Empowering Portugal’s bombeiros with open data

How Fogos.pt is providing an accessible fire map   This blog has been reposted from the Mapbox blog. In Portugal, a free, open source project is making official fire data more accessible to firefighters, emergency workers, journalists, and the public. Fogos.pt has gained significant traction, receiving as many as a million views a day and half a million unique […]

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The next target user group for the open data movement is governments

Here’s an open data story that might sound a bit counterintuitive. Last month a multinational company was negotiating with an African government to buy an asset. The company, which already owned some of the asset but wanted to increase its stake, said the extra part was worth $6 million. The government’s advisers said it was […]

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Ubernomics: Platform Monopolies & How to Fix Them

First version: Dec 2016, updated Feb 2018. This blog is a summary of the full article at http://rufuspollock.com/ubernomics Around the world countries have struggled to work out how to deal with Uber, AirBnB and their like. Are these new apps something to be welcomed or something to be stopped? But how we treat Uber-like companies […]

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How to publish budget and spending data openly

At the Global Initiative for Fiscal Transparency (GIFT) and Open Knowledge International (OKI) we believe that governments’ budget and spending data should be made available to all, so that anyone can see how their tax money is spent,what priorities their governments make, and governments can be held accountable. Increasingly governments make their budget data already […]

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Prototype Fund round 5: Letting machines learn

The Prototype Fund is a public program run by Open Knowledge Foundation Germany that focuses on emerging challenges and radically new solutions. Individuals and small teams can apply for funding to test their ideas and develop open source tools and applications in the fields of civic tech, data literacy, data security and more. The 5th […]

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A short story about Open Washing

Great news! The International Open Data Conference (IODC) accepted my proposal about Open Washing. The moment I heard this I wanted to write something to invite everyone to our session. It will be a follow-up to the exchange we had during IODC in 2015. First a couple disclaimers: This text is not exactly about data. […]

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Frictionless Data and FAIR Research Principles

In August 2018, Serah Rono will be running a Frictionless Data workshop in CopenHagen, congregated by the Danish National Research Data Management Forum as part of the FAIR Across project. In October 2018, she will also run a Frictionless Data workshop at FORCE11 in Montreal, Canada. Ahead of the two workshops, and other events before […]

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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 […]

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Help us find the world’s electoral boundaries!

mySociety and Open Knowledge International are looking for the digital files that hold electoral boundaries, for every country in the world — and you can help.  Yeah, we know — never let it be said we don’t know how to party. But seriously, there’s a very good reason for this request. When people make online […]

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Open Summer of Code is growing beyond the Belgian borders!

Authors: Dries van Ransbeeck, David Chaves and Astrid Sercu To some of you, Open Summer of Code – also known as osoc – is a name that rings a bell, to others this is a new concept. So, for the latter group: osoc is an originally Belgian summer programme organised by Open Knowledge Belgium which has been […]

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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 […]

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Are you working in the OpenGLAM arena? Tweet about it!

Starting today, community members from Open Knowledge International, Wikimedia Foundation, and Creative Commons, will be facilitating a rotating curation of the @openglam twitter account to highlight and reflect on the impact of  “OpenGLAM” (Galleries, Libraries, Archives, and Museums) in their respective contexts. OpenGLAM is a global network of people and organizations who are working to […]

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SaveOurAir: An experiment in data-activation

Contemporary cities seem to be in a race to be increasingly ‘smart’ and data-driven. At smart city Expos around the world, visitors are presented with new visual modes of modes of knowing and governing. Dashboards providing birds-eye views of the real-time movement of objects in the city, are perhaps the most iconic of these visualizations. […]

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Sloan Foundation Funds Frictionless Data for Reproducible Research

We are excited to announce that Open Knowledge International has received a grant of $750,000 from The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation for our project “Frictionless Data for Reproducible Research”. The new funding from Sloan enables us to continue work over the next 3 years via enhanced dissemination and training activities, as well as further iteration […]

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Closing feedback loops for more & better open data in Switzerland

Last week, the annual open data conference in Switzerland took place in St. Gallen. In this post, Oleg Lavrovsky, activist for Open Knowledge and board member of the Swiss Chapter, shares a look back at the event showcasing the latest developments in the country, with results of the first Open Data Student Awards. For more […]

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Changing Minds by Using Open Data

This blog has been rewritten from the original post on our Open Education Working Group blog and is co-authored by Javiera Atenas, Erdinç Saçan & Robert Schuwer.   The Greek philosopher Pythagoras once said: “if you want to multiply joy, then you have to share.” This also applies to data. Who shares data, gets a […]

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Introducing the 2018 Class of School of Data Fellows!

