On 5 August 2024, representatives from the Open Knowledge Network gathered at the Metallurgy Museum in Chorzów (Katowice, Poland) for a day of strategic thinking. The annual gathering is a special occasion, an opportunity for us to come together, share our knowledge, listen attentively, and forge meaningful connections. This gathering has been a way to embark on a journey of discovery, collaboration, and the creation of something greater than ourselves.
Who was there? The attendees of the meeting were Haydée Svab from Open Knowledge Brazil, Nikesh Balami from Open Knowledge Nepal, Charalampos Bratsas and Lazaros Ioannidis from Open Knowledge Greece, Beat Estermann from Opendata.ch, Poncelet Ileleji from Jokkolabs Banjul, Dénes Jäger from Open Knowledge Germany, Susanna Ånäs from Open Knowledge Finland, Sandra Palacios from BUAP, the regional coordinator for Europe Esther Plomp, and for OKFN Renata Ávila, Patricio del Boca, Lucas Pretti, and Sara Petti. The meeting was facilitated by Jérémie Zimmermann.
The date and location was strategically chosen so we could attend all together Wikimania 2024, which incidentally had collaboration as its main theme this year.
How we can increase collaborations within the Network (and beyond!) and how we can make those collaborations more effective is indeed something we talked about extensively during the gathering.
We are more and more convinced that in-person gatherings and celebrations of our movement provide excellent opportunities to break the silos and foster collaboration. Bring people together in a room, let them spend some time together, discuss the topics that are close to their heart, share their experience, and magic will happen. You don’t believe me? To date, projects and collaborations are born out of connections that were made at the mythical Open Knowledge Festivals a decade ago (Helsinki 2012, Berlin 2014). And blimey, how much do we need those celebrations in these gloomy days of decaying institutions, proliferation of disinformation, and corporate diktats!
We also asked ourselves how we could make collaborations more strategic, for example taking advantage of emerging topics and opportunities. And as someone reminded at one of the last Network calls, threats can be opportunities, so it’s worth it to have a look at what is there. We spent a considerable amount of time in Katowice delving into what we feel is threatening open knowledge at the moment, and therefore requires our attention.
We all agreed on the fact that large segments of people are still lacking the skills to build, use, or understand open data and open technologies, and are therefore excluded from benefiting from open resources, exacerbating existing inequalities and hindering the potential for widespread knowledge sharing. Limited access to quality education and digital literacy creates significant barriers to engaging with open knowledge. We have known this for a while, this is why the School of Data actually started more than a decade ago, but the gap is still there. We have discussed this during one of our last 100+ conversations. Can we do more?
Of course we all know there’s only so much we can do without funding. We acknowledged that open knowledge initiatives often struggle with insufficient funding, which limits our ability to develop, maintain, and scale sustainable projects. Without adequate resources, many open projects fail to reach their potential, leaving ground to well-funded proprietary solutions that prioritise control over accessibility.
The problem with funding is also linked to the fact that the funders’ agenda is often dominated by trends set by Big Tech, so we sometimes end up doing things because of those trends, instead of other things that we would be more willing to do, but halas don’t attract money. This is something we extensively talked about during a digital commons gathering in Berlin last year, if you are interested you can read the report Problematizing Strategic Tension Lines in the Digital Commons.
Big Tech is also imposing non-sustainable business models that prioritise profit over sustainability and a human-centric development, leading to closed ecosystems that lock users into proprietary platforms, stifle innovation in open-source alternatives, and undermine the broader goal of equitable access to knowledge. These business models concentrate power and resources in the hands of few, at the detriment of the many. One example of this? The concentration of data ownership by a few global entities, currently leading to data colonialism, where resources are extracted from communities without benefiting them. This creates a monoculture of knowledge production, controlled by monopolies that dictate who can access, use, or benefit from data, undermining local autonomy and diverse perspectives, and ultimately exacerbating social injustice. The exact opposite of what open knowledge stands for.
And since we are talking about the opposite of what open actually stands for, we are all very worried by the mis-use of the word “open”, associated with practices that are far from being open (need a little reminder of what open really is? Go and have a look at the Open Definition), what we commonly call open washing. This false openness can be weaponized, spreading misinformation or serving as propaganda or reinforcing a moral hegemony while distorting the general understanding of open knowledge and undermining genuine efforts toward transparency and accountability in open knowledge. Failing to understand what open really is can result in widespread misconceptions, for example the false idea that openness conflicts with personal privacy, security or data protection.
Last but not least, once again for this meeting some of our Network members were not able to join us because of restrictive immigration policies and closed borders for some. These barriers create inequities in who can contribute and benefit from open knowledge initiatives, reinforcing global inequalities and restricting the exchange of ideas.
After discussing what we felt are the most alarming threats to open knowledge, we reminded ourselves that threats can actually be opportunities, and therefore indulged in dreaming about how we could solve some of those challenges as a collective. Telling each other stories under the Polish blue sky, we started realising that story-telling is an essential part of the work we have to do. If we want to stay relevant, and convince people open knowledge is key in solving the most pressing issues of our time, we need to communicate more effectively our values, and we need to communicate them to a broader audience too, reach out to new people out there and bring them into our community. We need to remind people outside our bubble the benefits of open knowledge, such as transparency, collaboration, and innovation. Actually remind is not the right word. We have to tell them, because some of those outside our community actually don’t know.
