Blog

Open Knowledge Foundation CEO Catherine Stihler awarded OBE

Our chief executive Catherine Stihler has been awarded an OBE by Prince William, the Duke of Cambridge. She was recognised in the Queen’s Birthday Honours for her service to politics. Yesterday, Catherine took part in the investiture at Buckingham Palace, watched on by her proud family. Catherine said: “It was an immense honour to receive […]

A recap of the 2019 eLife Innovation Sprint

Over 36 hours, Jo Barratt and Lilly Winfree from Open Knowledge Foundation’s Frictionless Data team joined 60 people from around the world to develop innovative solutions to open science obstacles at the 2019 eLife Innovation Sprint. This quick, collaborative event in Cambridge, UK, on September 4th and 5th brought together designers, scientists, coders, project managers, […]

Frictionless Data at the EPFL Open Science in Practice Summer School

In early September our Frictionless Data for Reproducible Research product manager, Lilly Winfree, presented a workshop at the Open Science in Practice Summer School at EPFL University in Lausanne, Switzerland.  Lilly’s workshop focused on teaching early career researchers about using Frictionless software and specs to make their research data more interoperable, shareable, and open. The […]

Women in data can help tackle gender inequality

Encouraging more women and girls to learn data skills can help tackle gender inequality and build a more diverse society, a conference will hear today. Speaking at the annual ‘Doing Data Right’ conference in Edinburgh, Open Knowledge Foundation chief executive Catherine Stihler will call on governments to do more to engage young women in data […]

World Library Congress – Closing Libraries is ‘short-sighted’

Closing down libraries to save money is ‘one of the most short-sighted decisions that public officials can make’, the World Library and Information Congress has heard. Speaking at the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) annual congress in Athens, Open Knowledge Foundation chief executive Catherine Stihler said ‘libraries are too often seen as […]

EU must work harder to tackle disinformation

The European Union must work harder to tackle the spread of disinformation on the internet, the Open Knowledge Foundation has warned. In a letter to European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, chief executive Catherine Stihler has called for action to be ‘prioritised’ regarding online platforms that fail to do enough to tackle disinformation or do not fulfil […]

New Open Knowledge Foundation board chair and vice-chair appointed

The Open Knowledge Foundation is delighted to announce that Vanessa Barnett has been appointed as the new Chair of the Board of Directors, and Helen Turvey has been appointed as Vice-Chair. Vanessa Barnett said: “It is a great honour to be appointed Chair of the Open Knowledge Foundation, at an incredibly exciting time for the organisation. […]

UK Health Secretary challenged to tackle access to medicines

The Open Knowledge Foundation has written to Westminster Health Secretary Matt Hancock to demand the UK Government plays its role in addressing the global lack of access to medicines. The challenge comes after the UK disassociated itself from an international agreement aimed at reducing the cost of drugs across the world. The resolution at the World […]

The Sum of Our Parts – Open Organisations

This post was originally published by Open Data Charter. The “open” sector, encompassing organisations working on transparency, civic participation, and open data, has grown fast in many countries in the past decade, aided by political champions and a generous funding environment. Today, there is a sense of waning political interest amongst previous high-level advocates and an […]

EU Council backs controversial copyright crackdown

The Council of the European Union today backed a controversial copyright crackdown in a ‘deeply disappointing’ vote that could impact on all internet users. Six countries voted against the proposal which has been opposed by 5million people through a Europe-wide petition – Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Poland, Finland and Sweden. Three more nations abstained, but the […]

New report: Data journalism in Tanzania

Open Knowledge International and the School of Data are excited to announce the publication of a new research report into the state of data journalism in Tanzania. Data-driven journalism is an important and disruptive change in contemporary journalism practice. It is not a panacea solution to the fake news era, but it is a piece […]

EU copyright vote a ‘massive blow’ for internet users

MEPs have today voted to press ahead with a controversial copyright crackdown in a ‘massive blow’ for all internet users. Despite a petition with over 5 million signatures and scores of protests across Europe attended by tens of thousands of people, MEPs voted by 348 to 274 in favour of the changes. It is expected […]

Final copyright vote: MEPs must choose to save the internet

MEPs will today vote on a controversial copyright crackdown that could restrict internet freedoms for millions of people. After years of negotiation, the final vote will be held on reforms that could result in automatic ‘upload filters’ which restrict what can be posted on social media platforms like YouTube. More than 5.1million people have signed a […]

Facebook challenged to tackle the spread of ‘fake news’ ahead of vital European elections

Facebook’s global affairs boss Sir Nick Clegg has been challenged to tackle the spread of ‘fake news’ on Facebook ahead of vital European elections. Catherine Stihler, chief executive of Open Knowledge International and a former MEP, has written to the former Deputy Prime Minister to request more transparency from Facebook and its assistance in resuscitating […]

