European Open Data Summit

Last week was the first European Open Data Summit in Brussels (which we blogged about here) organised by EU Transparency, who created farmsubsidy.org. The event brought together journalists, researchers, civic hackers, and representatives from European institutions for two days of documenting and building on documents and datasets from European institutions and member states. At the […]

CKAN package party and general online meetup: Saturday 16th May 2009

We’re planning another CKAN package party + general OKFN online meetup for Saturday 16th of May. It’s a general meetup but with a focus on CKAN packaging so feel free to come and chat about anything open knowledge related — everyone and anyone is welcome. When: Saturday 16th May 2009, 1430-1730 BST (1330-1630 GMT, 0930-1230 […]

5th Communia Workshop: Post-Event Information + Statement

The 5th Communia Workshop took place last month at the London School of Economics. It brought together researchers, policy-makers, stakeholders and representatives from across Europe, the United States and Australia for two days of talks and discussions about reusing public sector content and data. In the afternoon of the first day, participants co-drafted a simple […]

European Open Data Inventory

We’re currently working on a European Open Data Inventory: This is an inventory of EU-relevant datasets that is being compiled by EU Transparency, the NGO that made farmsubsidy.org and the Open Knowledge Foundation. It includes data that is already available, as well as data that we know exists but is not published – from budget […]

Open Everything NYC, 18th April 2009

In the past, we have been involved in Open Everything London and Open Everything Berlin. John Britton, who organised Open Everything Hong Kong, is now organising an Open Everything NYC event which will take next Saturday 18th April. It should be a great opportunity to meet other people interested in ‘openness’ – from open knowledge […]

Open Knowledge Conference (OKCon) 2009: Saturday 28th March

Open Knowledge Conference (OKCon) 2009 will take place next Saturday 28th March – less than a week away! where: Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis, UCL, London when: 28th March 2009, 1030-1830 home: http://www.okfn.org/okcon/ register: http://www.okfn.org/okcon/register/ If you plan to attend, and haven’t registered yet – we encourage you to book your ticket now as space […]

5th COMMUNIA Workshop: Programme Details

The 5th COMMUNIA Workshop will take place in London next week – on the 26-27th March. There’s a great programme of speakers – and details of which are below. There are a handful of tickets left – so if you’d like to come along, make sure and register now! If you aren’t able to make […]

Akvo: open knowledge project for water and sanitation

Akvo is a project to share tools and resources related to water and sanitation: Akvo creates and shares internet tools that help to provide clean water and proper sanitation to those who today have none. We help everyone share knowledge, match more projects to funds, and simplify reporting. We work with people around the world […]

Open Everything Berlin + CC Salon Berlin

After the success of open everything Berlin last December (see documentation), the newthinking network and CC Salon Berlin teamed up to put on another event in Berlin last night: CC Salon Berlin and openeverything focus – Feb. 26 (CC Blog) openeverything focus + CC Salon (Michelle Thorne’s blogpost) I was invited to speak – and […]

BarCamp UKGovWeb 2009

Last Saturday was BarCamp UKGovWeb at the Ministry of Justice. There were plenty of new faces in addition to the usual suspects! Three sessions that we found particularly interesting: Directgov and Innovation: Directgov have launched a new innovate part of their site, and are keen on supporting innovation around government data (mashups, services, etc.) from […]

Open Knowledge Conference (OKCon) 2009: London, 28th March 2009

where: Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis, UCL, London when: 28th March 2009, 1030-1830 home: http://www.okfn.org/okcon/ programme: http://www.okfn.org/okcon/programme register: http://www.okfn.org/okcon/register/ call for proposals: http://www.okfn.org/okcon/cfp/ last year: http://www.okfn.org/okcon/2008/ The Open Knowledge Conference (OKCon) is back for its fourth installment bringing together individuals and groups from across the open knowledge spectrum for a day of discussions workshops. This […]

Photographing public domain works – Wikipedia Loves Art launches on Sunday!