So here’s our story about how we in the open movement solved the problems and faced the threats highlighted above as a collective. Hope you enjoy it. Note that this story is open ended, and you can contribute to its making if you want to.
The Tales of Jokkolandia
In 2024, Jokkolandia faced its darkest hour. Devastating floods, social unrest, and raging fires swept across the land, reducing everything to ruins—except for its people. Despite the chaos, the spirit of the Jokkolandians remained unbroken. They gathered together and decided to rebuild their country from scratch. This time, they would do it differently.
All resources were centralised, regulated by a diverse committee of young and old people. The elders, with their memories of what Jokkolandia once was, provided wisdom and perspective. The younger generation, brimming with fresh ideas, brought innovation and new energy. Together, they began a thorough process of revision, questioning what had worked in the past and what had failed. From these reflections, they designed a new society based on collaboration, where the community actively monitored technology, ensuring that it served the people rather than the other way around.
This crisis fostered an unshakeable bond of solidarity and accountability. In Jokkolandia, data governance became a collective responsibility, and every decision was made democratically. Institutions and infrastructure were rebuilt to nurture a participatory democracy, with the free movement of people across borders. There were no visas, and individuals from all over the world flocked to Jokkolandia, including members of the Open Knowledge Network, who found a welcoming home in this utopia. Health coverage was universal, and everyone had their basic needs met.
Rejecting the exploitative models of Big Tech, Jokkolandia built its own solutions. They developed their own digital public infrastructure (DPI), entirely homegrown, and collectively destroyed the stranglehold of tech monopolies. Open hardware and open knowledge became a way of life, and even the Zapatistas and Yanomami communities came together to build amazon.open, a digital interlocal infrastructure governed by local cooperatives. This network of interconnected nodes allowed people to trade resources and fulfill their needs in a decentralised and equitable way.
Meanwhile, the billionaires of the old world, now irrelevant, were sent to Mars, where their lives were broadcast as a satirical reality show. When their time on Mars was over, they returned to Earth with their fortunes devalued, joining the same cooperative nodes they had once dominated. Jokkolandia had achieved a society where knowledge was shared openly, and every individual could access what they needed to thrive. However, one challenge remained: how to dismantle the lingering power dynamics of “knowledge is power” and ensure true equality in the exchange of information.
Neighbouring Jokkolandia was Openlandia, a well-established democracy that had once been ruled by dinosaurs—figures clinging to outdated ideas and detached from the realities of their people. As they began losing popularity, the dinosaurs asked themselves a critical question: how could they stay relevant? The answer came through engaging young people. Inspired by the strategy of Humanitarian OpenStreetMap, they brought young minds into schools to map their local communities, addressing real, tangible problems like fixing broken infrastructure and improving connectivity.
The dinosaurs realised that to secure their future, they had to engage with the next generation and those with a multiplier effect—educators. They started working on the intersection of openness, education, and communication, creating compelling stories about how open knowledge could solve everyday issues. However, Openlandia still faced challenges in connectivity, particularly in rural areas, so they also embraced offline communication strategies, like local radio broadcasts, to reach everyone. Their focus on collective messaging helped restore their relevance, but a new question loomed: were they becoming the dinosaurs they had once fought to overcome?
As both Jokkolandia and Openlandia grappled with the future, the global community had made strides to overcome capitalism. The world had introduced a global basic income, curbing hyper-consumerism and redirecting military spending toward societal good. The rich were taxed heavily, and nationalistic spending was drastically reduced. Yet the question remained: how could we balance societal needs when it was impossible to bring everyone to the same level without overwhelming the planet’s resources?
Studies revealed that society was divided—some acted for the collective good, others for selfish reasons, and the majority simply followed the dominant trend. By establishing a cooperative society that managed resources transparently and equitably, Jokkolandia set a collective standard that most people naturally followed. But as this new world took shape, new questions emerged: What would be the nature of power in a society governed by cooperatives and open communities? And what kinds of problems would arise when collective governance met individual needs?
In this new age, Jokkolandia and its neighbours strived to answer these questions, continuously evolving as they sought to balance openness, fairness, and the complexities of human nature. The journey toward true equality, openness, and shared knowledge had only just begun.
Would you like to tell us your story? Drop us a line! And remember you can always join the Open Knowledge Network.
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Our Network connects activists and change-makers of the open knowledge movement from more than 40 countries around the world, who are advancing open and equitable access to knowledge for all everyday through their work.
We believe knowledge is power, and that with key information accessible and openly available, power can be held to account, inequality challenged, and inefficiencies exposed.
You can check all current members on the Network page and our Global Directory. Or browse through the Project Repository to find out what each member has been working on. For current updates, subscribe to Open Knowledge News, our monthly newsletter.
Our groups can always benefit from more friendly faces and fresh ideas — we will be happy to hear from you! Please contact us at network[at]okfn.org if you, as an individual or organisation, would like to be a part of Open Knowledge and join our global network.