EU’s chilling copyright crackdown an ‘attack on openness’

EU negotiators have struck a deal over copyright reform that is an ‘attack on openness’, the new chief executive of Open Knowledge International has warned. Catherine Stihler, a former MEP and vice-chair of the European Parliament’s consumer protection committee, said the changes will restrict internet freedoms for millions of users. The agreement will require platforms such […]

Catherine Stihler appointed new CEO of Open Knowledge International

Catherine Stihler has been appointed as the new Chief Executive Officer of Open Knowledge International. Catherine has years of experience in the creation and sharing of knowledge on the global stage. She will join the OKI team in February, and will stand down as an MEP at the end of January after an extraordinary career […]

IODC 2018: The hard questions for the future of open data

The latest edition of  the International Open Data Conference (IODC) is just around the bend. We’ll be discussing open data during the entire week in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Through a series of pre-events, including symposiums, discussion panels and workshops as well as the main conference, we will discuss with open data practitioners, advocates, and researchers […]

Open Knowledge International needs a new CEO – Could this be you?

The space around us is changing and Open Knowledge International needs a CEO who can help refine our identity and mission in this changing context. We are looking for someone who is entrepreneurial, creative and can work out what open means today, turning our mission into reality. You will be able to harness our activist […]

Welcoming our new Open Knowledge International Board

We have a series of important announcements regarding our Open Knowledge International governance. With the organisation having been through significant developments over the past years, we are now at a point of stability, with good systems in place and great staff driving the mission. The current updates to our Board of Directors reflect the new […]

The Open Revolution: rewriting the rules of the information age

Rufus Pollock, the Founder of Open Knowledge International, is delighted to announce the launch of his new book The Open Revolution on how we can revolutionize information ownership and access in the digital economy. About the book Will the digital revolution give us digital dictatorships or digital democracies? Forget everything you think you know about […]

Season’s greetings from Open Knowledge International

Happy Holidays and Season’s Greetings to all of the Open Knowledge family and friends!! With the departure of the CEO at the end of October we have been busy aligning our roles to pick up the additional responsibility. As we start to reflect, it’s clear that 2017 has been a year of challenges and great […]

Paradise Lost: a data-driven report into who should be on the EU’s tax haven blacklist

Open Knowledge International coordinates the Open Data for Tax Justice project with the Tax Justice Network, working to create a global network of people and organisations using open data to improve advocacy, journalism and public policy around tax justice. Today, in partnership with the Tax Justice Network, we are publishing Paradise lost, a data-driven investigation […]

The future of the Global Open Data Index: assessing the possibilities

In the last couple of months we have received questions regarding the status of the new Global Open Data Index (GODI) from a few members of our Network. This blogpost is to update everyone on the status of GODI and what comes next. But first, some context: GODI is one of the biggest assessments of […]

OKFestival 2018  – It’s time for a competition!

Update 30 November 2017: Despite earlier announcements, Open Knowledge International have decided not to run OKFestival 2018. There have been some recent major changes in the organisation that have adversely affected our ability to produce a Festival which would match the expectations of our networks and partners. We are, obviously, disappointed by this decision but […]

Research call: Mapping the impacts of the Global Open Data Index

Note: The deadline for proposal submission has been extended until Sunday, 17 September, 21:00 UTC. The Global Open Data Index (GODI) is a worldwide assessment of open data publication in more than 90 countries. It provides evidence how well governments perform in open data publication. This call invites interested researchers and organisations to systematically study the effects […]

Podcast: Pavel Richter on the value of open data

This month Pavel Richter, CEO of Open Knowledge International, was interviewed by Stephen Ladek of Aidpreneur for the 161st episode of his Terms of Reference podcast. Aidpreneur is an online community focused on social enterprise, humanitarian aid and international development that runs this podcast to cover important topics in the social impact sector. Under the […]

New open energy data portal set to spark innovation in energy efficiency solutions

Viderum spun off as a company from Open Knowledge International in 2016 with the aim to provide services and products to further expand the reach of open data around the world. Last week they made a great step in this direction by powering the launch of the Energy Data Service portal, which will make Denmark’s energy […]

Open Knowledge Festival comes to Thessaloniki in 2018

Update 30 November 2017: Despite earlier announcements, Open Knowledge International have decided not to run OKFestival 2018. There have been some recent major changes in the organisation that have adversely affected our ability to produce a Festival which would match the expectations of our networks and partners. We are, obviously, disappointed by this decision but […]

Open data quality – the next shift in open data?

This blog post is part of our Global Open Data Index blog series. It is a call to recalibrate our attention to the many different elements contributing to the ‘good quality’ of open data, the trade-offs between them and how they support data usability (see here some vital work by the World Wide Web Consortium). […]

Announcing the 2017 International Open Data Day Mini-Grant Winners!