This coming Sunday 1st February will be the first day of Wikipedia Loves Art – which will run until the end of the month. The event will see cultural heritage institutions around the world open up their doors for the public to take pictures of items in their collections that have passed into the public […]

What Obama can do to promote openness

With the inauguration of US President-Elect Barack Obama later today – we thought we’d prepare a brief list of things he can do to promote openness in his new role. Open government data. Make core government data open (as in opendefinition.org) – so that it can be re-used in mashups, visually represented, used in semantic […]

OKF joins COMMUNIA network!

We’re pleased to announce that (subject to final confirmation) the Open Knowledge Foundation is now a member of the EU funded COMMUNIA network, which is “the European Thematic Network on the Digital Public Domain”. (We blogged about the first workshop in January and the third workshop in October.) As it says on the goals page: […]

Open Everything Berlin, Saturday 6th December 2008

After the success of Open Everything London a few weeks ago, we’re now involved in putting on Open Everything Berlin, which will take place in early December. It will be a great opportunity to meet people interested in open knowledge, open source software, and so on. Details are as follows: When: Saturday 6th December 2008 […]

After the Workshop on Open Scientific Resources

The Workshop on Finding and Re-using Open Scientific Resources (cf. last week’s announce) took place on Saturday at the London Knowledge Lab. The day started with a discussion of various aspects of openness in educational and research materials – alluding to open access, open data and the Open Knowledge Definition. This was followed by brainstorming […]

Workshop on Finding and Re-using Open Scientific Resources, Saturday 8th November

As we announced earlier this month, tomorrow is our Workshop on Finding and Re-using Open Scientific Resources. As a concrete outcome of the workshop, we hope to add more open scientific resources to CKAN, as we did last Saturday in the Workshop on Public Information and which we’ve blogged about in the past. So far, […]

After the Workshop on Public Information

On Saturday was the Workshop on Finding and Re-using Public Information (which we blogged about last week). We had very positive feedback from participants, and we’ll certainly consider doing something similar again in the future. There was representation from across the board – from local government to European policy analysts, from civic society to commercial […]

Open Everything London: Speakers Confirmed

We’re pleased to announce that the main speakers for Open Everything London (on next Thursday 6th November) have now been confirmed: Glyn Moody “… a technology writer. He is best known for his book Rebel Code: Linux and the Open Source Revolution (2001). It describes the evolution and significance of the free software and open […]

Workshop on Finding and Re-using Public Information, Saturday 1st November

As we blogged a few weeks back we’re putting on a workshop on ‘Finding and Re-using Public Information’, co-organised with the Office of Public Sector Information (OPSI), the Power of Information (POI) Taskforce and mySociety. Its coming up this Saturday! Details are as follows: When: Saturday 1st November 2008, 1030-1600 Where: London Knowledge Lab, 23-29 […]

Second open textbook virtual meeting, 27th October

A reminder that a second open textbook virtual meeting will take place tomorrow: When: Monday 27th October 2008, 1800 GMT, 1300 EST or 1100 PST Where: #okfn channel at oftc.net Wiki: http://okfn.org/wiki/opentextbooks If you would like to participate you can connect using a web-based service such as Mibbit (click here to join the channel via […]

Third COMMUNIA Workshop – Marking the public domain

The third COMMUNIA workshop ‘Marking the public domain: relinquishment & certification’ (which we mentioned last week) took place in Amsterdam on Monday and Tuesday. It brought together COMMUNIA members and other relevant parties from across Europe for talks and workshops focusing on legal issues related to the public domain, and how public domain works can […]

Open Access Day 2008

As many of you will have gathered, 14th October 2008 was Open Access Day. Peter Suber (of Open Access News and on the OKF’s Advisory Board) and Gavin Baker have provided an 8 page roundup of some of the comments on OA from around the world (1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8). You […]

Open Everything London, 6th November 2008

As you may know, we’ve been involved in co-organising Open Everything London with the Young Foundation, the Shuttleworth Foundation and Open Business. We’re pleased to say that details are now confirmed… When: Thursday 6th November, 0900-1730 and then drinks afterwards… Where: The Roundhouse, Chalk Farm Road, London NW1 8EH (map) Wiki: http://openeverything.wik.is/London Cost: £15 donation […]