This blog has been reposted from the School of Data blog. School of Data is delighted to announce its sixth class of fellows. From June until January 2019, the programme will allow fellows to deepen their data literacy skills and work alongside local partner organisations to enhance the data literacy network local to them. We were […]

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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. […]

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CKANconUS and Code for America Summit: some thoughts about the important questions

It’s been a few weeks after CKANConUS and the seventh Code for America Summit took place in Oakland. As always, it was a great place to meet old friends and new faces of technologists, policy experts, government innovators in the U.S. In this blogpost I share some of the experience of attending these two conferences […]

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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 […]

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Open Data Day 2018: this year’s celebration of a growing community

The eight edition of Open Data Day took place on March 3, 2018: an exciting milestone for the open data communities and a great opportunity to put open data into action. In this blog, we take a look back at what happened across the world on this day. First of all, we were happy to […]

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New proposal for the re-use of government held data by the EC

TL;DR The European Commission proposed a new PSI Directive, that describes when and how publicly held data can be re-used by anyone (aka open government data). The proposal contains several highly interesting elements: it extends the scope to public undertakings (utilities and transport mostly) and research data, it limits the ways in which government can […]

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Open data and research: Let’s get to it!

This blog has been translated from the original post at https://sv.okfn.org/2018/03/23/datos-abiertos-e-investigacion-manos-a-la-obra This blog is part of the event report series on International Open Data Day 2018. On Saturday 3 March, groups from around the world organised over 400 events to celebrate, promote and spread the use of open data. 45 events received additional support through the […]

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Introducing Version 1 of the Fiscal Data Package specification

The Fiscal Data Package is a lightweight and user-oriented format for publishing and consuming fiscal data. Fiscal Data Packages are made of simple and universal components, are extremely flexible, can be produced from ordinary spreadsheet software and used in any environment. This specification started about five years ago with a first version (then known as […]

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Lava Jato Hackathon: Journalists and developers creating algorithms and web apps to fight corruption

This blog has been translated from the Spanish blog report at Convoca This blog is part of the event report series on International Open Data Day 2018. On Saturday 3 March, groups from around the world organised over 400 events to celebrate, promote and spread the use of open data. 45 events received additional support […]

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Evidence Appraisal Data-Thon: A recap of our Open Data Day event

This blog has been reposted from Medium This blog is part of the event report series on International Open Data Day 2018. On Saturday 3 March, groups from around the world organised over 400 events to celebrate, promote and spread the use of open data. 45 events received additional support through the Open Knowledge International […]

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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 […]

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Open Data for the Campania Cultural Heritage – an update from the Route-To-PA Hetor pilot

This blog has been reposted from the Hetor blog. Since 2015 Open Knowledge International has been part of the consortium of Route-To-PA, a European innovation project aimed at improving citizen engagement by enabling meaningful interaction between open data users, open data publishers and open data. In the Route-To-PA case study series, we shine a light on public administrations, […]

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Open Government and Open Contracting in Paraguay and Cameroon

This blog was written by Rodrigo Valdez (Girolabs) and Transparency International Cameroon. This blog is part of the event report series on International Open Data Day 2018. On Saturday 3 March, groups from around the world organised over 400 events to celebrate, promote and spread the use of open data. 45 events received additional support […]

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Creativity and mobile solutions can help combat road accidents

This blog is part of the event report series on International Open Data Day 2018. On Saturday 3 March, groups from around the world organised over 400 events to celebrate, promote and spread the use of open data. 45 events received additional support through the Open Knowledge International mini-grants scheme, funded by Hivos, SPARC, Mapbox, […]

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Solving the Internet Monopolies Problem – Facebook, Google et al

The good news is that an increasing number of people seem to agree that: Facebook, Google etc are monopolies That is a problem Agreeing we have a problem is always a crucial first step. But to go further we need to: Correctly diagnose the disease — in particular, avoid confusing the symptoms with the root […]

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How open data and mapping using OpenStreetMap can aid development in Tanzania

This blog has been reposted from the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team website This blog is part of the event report series on International Open Data Day 2018. On Saturday 3 March, groups from around the world organised over 400 events to celebrate, promote and spread the use of open data. 45 events received additional support through […]

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Follow the Money in Uruguay, Argentina and El Salvador

This blog has been written by Maximiliano Benedetti (Demos) and CoST El Salvador This blog is part of the event report series on International Open Data Day 2018. On Saturday 3 March, groups from around the world organised over 400 events to celebrate, promote and spread the use of open data. 45 events received additional […]

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Open contracting for sustainable development in Cambodia

This blog has been reposted from the Open Development Cambodia blog This blog is part of the event report series on International Open Data Day 2018. On Saturday 3 March, groups from around the world organised over 400 events to celebrate, promote and spread the use of open data. 45 events received additional support through […]

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Women’s digital right to the city: Open Data Day 2018 in Bologna

This blog has been reposted from the Open Education Italy blog. This blog is part of the event report series on International Open Data Day 2018. On Saturday 3 March, groups from around the world organised over 400 events to celebrate, promote and spread the use of open data. 45 events received additional support through […]

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Makerere University Students Embrace Open Contracting!

