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The Open Knowledge Foundation Newsletter, June 2013
Sign up here to receive the monthly Open Knowledge Foundation newsletter by email. How time flies! May 20th was our 9th birthday, and to mark the occasion we allowed ourselves a little reminiscent birthday post, looking back on how we’ve been doing. Thanks so much for all your lovely messages and birthday wishes! And we […]
Read moreWorking Group Stories
Inspired by the great Global Communities Stories, we want to give you an update about what has happened over the last months in our different Working Groups. Working Groups are a great place for people that are interested in open data related to a specific topic such as science, economics, linguistics or government data. We […]
Read moreData Expedition: Tax Avoidance and Evasion – 6th June
Want to dig deep into tax avoidance and evasion? We have gathered a wide range of data on this sensitive topic and for one afternoon we’ll guide you through some of the key decisions to think about when writing a story on the topics. With tax evasion and tax avoidance currently such a hot topic […]
Read moreIRS: Turn Over A New Leaf, Open Up Data
The following post is co-authored by Stefan Verhulst and Beth Noveck. It is cross-posted from Forbes.com. If you’d like to learn more about tax data, check out our data expedition on tax evasion and avoidance on the 6th June! The core task for Danny Werfel, the new acting commissioner of the U.S. Internal Revenue Service […]
Read moreOKCon 2013 Call for Proposals deadline extended to 31st May!
Event. OKCon 2013 – 17th-18th September 2013, Geneva, Switzerland. Call for Proposals. Find the call, FAQs and the submission form on the OKCon 2013 Call for Proposal webpage. Deadline. New deadline to submit your proposals is May 31st, 23:59:59 GMT. Results will be published by 17th June, 23:59:59 GMT. Tickets. Early Bird tickets are on sale […]
Read moreU.S. government’s data portal relaunched on CKAN
Today, we are excited to announce that our work with the US Federal Government (data.gov) has gone live at catalog.data.gov! You can also read the announcement from the data.gov blog with their description of the new catalog. The Open Knowledge Foundation’s Services team, which deploys CKAN, have been working hard on a new unified catalog […]
Read moreOKCon 2013 Invited Speakers: Ellen Miller
We’re glad to announce that Ellen Miller, executive director of the Sunlight Foundation, will be one of our keynote speakers at OKCon 2013. As co-founder and executive director of the Sunlight Foundation, Ellen Miller advocates the use of the internet to inspire greater openness and transparency in government. She founded two further organisations, the Center for Responsive […]
Read moreOpen Knowledge may yet come to medicine – let’s help make it happen
Today is International Clinical Trials Day. To mark the event, here’s a post from Iain Hrynaszkiewicz reviewing the current state of open knowledge in medicine. You can see an earlier version on F1000’s blog. The European Medicines Agency (EMA), the organisation which approves drug license applications from the pharmaceutical industry in Europe, has made important […]
Read moreHappy 9th Birthday to the Open Knowledge Foundation!
If you’d like to give the Open Knowledge Foundation a birthday gift, please consider making a regular or one-off donation to support our work opening up knowledge around the world! Nine years ago today the Open Knowledge Foundation was born. We’ve come a long way from our humble beginnings in Cambridge in 2004. From government […]
Read moreData Expedition: Mapping the garment factories
The horrific factory collapse at Rana Plaza in Dhaka has brought the business practices of global garment brands, as well their thousands of suppliers, into the spotlight. At School of Data we noted that corrupt and missing data were part of the story. Data on building permits in Bangladesh is largely unavailable due to lack of state […]
Read morere:publica roundup
Last week, the Open Knowledge community was out in force at Berlin’s re:publica conference, which brought together over 6,000 bloggers, internet activists, innovators and makers to meet in person, for three days. Here, we’ve collected a few of our personal highlights – let us know what yours were in the comments below! The event was […]
Read moreShakespeare review: analysis
We welcome the Shakespeare review as a time to reflect, coming as it does at a time of great growth in open data in government and the public sector. The UK has lead the way with government taking a pioneering stance on open data policy in recent years, and this report sets out key recommendations […]
Read moreThe future of open data in the UK: what we hope the Shakespeare review says
Tomorrow morning will see the release of a major new review on how to make the most out the UK’s Public Sector Information authored by Stephan Shakespeare, founder of opinion polls company YouGov. Given our role in advocating open data in the UK for many years, we’re very keen to see what Shakespeare says. Here […]
Read moreVolunteer at OKCon 2013!