Workshop on Finding and Re-using Open Scientific Resources, 8th November 2008

We’re pleased to announce another OKF workshop in London this November – on ‘Finding and Re-using Open Scientific Resources’. As a concrete outcome of the workshop, we hope to add more open scientific resources to CKAN, which is something we’ve blogged about in the past. Details of the workshop are as follows: When: Saturday 8th […]

Workshop on Finding and Re-using Public Information, 1st November 2008

We are pleased to announce a workshop on ‘Finding and Re-using Public Information’, co-organised with the Office of Public Sector Information (OPSI), the Power of Information (POI) Taskforce and mySociety. Details are as follows: When: Saturday 1st November 2008, 1030-1600 Where: London Knowledge Lab, 23-29 Emerald Street, London, WC1N 3QS. (See map.) Wiki: http://okfn.org/wiki/PublicInformation Participation: […]

After the open textbook virtual meeting

On Monday we hosted a virtual meeting on open textbooks. A transcript of the meeting is up on the wiki page. There is also a brief writeup on Wikibooks News. Several things to come out of the meeting: There was general agreement that it would great if people interested in and working with open textbooks […]

Open textbook virtual meeting today!

A final reminder for our open textbook meeting later today. Details from the wiki page: This will be an online meeting for anyone interested in open textbooks – including students, educators, authors, activists, funders, policy makers, distributors and publishers. The event will be an opportunity for people who work in this area to present projects, […]

Open textbook virtual meeting, 29th September 2008

In addition to our Open Text Book project, we’re very interested in the creation, distribution, use and re-use of open textbooks. We’ve arranged a virtual meeting later this month for anyone interested. Details are as follows: When: Monday 29th September, 1000 PST, 1800 BST or 1900 CEST Where: #okfn IRC channel at oftc.net. To join […]

Moving forward with Open Science in Europe

Last week I went to the Institut d’Estudis Catalans in Barcelona for the Euroscience Open Forum Satellite Event organised by Science Commons. The event brought together together lawyers, scientists, policy makers, stakeholders and representatives from many different groups and organisations interested in open access and open data in scientific research from across Europe. The event […]

Open Tech 2008

We’ll be presenting at Open Tech 2008 which takes place next Saturday (5th July). Specifically there’ll be a talk (by Rufus Pollock) on “Opening Data”, and I’ll be speaking about CKAN. This is a great event with lots of open knowledge stuff going on so do come along. Details are as follows: When: Saturday 5th […]

Second Open Visualisation Workshop, Saturday 21st June 2008, Trampoline Systems

At the first Open Visualisation Workshop last month, we found there was significant demand for regular workshops. Hence, the second Open Visualisation Workshop will take place a week from Saturday! Details are as follows: When: Saturday 21st June 2008, 11am – 5pm Where: Trampoline Systems, 8-15 Dereham Place, London, EC2A 3HJ (view on OpenStreetMap) Wiki: […]

After the first Open Visualisation Workshop

The first Open Visualisation Workshop took place on Saturday as we mentioned last week. Details, notes and links are available on the event’s wiki page. The event took place at Trampoline Systems’ new site in East London. To make sure the event was as informal as it was billed to be – we left the […]

Open Visualisation Workshop, Saturday 24th May 2008, Trampoline Systems

As we mentioned last month we’ve been organising an informal, hands-on workshop focusing on open source visualisation technologies. This will take place on this coming Saturday in London. Details are as follows: When: Saturday 24th May 2008 from 11 am until whenever people need to leave (probably 4 or 5 pm); Where: Trampoline Systems, 8-15 […]

First Open Knowledge London Meetup on Wednesday 30th April

The first Open Knowledge London meetup will take place this Wednesday at the London Knowledge Lab. The meetup should be great opportunity for informal discussion of open knowledge projects and issues. If you’d like to participate or present, please add details to the wiki page! When: Wednesday 30th April, 19:00-21:00 Where: London Knowledge Lab, 23-29 […]

