Open the menu

Open Data Editor user testing: feedback from the ACIJ team

As part of releasing the first stable version of the Open Data Editor, we publish the feedback from the team at ACIJ, an Argentine non-profit working to promote a more just and inclusive society, free from poverty and discrimination.

Report: Open Movement’s Common(s) Causes

This report outlines a shared advocacy strategy for the Knowledge Commons, based on a mapping of opportunities and threats facing the open movement that took place at Common(s) Cause, a Wikimania 2024 side event.

New Release: Problematising Strategic Tension Lines in the Digital Commons

As a part of our exploration of the open movement, last May, we hosted a workshop with a small group of the movement’s leaders. It was co-organised by our partners at Open Future and Wikimedia Europe. The convening built up on what was found out in Shifting Tides – quality research about the state of the movement conducted […]

How open is government data in Africa?

Findings from the Africa Open Data Index and Africa Data Revolution Report Today, we are pleased to announce the results of Open Knowledge International’s Africa Open Data Index. This regional version of our Global Open Data Index collected baseline data on open data publication in 30 African countries to provide input for the second Africa […]

Open data governance and open governance: interplay or disconnect?  

Authors: Ana Brandusescu, Carlos Iglesias, Danny Lämmerhirt, Stefaan Verhulst (in alphabetical order) The presence of open data often gets listed as an essential requirement toward “open governance”. For instance, an open data strategy is reviewed as a key component of many action plans submitted to the Open Government Partnership. Yet little time is spent on […]

Advancing Sustainability Together: Launching new report on citizen-generated data and its relevance for the SDGs

We are pleased to announce the launch of our latest report Advancing Sustainability Together? Citizen-Generated Data and the Sustainable Development Goals. The research is the result of a collaboration with King’s College London, Public Data Lab and the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data. Citizen-generated data (CGD) expands what gets measured, how, and for what […]

New research to map the diversity of citizen-generated data for sustainable development

We are excited to announce a new research project around citizen-generated data and the UN data revolution. This research will be led by Open Knowledge International in partnership with King’s College London and the Public Data Lab to develop a vocabulary for governments to navigate the landscape of citizen-generated data. This research elaborates on past […]

Europe’s proposed PSI Directive: A good baseline for future open data policies?

Some weeks ago, the European Commission proposed an update of the PSI Directive**. The PSI Directive regulates the reuse of public sector information (including administrative government data), and has important consequences for the development of Europe’s open data policies. Like every legislative proposal, the PSI Directive proposal is open for public feedback until July 13. […]

The Open Data Charter Measurement Guide is out now!

This post was jointly written by Ana Brandusescu (Web Foundation) and Danny Lämmerhirt (Open Knowledge International), co-chairs of the Measurement and Accountability Working Group of the Open Data Charter. It was originally published via the Open Data Charter’s Medium account.     We are pleased to announce the launch of our Open Data Charter Measurement Guide. The […]

The Open Data Charter’s Measurement Guide is now open for consultation!

This blogpost is co-authored by  Ana Brandusescu  and Danny Lämmerhirt, co-chairs of the Measurement and Accountability Working Group of the Open Data Charter. The Measurement and Accountability Working Group (MAWG) is launching the public consultation phase for the draft Open Data Charter Measurement* Guide! Measurement tools are often described in technical language. The Guide explains how […]

New research: Understanding the drivers of license proliferation

Open licensing is still a major challenge for open data publication. In a recent blog post on the state of open licensing in 2017 Open Knowledge International identified that governments often decide to create custom licenses instead of using standard open licenses such as Creative Commons Attribution 4.0. This so-called license proliferation is problematic for […]

Take aways from TicTec2017 – what happens when civic tech and research meet

This week mySociety held TICTeC 2017 in Italy, a conference to present and debate the impact of civic technology. The programme was well curated, convening high-quality talks from theory and practice, while striking a balance between discussing fundamental questions and looking at practical solutions. All session notes are stored on a hackfoldr that was kindly […]

Mapping open data governance models: Who makes decisions about government data and how?