What. Volunteering at OKCon 2013 When & where. 16th-18th September 2013, Geneva, Switzerland. How. Find the call and the submission form here Deadline. The deadline to submit your application is May 26th, 23:59:59 GMT. Are you a team player passionate about the power of open knowledge? Are you ready to make OKCon 2013 a unique […]
Read moreWe need open carbon emissions data now!
Last week the average concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere reached 400 parts per million, a level which is said to be unprecedented in human history. Leading scientists and policy makers say that we should be aiming for no more than 350 parts per million to avoid catastrophic runaway climate change. But what’s in […]
Read moreGlobal Community Stories #3
For your delectation, we bring you the third installment of Global Community Stories – a round up of the fantastic projects and activities of our Local Groups across the world, including a Wikipedia Editathon for girls in Nepal, a multitude of events in Belgium, Big Data Week across Spain, a Swiss Government pilot […]
Read moreAnnouncing CKAN 2.0
CKAN is a powerful, open source, open data management platform, used by governments and organizations around the world to make large collections of data accessible, including the UK and US government open data portals. Today we are very happy and excited to announce the final release of CKAN 2.0. This is the most significant piece […]
Read moreGovernment Data Open and Machine Readable by Default Announces President Obama
There was big news for open data yesterday with a new Executive Order announced by President Obama. The order lays out the general principles that open, machine readable, data are the “new default”. (We note the Open Definition already includes machine readability in the definition of open data). There will a new Open Data Policy […]
Read moreAnnouncing the Open Humanities Award Winners
Earlier this year, as part of the DM2E project, we put out a call to humanities academics and technologists to see if they could come up with innovative ideas for small technology projects that would further humanities research by using open content, open data and/or open source. We’re very pleased to announce that the winners […]
Read moreThe White House Seeks Champions of Open Science
Here at the Open Knowledge Foundation, we know Open Science is tough, but ultimately rewarding. It requires courage & leadership to take the open path in science. Nearly a week ago on the open-science mailing list we started putting together a list of established scientists who have in some way or another made significant contributions […]
Read moreThe Open Knowledge Foundation Newsletter, May 2013
Heard of Big Data? How about #smalldata? There’s been loads of buzz this month around #smalldata, and the need to prevent the centralisation of data-power in the hands of the few. Redistributing knowledge power is what we’re all about at the Open Knowledge Foundation, and this month’s launch of data.okfn.org is doing just that – […]
Read moreOKCon 2013 Call for Proposals – out now!
Event. OKCon 2013 – 17th-18th September 2013, Geneva, Switzerland. Call for Proposals. Find the call, FAQs and the submission form on the OKCon 2013 Call for Proposal webpage. Deadline. The deadline to submit your proposals is May 24th, 23:59:59 GMT. Results will be published by 17th June, 23:59:59 GMT. Tickets. Early Bird tickets are on […]
Read moreFollow the Money, Follow the Data
The following guest post from Martin Tisné was first published on his personal blog. Some thoughts which I hope may be helpful in advance of the ‘follow the data‘ hack day this week-end: The open data sector has quite successfully focused on socially-relevant information: fixing potholes a la http://www.fixmystreet.com/, adopting fire hydrants a la http://adoptahydrant.org/. […]
Read moreThe Public Domain Review is Saved!
At 12:00pm BST today, as midnight struck over the Pacific island of American Samoa and the 1st of May truly ended all over the world, so did end the inaugural Public Domain Review Fundraiser. In 58 days, with the help of 676 wonderful supporters we managed to leapfrog our target of $20,000 and raise an […]
Read moreScience Europe denounces ‘hybrid’ Open Access
Recently Science Europe published a clear and concise position statement titled: Principles on the Transition to Open Access to Research Publications This is an extremely timely & important document that clarifies what governments and research funders should expect during the transition to open access. Unlike the recent US OSTP public access policy which allows publishers […]
Read moreOpen Knowledge: much more than open data
We’ve often used “open knowledge” simply as a broad term to cover any kind of open data or content from statistics to sonnets, and more. However, there is another deeper, and far more important, reason why we are the “Open Knowledge” Foundation and not, for example, the “Open Data” Foundation. It’s because knowledge is something […]
Read moreOpen Budget Oakland and OpenSpending
From small beginnings in a hackathon, here’s a great story from Oakland of how OpenSpending can be deployed to improve civic engagement on a local level. The beta version of Open Budget Oakland went public last week with the release of our mayor’s proposed budget for the next two years. Her announcement was made Wednesday […]
Read moreWelcoming Greece Local Group as Open Knowledge Foundation Chapter
It’s with great excitement that we can announce that OKFN Greece, after 1.5 years as a Local Group in our global network, have established themselves as an official Chapter of the Open Knowledge Foundation. This means that our Greek friends are now through their own legal entity a more integral part of the organization. The last […]
Read moreWhat Do We Mean By Small Data
Earlier this week we published the first in a series of posts on small data: “Forget Big Data, Small Data is the Real Revolution”. In this second in the series, we discuss small data in more detail providing a rough definition and drawing parallels with the history of computers and software. What do we mean […]
Read moreJust 5 days to go for The Public Domain Review Fundraiser!