Open Scholarly Communities on the Web

Dr. Paolo D’Iorio recently invited me to attend the first meeting of an EU funded Working Group “devoted to analyzing the current debate on the legal, economic and social conditions for setting-up open scholarly communities on the web”. The meeting was part of COST: COST – European Cooperation in the field of Scientific and Technical […]

Open Visualisation Workshop in London

We are currently in the process of organising an informal, hands-on workshop for those who work with, or are interested in, open-source visualisation technologies: http://okfn.org/wiki/OpenVisualisation/Workshop http://okfn.org/wiki/OpenVisualisation The event will take place somewhere in central London on a weekend in May. If you are interested in participating, please add your name to the wiki page and […]

OKCon 2008 Documentation and Open Knowledge Local Groups!

We’re pleased to announce that audio, images and slides from OKCon 2008 are now available at the Post-Event Information page. Most of the material can be obtained from the OKF subversion repository. If you’ve blogged the event or have pictures or the like, please let us know and we’ll post a link from the Post-Event […]

The 2008 Open Knowledge Conference (OKCon) is on Tomorrow at LSE in London

Our second annual Open Knowledge Conference (OKCon) is taking place tomorrow. Like last year, the event will bring together individuals and groups from across the open knowledge spectrum for a day of seminars and workshops. Though we’re nearing capcity, there are still a few places left for last minute registrants! Details When: Saturday 15th March […]

Open Knowledge (OKCon) 2008: LSE, London, 15th March 2008

OKCon 2008 – ‘Open Knowledge: Applications, Tools and Services’ where: London School of Economics, London, UK when: 15th March 2008 (1030-1830) www: http://www.okfn.org/okcon/ register: http://www.okfn.org/okcon/register/ wiki: http://www.okfn.org/wiki/okcon2008/ Following on from the success of our inaugural conference last year, we’re pleased to announce that the second Open Knowledge conference (OKCon) will take place on Saturday 15th […]

Gerald Aylmer Seminar 2007 – ‘Digital Horizons’

A few weeks ago, Rufus and I attended the annual Gerald Aylmer Seminar, jointly organised by the National Archives and the Royal Historical Society. The topic for the event was ‘Digital Horizons: how the digital revolution changes the relationship between historians and their historical sources’. Here are some belated jottings… Opening talk by Natalie Ceeney, […]

iCommons 2007: Retrospective Reflections

The iCommons conference in Dubrovnik, where I’ve been for the last few days, finished yesterday. This has been a great event (a big well done to Heather Ford and all the other organizers) and I’ve had the chance to talk to a very large number of interesting people — renewing old acquaintances and making new […]

Announcing CC-Salon London: June 28th

Creative Commons, the Open Rights Group and Free Culture UK are pleased to announce the first London CC-Salon event, to be held in Shoreditch on Thursday 28th June 2007. The CC Salon is a monthly event focused on building a community of artists and developers around Creative Commons licenses, standards, and technology, and have been […]

Open Knowledge 1.0 Has Happened

Open Knowledge 1.0 took place last Saturday at Limehouse Town Hall in London. Over 70 people came to hear the panels and participate in the open space. Material (including speaker presentations) and related links from the event are being posted online at http://www.okfn.org/okcon/after/. We’ve had excellent feedback and in my opinion (though of course I […]

Open Knowledge 1.0 Nearly Here

Open Knowledge 1.0, which takes place on Saturday March the 17th at Limehouse Town Hall in London, is now just over a week away. While there are still some places left we are nearing capacity so, if you would like to come, we advise you to register as soon as possible via: http://www.okfn.org/okcon/register/ Open Knowledge […]

Open Knowledge 1.0: Registration Now Open

Registration is now open for Open Knowledge 1.0 which takes place at Limehouse Town Hall in London on March 17th 2007. Space at the venue is limited so we encourage you to register. More information about the event available below. Open Knowledge 1.0 When: Saturday 17th March 2007, 11am until 6:30pm (Doors open at 1030) […]