Different countries have different models to govern and administer their open data activities. Ana Brandusescu, Danny Lämmerhirt and Stefaan Verhulst call for a systematic and comparative investigation of the different governance models for open data policy and publication. The Challenge An important value proposition behind open data involves increased transparency and accountability of governance. Yet […]

Data and the City: New report on how public data is fostering civic engagement in urban regions

How can city data infrastructures support public participation in local governance and policy-making? Research by Jonathan Gray and Danny Lämmerhirt examines the new relationships and public spaces emerging between public institutions, civil society groups, and citizens. The development of urban regions will significantly affect the lives of millions of people around the world. Urbanization poses challenges including […]

10 Critical Insights for Democratising the Data Revolution

This week marks the launch of the first-ever UN World Data Forum, aimed at bringing together data experts and sustainable development leaders. Danny Lämmerhirt shares findings from a new research series on citizen-generated data, how it can be used to monitor and drive change for sustainable development, and why this matters for civil society. Image […]

New Report: Making Citizen-Generated Data Work

Read the full report here. We are pleased to announce a new research series investigating how citizens and civil society create data to drive sustainable development. The series follows on from earlier papers on Democratising The Data Revolution and how citizen-generated data can change what public institutions measure. The first report “Making Citizen-Generated Data Work” asks […]

Who Will Shape the Future of the Data Society?

This piece was originally posted on the blog of the International Open Data Conference 2016, which takes place in Madrid, 6-7th October 2016. The contemporary world is held together by a vast and overlapping fabric of information systems. These information systems do not only tell us things about the world around us. They also play […]

New Report: “Changing What Counts: How Can Citizen-Generated and Civil Society Data Be Used as an Advocacy Tool to Change Official Data Collection?”

Following on from our discussion paper on “Democratising the Data Revolution”, today we’re pleased to announce the release of a new report titled “Changing What Counts: How Can Citizen-Generated and Civil Society Data Be Used as an Advocacy Tool to Change Official Data Collection?”. Undertaken as a collaboration between Open Knowledge and the CIVICUS DataShift, […]

6 lessons from sharing humanitarian data

Cross-posted from scraperwiki.com This post is a write-up of the talk I gave at Strata London in May 2015 called “Sharing humanitarian data at the United Nations”. You can find the slides on that page. The Humanitarian Data Exchange (HDX) is an unusual data hub. It’s made by the UN, and is successfully used by […]

New Report: “Open Budget Data: Mapping the Landscape”

We’re pleased to announce a new report, “Open Budget Data: Mapping the Landscape” undertaken as a collaboration between Open Knowledge, the Global Initiative for Financial Transparency and the Digital Methods Initiative at the University of Amsterdam. The report offers an unprecedented empirical mapping and analysis of the emerging issue of open budget data, which has […]

New Discussion Paper: “Democratising the Data Revolution”

“New technologies are leading to an exponential increase in the volume and types of data available, creating unprecedented possibilities for informing and transforming society and protecting the environment. Governments, companies, researchers and citizen groups are in a ferment of experimentation, innovation and adaptation to the new world of data, a world in which data are […]

New research project to map the impact of open budget data

I’m pleased to announce a new research project to examine the impact of open budget data, undertaken as a collaboration between Open Knowledge and the Digital Methods Initiative at the University of Amsterdam, supported by the Global Initiative for Financial Transparency (GIFT). The project will include an empirical mapping of who is active around open […]

About Inferencing

Inferencing, or machine reasoning has a slightly unsavoury reputation perhaps stemming from the failure of Strong AI and its association with science fiction. This is a bit unfortunate and it could be argued that it has led Semantic Web technologies to be underdeveloped. With the Semantic Web and RDF we are concerned with simple statements, […]

The Four Principles of (Open) Knowledge Development

[Further discussion and elucidation of the ideas in this piece can be found in the follow-up: What Do We Mean by Componentization (for Knowledge)?] Introduction Open knowledge means porting much more of the open source stack than just the idea of open licensing. It is about porting many of the processes and tools that attach […]

Don't miss a thing! Stay on top of what's happening in the #OpenMovement around the world.

Subscribe to our Newsletter