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Open Knowledge Brazil summer 2016 update
This blog post is part of our summer chapters updates and was written by the team of OK Brazil. Brazil is not only about the Olympics. A lot has been going on in the Brazilian chapter of the Open Knowledge Network as well. Here we highlight the significant chapter developments, including some new faces and some […]
Read moreOpinion piece – Why Open Knowledge International should join ICANN
This is an opinion piece by an Open Knowledge network member. You can also publish your opinion on the blog by sending us an email to blog@okfn.org First, let me quickly tell you what kind of an organisation is ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers), for I feel that albeit its burgeoning global importance, most people […]
Read moreAn interview with Rufus Pollock – Why I am Excited about MyData 2016 in Finland
A few weeks ago I sat down for a virtual interview with Molly Schwartz from Open Knowledge Finland about my thoughts on open data and mydata and why I am so excited about the MyData 2016 conference. The three-day conference is taking place from August 31 to September 2 in Helsinki and is being organized by Open […]
Read moreUpdate on OpenTrialsFDA: finalist for the Open Science Prize
In May, the OpenTrialsFDA team (a collaboration between Erick Turner, Dr. Ben Goldacre and the OpenTrials team at Open Knowledge) was selected as a finalist for the Open Science Prize. This global science competition is focused on making both the outputs from science and the research process broadly accessible to the public. Six finalists will present their final prototypes at an Open […]
Read moreWhy we chose Slack to update our team page.
After reading Mor’s post on the recent website update, I thought I’d elaborate a little on the team page, and how we ended up using Slack to update it. The following is from a post on my personal blog. I recently undertook the task of redesigning a couple of key pages for the Open Knowledge […]
Read moreRegistration 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 […]
Read moreOKI website upgrade – what we have done and the road ahead
An organisation website is its main public image or at least this is what we believe in at Open Knowledge International. For a while now, our website has needed design attention and update of content. We have therefore decided to revamp our website and give it some new look and features. Our primary thinking behind our […]
Read moreOpen Knowledge Belgium Spring – Summer Update
With only one full-time employee, the Belgian Open Knowledge ship is only a small one to sail. Nonetheless, Pieter-Jan Pauwels has proven to be a worthy captain. The rest of the crew consists of a bunch of student positions, interns, volunteers and of course, the Open Knowledge Belgium board. Even though Open Knowledge Belgium is […]
Read moreMaking data social, now in the Open Data Handbook
The most important thing for the Network team at Open Knowledge International is the community we build around data. The tools we build to achieve this are crucial as well since they allow people to make even more and better plans and projects. To continue doing this, we are restructuring a bunch of technological tools […]
Read moreOpen Data as a Human Right: the Case of Case-Law
Open data is sometimes considered first as a way to foster economic growth through the development of innovative services built on public data. However, beyond this economic perspective, important though it may be, access to public sector information should be seen first and foremost as an unprecedented opportunity to bridge the gap between the government […]
Read moreSinar Project in Malaysia works to open budget data at all levels of government
“Open Spending Data in Constrained Environments” is a project being lead by Sinar Project in Malaysia aimed exploring ways to of making critical information public and accessible to Malaysian citizens. The project is supported by the Open Data for Development programme and has been run in collaboration with Open Knowledge International & OpenSpending In Malaysia, […]
Read moreTowards the conformation of the Third Greek OGP Action Plan: Open Knowledge Greece makes three commitments
This blog post was written by Olga Kalatzi from OK Greece On the 5th of July in Athens, the open dialogue on Greece’s Third National Action Plan to the Open Government Partnership commenced where Open Knowledge Greece presented its 3 commitments for the third action plan. The commitments of OK Greece included School of Data for […]
Read moreAnnouncing 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 […]
Read moreProgress report: OpenTrials – linking clinical trial data
Since last year Open Knowledge has been developing OpenTrials, an open, online database linking the publicly available data and documents on all clinical trials conducted – something that has been talked about for many years but never created. The project is funded by The Laura and John Arnold Foundation and directed by Dr. Ben Goldacre, an internationally known […]
Read moreOpen Access: Why do scholarly communication platforms matter and what is the true cost of gold OA?
