on open knowledge as a design principle for digital public infrastructures in collaboration with the Wikimedia Foundation. This conversation will continue across regions in the upcoming year.

The Open Knowledge Foundation renewed its commitment to the shared vision of the Digital Public Goods Alliance, forging new partnerships, solidifying old ones and moving from talk to action as we plan the year ahead.

Meet Open Knowledge’s
Digital Public Goods

We celebrate the Digital Commons European Digital Infrastructure Consortium, a model built for sharing

OKFN welcomes the announcement by the European Commission on the creation of the Digital Commons European Digital Infrastructure Consortium (DC-EDIC). It is a hopeful moment for Europe, where the values of thousands of communities that have worked for years in a different way of doing and governing technology, openness, cooperation and democracy, are finally listened to. This is a milestone moment, finally translating years of ideas and words into concrete action. Europe is showing that technology can be built and governed differently: openly, collaboratively, and with people at its heart.

↪ Read the full statement

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Save the date and start preparing your Open Data Day 2026 event

Make the most of the end-of-year break and strategic planning season to plan your Open Data Day event. As always, it will take place during the second week of March (7-13), when the global open data community will come together to share resources, learn from each other and advocate the power of open data. You can now register on the website and map.

↪ Register your event here

A new action plan for Frictionless Data

Our work around Frictionless Data was reactivated through a community call in November. The new community manager, Renu Kumari, led the meeting where an action plan for 2026 was agreed upon after a presentation about the Zenodo integration to Data Package by Evgeny Karev. The plan includes updating the documentation of the specification and getting the software up to the current version of the standards.

↪ Watch the recording

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Over the last few months, we published another round of use cases from real organisations that have incorporated Open Data Editor into their workflow.

Be inspired by these examples, download ODE, learn how to use the app, and start streamlining your data work right now.

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Travis Gerke: ‘Academia is still very supportive of the singular hero scientist. But most things take teams’

Biostatistician and epidemiologist Travis Gerke joins the 100+ Conversations project to discuss the barriers to open science, the promise and pitfalls of AI, and why we need to rethink how we share health data.

↪ Read the conversation

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OKFN is seeking a part-time consultant to fill a Project Manager role. The successful candidate will support the development of an open data infrastructure portal designed to address the challenges posed by AI. The project will involve significant software design and delivery, so a good technical understanding and the ability to manage technology projects are essential.

↪ Apply here (before 26th December)

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Check out the latest highlights from our global movement.

🇧🇷 Open Knowledge Brazil was in Belém (PA) for COP30. As members of the civil society organisations of the Brazilian delegation, we had access to the Blue Zone, where official negotiations happened. While there, Haydée Svab, Executive Director of OKBR, participated in a panel organised by the Brazilian Office of the Comptroller General (CGU) with other ministers.

We were also among the organisations responsible for Casa do Jornalismo Socioambiental, an unprecedented initiative that brought together Brazilian journalists, specialists, and media outlets from across the country in an alliance to expand coverage and amplify voices on the Amazon, climate, and the environment during the event.

OKBR was also at the Amazon Climate Hub for the launch of a new research report titled “She pays the climate bills: how women-headed homes bear the hidden costs of the climate crisis.” Conducted by Hivos and local partners in Brazil (OKBR among them) and Zambia, the research aimed to better understand how climate change is reshaping daily life, budgets, emotional well-being, and survival strategies.

🇪🇸 In Spain, the Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales (MNCN) launched the climate open data sculpture, installed for an initial 2-year public exhibition run. In Madrid, the Usera Tangible Data Lab brought together neighbors to explore local urban-sustainability challenges (air quality, mobility, public space) using participatory activities built on open data.

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Save the dates!

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