Openness and transparency are key to solving the COVID-19 crisis.
The open sharing of data will help ensure public trust, encourage the restoration of public confidence in experts in the era of populism, and ultimately help lead to a vaccine to defeat the virus.
The Open COVID Pledge – a project of an international coalition of scientists, technologists, and legal experts – has been created to push for greater openness and transparency in the face of this crisis.
The project has called on companies, universities and other organisations to remove barriers to the use of intellectual property with the potential to help end and mitigate the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The mission of the Open Knowledge Foundation is to create a more open world – a world where all non-personal information is open, free for everyone to use, build on and share; and creators and innovators are fairly recognised and rewarded.
As the originators of the Open Definition which set out principles that define “openness” in relation to data and content, we wholeheartedly endorse the aims of this project and are happy to add the Open Knowledge Foundation as a supporter.
Find out more about how you can support the Open COVID Pledge at opencovidpledge.org/support.
Stephen Abbott Pugh was content development manager for the Open Knowledge Foundation.