During the past 2,5 years Open Knowledge has been a partner in PASTEUR4OA, a project focused on aligning open access policies for European Union research. As part of the work, a series of advocacy resources was produced that can be used by stakeholders to promote the development and reinforcement of such open access policies. The final two briefing papers, written […]
Read moreWhy Open Source Software Matters for Government and Civic Tech – and How to Support It
Today we’re publishing a new white paper looking at whether free/open source software matters for government and civic tech. Matters in the sense that it should have a deep and strategic role in government IT and policy rather than just being a “nice to have” or something “we use when we can”. As the paper shows the […]
Read moreAnnouncing the Legislative Openness Data Explorer
The Open Government Partnership (OGP) is premised on the notion that sharing success stories can encourage further experimentation and reform. This is certainly true with parliaments, where the Legislative Openness Working Group (LOWG) has repeatedly witnessed the value of sharing information and experience. To ensure that good practice is effectively captured and shared, the […]
Read moreIntroducing The New Proposed Global Open Data Index Survey
The Global Open Data Index (GODI) is one of the core projects of Open Knowledge International. Originally launched in 2013, it has quickly grown and now measures open data publication in 122 countries. GODI is a community tool, and throughout the years the open data community have taken an active role in shaping it by reporting […]
Read moreOpenSpending 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 […]
Read moreOpen Government: Participate, Propose and Be Heard! – The Process in Greece
The involvement and collaboration of governmental bodies, citizens and other stakeholders in order to promote open data and open government initiatives were one of the main achievements of the event “Open Government: Participate, Propose and Be Heard! Conformation of the Third National Action Plan 2016-2018.” The event was co-organized by the Ministry of Interior and Administrative […]
Read moreAddressing 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 […]
Read moreIntroducing: 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 […]
Read moreOpen 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 […]
Read moreAnd what are your plans for Transparency Camp Europe?
This post was written by our friends at Open State Foundation in the Netherlands. Let’s face it. When it comes to relevant open data and transparency in European decision-making, we have a lot to do. Despite growing open data portals, and aggregating European data portal, if you want to make sense of European decision-making and […]
Read moreOpen Data Day Uganda – Promoting girls in Science and Technology
This post was written by Alwenyi Catherine Cassidy from Fund Africa Inc. Fund Africa Inc. is powered by Open Knowledge International, in partnership with NetSquared and Communication Without Boarders. We’re excited to be part of the 2016 International Open Data Day celebration in Kampala, Uganda. This event topic focused on open science and methods to encourage girls […]
Read moreGlobal 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 […]
Read moreInternational open data day report from Yaounde Cameroon
The Open Data Day 2016 was successfully hosted and celebrated in Cameroon by the netsquared Yaoundé community. The theme of the day was ‘Empowering Cameroonians to accelerate open data’, bringing together 90 participants. The event was hosted in Paraclete Institute in Yaoundé, which brought together multiple stakeholders and students, to empower them in advancing open […]
Read moreOpen Data Day Spain – Towards IODC 16
This post was written by Adolfo Anton Bravo from OK Spain. Open Data Day in Spain is not something exceptional anymore. Five years after the first Open Data Day was born in Canada, nine Spanish cities have adopted in 2016 this celebration by organizing various local events It is not a coincidence that Spain will host […]
Read moreCode for Ghana Open Data Day 2016
This blog post was written by Florence Abena Toffa from Code for Ghana. The International Open Data Day is a gathering of citizens in various cities around the world to write applications, liberate data, create visualizations and publish analysis of open public data. This year, we partnered with National Information Technology Agency (NITA) to provide us […]
Read moreDiplohack in Brussels – The first hack in the Council of the European Union
For the first time in history, we can hack from inside the Council of the European Union building! Join us at #Diplohack in Brussels in the Council of the European Union on the 29-30 of April. We invite everyone to take part, whether you’re a diplomat, developer, designer, citizen, student, journalist or activist. We will connect different […]
Read moreOn the “Open Data Day 2016” wave – Burkina Faso
This blog post was written by Justin Yarga. A modest day, but a rich day: Open Data Day in Burkina Faso has helped advance the uptake open data by the open data ecosystem and also helped explore new areas for opening up data. And this time, it is the health sector that was the subject of […]
Read moreWhat happened during Open Data Day 2016 in Aix en Provence?