This blog is part of the event report series on International Open Data Day 2018. On Saturday 3 March, groups from around the world organised over 400 events to celebrate, promote and spread the use of open data. 45 events received additional support through the Open Knowledge International mini-grants scheme, funded by Hivos, SPARC, Mapbox, […]

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Open Data Day: From entrepreneurship to open science

Authors: Virginia De Pablo (ODI Madrid) and Karla Ramos (Epicentro Inefable A.C.) This blog is part of the event report series on International Open Data Day 2018. On Saturday 3 March, groups from around the world organised over 400 events to celebrate, promote and spread the use of open data. 45 events received additional support […]

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Open Research in the Philippines: The Lessons and Challenges

Authors: Ana Martha Galindes and Marco Angelo S. Zaplan This blog is part of the event report series on International Open Data Day 2018. On Saturday 3 March, groups from around the world organised over 400 events to celebrate, promote and spread the use of open data. 45 events received additional support through the Open Knowledge […]

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Celebrating Open Data Day 2018 in Nigeria

This blog is part of the event report series on International Open Data Day 2018. On Saturday 3 March, groups from around the world organised over 400 events to celebrate, promote and spread the use of open data. 45 events received additional support through the Open Knowledge International mini-grants scheme, funded by Hivos, SPARC, Mapbox, […]

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Our Open Data Day 2018 @ hack.institute

This blog has been reposted from Medium This blog is part of the event report series on International Open Data Day 2018. On Saturday 3 March, groups from around the world organised over 400 events to celebrate, promote and spread the use of open data. 45 events received additional support through the Open Knowledge International mini-grants scheme, […]

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Women Economic and Leadership Transformation Initiative Open Data Event 2018

This blog has been reposted from debwritesblog This blog is part of the event report series on International Open Data Day 2018. On Saturday 3 March, groups from around the world organised over 400 events to celebrate, promote and spread the use of open data. 45 events received additional support through the Open Knowledge International […]

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Apply Now! School of Data’s 2018 Fellowship Programme

This blog has been reposted from the School of Data blog School of Data is inviting journalists, data scientists, civil society advocates and anyone interested in advancing data literacy to apply for its 2018 Fellowship Programme, which will run from May 2018 to January 2019. 8 positions are open, 1 in each of the following countries: Bolivia, Guatemala, […]

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Open mapping in Côte d’Ivoire, Mongolia and the USA

Authors: Delia Walker-Jones (OSM-Colorado) and Kanigui Nara (SCODA Côte d’Ivoire) This blog is part of the event report series on International Open Data Day 2018. On Saturday 3 March, groups from around the world organised over 400 events to celebrate, promote and spread the use of open data. 45 events received additional support through the Open […]

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Open Data Day in Tanzania and Serbia: using open data to educate, inform and create stories

Authors: Rehema Mtandika (She Codes for change) and Katarina Kosmina (SEE ICT) – their biographies can be found below this post. This blog is part of the event report series on International Open Data Day 2018. On Saturday 3 March, groups from around the world organised over 400 events to celebrate, promote and spread the use […]

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Advancing in consolidating an open data community and practitioners in South America

The case of ARTIGO 19 in Brazil and Datalat in Ecuador Authors: Paulina Bustos (Artigo 19) and Julio López (Datalat) This blog is part of the event report series on International Open Data Day 2018. On Saturday 3 March, groups from around the world organised over 400 events to celebrate, promote and spread the use […]

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Local open mapping initiatives in Rwanda and Nicaragua

This blog is part of the event report series on International Open Data Day 2018. On Saturday 3 March, groups from around the world organised over 400 events to celebrate, promote and spread the use of open data. 45 events received additional support through the Open Knowledge International mini-grants scheme, funded by Hivos, SPARC, Mapbox, […]

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Open Data Day 2018 at iWatch Africa and Open Knowledge Colombia

Authors:  Gideon Sarpong, iWatch Africa and Luis M. Vliches-Blazquez, Open Knowledge Colombia This report is part of the event report series on International Open Data Day 2018. On Saturday 3 March, groups from around the world organised over 400 events to celebrate, promote and spread the use of open data. Within the key area “Follow the money”, […]

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Open Data Day 2018 in Ethiopia and Nigeria

Authors: Bolutife Adisa (Open Switch Africa) and Solomon Mekonnen (Open Knowledge Ethiopia) This blog is part of the event report series on International Open Data Day 2018. On Saturday 3 March, groups from around the world organised over 400 events to celebrate, promote and spread the use of open data. 45 events received additional support […]

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Engaging people around open data and open mapping – from USA to Poland

Co-authored by Lizzie Ellis (Code for DC, USA) and Anna Ścisłowska (Association 61, Poland) This blog is part of the event report series on International Open Data Day 2018. On Saturday 3 March, groups from around the world organised over 400 events to celebrate, promote and spread the use of open data. 45 events received […]

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Celebrating Open Data Day with communities from Mexico to Guatemala

This blog is part of the event report series on International Open Data Day 2018. On Saturday 3 March, groups from around the world organised over 400 events to celebrate, promote and spread the use of open data. 45 events received additional support through the Open Knowledge International mini-grants scheme, funded by Hivos, SPARC, Mapbox, […]

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