This blog was co-written by Franka Vaughan and Mor Rubinstein, OKI Network team. This is the third year of the Open Knowledge International Open Data Day mini-grants scheme, our best one yet! Building on last year’s lessons from the scheme, and in the spirit of Open Data Day, we are trying to make the scheme […]

Open Knowledge International receives $1.5 million from Omidyar Network

We’ve recently received funding from Omidyar Network, which will allow us to further our commitment to civil society organisations! Open Knowledge International has received a two-year grant amounting to $1.5 million from Omidyar Network to support the development and implementation of our new civil society-focused strategy. Running until the end of December 2018, this grant […]

Danish Energinet.dk will use CKAN to launch Energy DataStore – a free and open portal for sharing energy data

For immediate release Open data service provider Viderum is working with Energinet.dk, the gas and electricity transmission system operator in Denmark, to provide near real-time access to Danish energy data. Using CKAN, an open-source platform for sharing data originally developed by Open Knowledge International, Energinet.dk’s Energy DataStore will provide easy and open access to large […]

OpenTrialsFDA presents prototype as finalist for the Open Science Prize

For immediate release Open Knowledge International is thrilled to announce that the OpenTrialsFDA team is presenting its prototype today at the BD2K Open Data Science Symposium in Washington, DC as finalist for the Open Science Prize. The Open Science Prize is a global science competition to make both the outputs from science and the research […]

Openbudgets.eu launches collection of fiscal transparency tools for journalists and civil society organisations.

Berlin, November 21, 2016 – Today, the beta version of OpenBudgets is officially released to the public. The Horizon 2020-funded project seeks to advance transparency and accountability in the fiscal domain by providing journalists, CSOs, NGOs, citizens and public administrations with state-of-the-art tools needed to effectively process and analyze financial data. For the beta version, […]

OpenTrials launches beta version today at the World Health Summit

For immediate release Open Knowledge International is delighted to announce the launch of the public preview beta version of OpenTrials at a panel session on ‘Fostering Open Science in Global Health’ at the World Health Summit today, 10 October 2016, the world’s foremost forum for strategic questions of Global Health.  OpenTrials is an open, online database […]

New Open Knowledge Network chapters launched in Japan and Sweden

This month sees the launch of two new Chapters at the Open Knowledge Network, a chapter for Japan and a chapter for Sweden. Chapters are the Open Knowledge Network’s most developed form, which have legal independence from the organisation and are affiliated by a Memorandum of Understanding. For a full list of our current chapters, […]

Registration to the Open Exchange for Social Change – IODC unconference is now open!

We are excited to announce that registration is open for ‘The Open Exchange for Social Change’. This event has been referred to in the past as ‘The Unconference’ during the flurry of pre-event IOCD Madrid announcements made over the past few weeks.   The response has already been amazing on social media, and we have received […]

Announcing IODC Unconference

We all know the feeling of the end of a conference, where after long days full of content, you leave with more unanswered questions. Conferences are a great place for networking, learning different topics and sharing achievements (and sometimes even failures), but in their nature, they are organised in a way that is less participatory […]

OpenSpending Next – Now available as Alpha version

We’re happy to announce that a new, improved version of OpenSpending is now being launched as an Alpha Version. OpenSpending Next provides a set of tools enabling users to visualise, analyse and publish budget and spending data – all based on the open Fiscal Data Package standard. OpenSpending Next is designed, developed and maintained by […]

Addressing Challenges in Opening Land Data – Resources Are Now Live

Earlier this year, Open Knowledge International announced a joint-initiative with Cadasta Foundation to explore open data in property rights with the ultimate goal of defining the land ownership dataset for the Global Open Data Index. Now, we are excited to share some initial, ground-breaking resources that showcase the complexity of working at the intersection of […]

Introducing: MyData

this post was written by the OK Finland team What is MyData? MyData is both an alternative vision and guiding technical principles for how we, as individuals, can have more control over the data trails we leave behind us in our everyday actions. The core idea is that we, you and I, should have an […]

Open Knowledge International – our new name!

Notice something a little different? We have had a change of name! As of today, we officially move from being called “Open Knowledge” to “Open Knowledge International (OKI)”. “Open Knowledge International” is the name by which the community groups have referred to us for a couple of years, conveying our role in supporting the groups […]

Global Open Data Index Insights – Open Data in the Arab world

This blog post was written by Riyadh Al Balushi from the Sultanate of Oman. I recently co-authored with Sadeek Hasna a report that looks at the status of open data in the Arab World and the extent to which governments succeed or fail in making their data available to the public in a useful manner. We […]