This blog post was written by Samuel Goeta and the team in Open Knowledge France This year, Open Data Day in France left Paris after hosting us in several tech hubs in the capital: Telecom ParisTech in 2013, Simplon in 2014 and La Paillasse en 2015. However, Paris still celebrated Open Data Day online. Etalab, the […]
Read moreOpen Data Day Buenos Aires – planning the open data agenda for 2016
This blog was written by Yamila Garcia, Open Knowledge ambassador in Argentina For the third time, we celebrated Open Data Day in Argentina, and we invited different groups to celebrate it with us: members of the official open government office; transparency, open data and freedom of information activists, civic innovators, journalists and anyone who is interested in […]
Read moreOpen Data Day 2016 Malaysia Data Expedition – Measuring Provision of Public Services for Education
This blog post was written by the members of the Sinar project in Malaysia In Malaysia, Sinar Project with the support of Open Knowledge International organised a one-day data expedition based on the guide from School of Data to search for data related to government provision of health and education services. This brought together a […]
Read moreOpen Data Day 2016 Birmingham, UK
This blogpost was written by Pauline Roche, MD of voluntary sector infrastructure support agency, RnR Organisation, co-organiser Open Mercia, co-Chair West Midlands Open Data Forum, steering group member Open Data Institute (ODI) Birmingham node, founder Data in Brum 20 open data aficionados from across sectors as diverse as big business, small and medium enterprises, and […]
Read moreOpen Data Day Cairo 2016
This blog post was written by Adham Kalila from Transport for Cairo There is a strong institutional fear of open data in Egypt. In a culture attuned to privacy and private spaces, the concern with the potential negative impacts of opening up data and giving access arouses suspicion towards asking too many questions. There is […]
Read more#OpenDataDay 2016 – Lima, Peru
For the third consecutive year, Open Data Peru organised the #OpenDataDay 2016, an international event about #OpenData. Currently, the open data is becoming a trend adopted by governments to provide information about public spending, budgets, etc. in open formats, free to use and available to any citizen. In this way it seeks to create a […]
Read moreCodeAcross & OpenDataDay Zagreb 2016
This blog post was written by Filip Rodik from Code4Crotaia. Close to 100 guests, speakers, teachers and journalists gathered in a conference room on March 3rd to hear the recent news about the ongoing Croatian curricular reform and the development of the Open Data program. The event was hosted by one of our sponsors – Algebra […]
Read moreInternational Open Data Day in Addis Abba, Ethiopia
This blog post was written By Solomon Mekonnen Co-founder, Code4Ethiopia & Local Organizer, Open Knowledge An open data interest group representing 25 participants from universities, NGOs, CSOs and government ministries attended an open data event on 5th March, 2016, with theme “Raising Open Data awareness in the grass root community of Ethiopia”. The event was organized […]
Read moreOpen Data Day Guyana – Bringing Open Street Map to the classroom
This blog post was written by Vijay Datadin from the GIS collective Open Data is a new and still not very well understood concept in Guyana, as is probably the case in other countries as well. The GIS Collective, a group of volunteers, each highly skilled and experienced in Geographic Information Systems (GIS), know the value […]
Read morePublicBodies Datathon: Collecting the information of Nepal Government diverse PublicBodies
Once again, a bunch of open philosophy believers and lovers gathered for the fourth annual celebration of International Open Data Day 2016 in Nepal. This year Open Data Day was organized in three different places of Nepal and was lead by different communities. Open Knowledge Nepal in collaboration with FOSS Nepal Community and CSIT Association […]
Read moreOpen Data Day Santiago: “Bringing an “open” philosophy to the people”
This post was written by Manuel Barros Open Government Partnership coordinator at Fundación Ciudadano Inteligente. Read the full blog in Spanish on the ILDA site. One of the pillars at Fundación Ciudadano Inteligente has been to strengthen democracy through the creative use of information technologies. Inevitably, that mission has always been strongly linked to the […]
Read more#OpenDataDay 16 in Quito, connecting people and data-driven ideas
This post was written by Julio López P – 2015 School of Data Fellow. Julio is currentl working on energy information management and capacity building projects in Latin America and the Caribbean. See post in Spanish on ILDA’s (Iniciativa Latinoamericana por los Datos Abiertos) blog In 2016, the Quito open data community joined the worldwide celebrations for Open […]
Read moreNew 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, […]
Read moreNew Initiative: Open Data for Tax Justice #OD4TJ
Every year countries lose billions of dollars to tax avoidance, tax evasion and more generally to illicit financial flows. According to a recent IMF estimate around $700 billion of tax revenues is lost each year due to profit-shifting. In developing countries the loss is estimated to be around $200 billion, which as a share of […]
Read moreSloan Foundation Funds Frictionless Data Tooling and Engagement at Open Knowledge
We are excited to announce that Open Knowledge International has received $700,000 in funding from The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation over two years to work on a broad range of activities to enable better research and more effective civic tech through our Frictionless Data initiative. The funding will target standards work, tooling, and infrastructure around […]
Read moreRufus Pollock: I am now Non-Executive at Open Knowledge International
Today, I am pleased to announce the completion of my move to a non-executive role at Open Knowledge International. When Pavel Richter took over as CEO last year, my plan was to move to the role of President and transition to a non-executive position on a timeline that allowed me to support Pavel as he […]
Read moreThink big, start small, move fast
How the York Museums Trust started opening up its collection – OpenGLAM Case study More and more libraries, museums and other cultural institutions publish their collections online, often allowing users to reuse the material for research or creative purpose by licensing it openly. For institutions that start planning such a step, it may seem daunting […]
Read moreILDA to join Open Data Day Mini grants!
This post was written by Fabrizio Scrollini We are happy to announce that The Latin American Open Data initiative (ILDA) is joining the global efforts to enrich Open Data Day mini aims to promote and support the engagement of the Latin American community on Open Data Day. Our support will go to Latin American individuals and […]
Read moreNew Network Guidelines – Tell Us What You Think!
A month ago, we updated you about our plans for the Open Knowledge Network in 2016. One of the firsts steps this year will be to update our network guidelines. For us, guidelines are important because they help us to define our mutual causes and help us strive to achieve our goal. It also help […]
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