The Public Domain Review Fundraiser ends on Wednesday 1st May, just 5 days away! Since we launched the fundraising campaign 7 weeks ago we’ve seen a fantastic response which has got us so far to an amazing 98% of our target… very very nearly there. We are making a final push in these remaining days […]
Read moreWe’re Hiring! School of Data seeks Workshop and Project Coordinator
School of Data is hiring a Workshop and Project Coordinator! See below for details about the role and how to apply. ###About School of Data School of Data works to empower civil society organizations, journalists and citizens with the skills they need to use data effectively in their efforts to create fairer and more sustainable […]
Read moreOpen Data Fellowship with Metropolitan New York Library Council Announced
Exciting news: The Metropolitan New York Library Council (METRO) in collaboration with the Open Knowledge Foundation’s OpenGLAM initiative and Wikimedia NYC have today unveiled the first ever Open Data Fellowship for cultural heritage institutions starting this summer. The paid 8-week placement will combine two roles: Facilitator for institutions interested in pursuing broader open data initiatives […]
Read moreBuilding the foundation for an Open Data Directory
Open (Government) Data as it is understood nowadays can still be considered a new concept. It started to gain traction worldwide since the Obama memo in early 2009 and the launch of data.gov a few months later. Following successful leading examples of the US and UK governments we have seen Open Data flourishing all over […]
Read moreFrictionless Data: making it radically easier to get stuff done with data
Frictionless Data is now in alpha at http://data.okfn.org/ – and we’d like you to get involved. Our mission is to make it radically easier to make data used and useful – our immediate goal is make it as simple as possible to get the data you want into the tool of your choice. This isn’t […]
Read moreOpening up the wisdom of crowds for science
We are excited to announce the official launch of Crowdcrafting.org, an open source software platform – powered by our Pybossa technology – for developing and sharing projects that rely on the help of thousands of online volunteers. At a workshop on Citizen Cyberscience held this week at University of Geneva, a novel open source software […]
Read moreForget Big Data, Small Data is the Real Revolution
This is the first in a series of posts. The next posts in the series is What Do We Mean by Small Data There is a lot of talk about “big data” at the moment. For example, this is Big Data Week, which will see events about big data in dozens of cities around the […]
Read moreReinhart-Rogoff Revisited: Why we need open data in economics
This blog post is cross-posted from the Open Economics Blog. Another economics scandal made the news last week. Harvard Kennedy School professor Carmen Reinhart and Harvard University professor Kenneth Rogoff argued in their 2010 NBER paper that economic growth slows down when the debt/GDP ratio exceeds the threshold of 90 percent of GDP. These […]
Read moreThe new PSI Directive – as good as it seems?
A closer look at the new PSI Directive by Ton Zijlstra and Katleen Janssen image by European People’s Party CC-BY-2.0, via Wikimedia Commons On 10 April, the European Commission’s Vice-President Neelie Kroes, responsible for the Digital Agenda for Europe, announced that the European Union (EU) Member States have approved a text for the new PSI […]
Read moreWhat We Hope the Digital Public Library of America Will Become
Tomorrow is the official launch date for the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA). If you’ve been following it, you’ll know that it has the long term aim of realising “a large-scale digital public library that will make the cultural and scientific record available to all”. More specifically, Robert Darnton, Director of the Harvard University […]
Read moreOpen data highlights from European Data Forum 2013 in Dublin
Europe’s data league convened in Dublin last week – Open Data increasingly taking the stage Over 500 data professionals gathered last week at European Data Forum conference in Dublin. This is the annual meeting place for industry, research, policy makers, and community initiatives to discuss the challenges and opportunities of Big Data in Europe. One of […]
Read morePanton Fellowship wrap up: Ross Mounce
The Panton Fellowships have come to an end. The work that our two Panton Fellows, Ross Mounce and Sophie Kershaw have done over the past year to promote openness in the sciences has far surpassed what any of us expected. Here Ross details his wide-ranging experiences and achievements over the past year, and you […]
Read moreData Explorer Mission on Carbon Data
Sign up now for next week’s Data Explorer Mission on Carbon Emissions Data, a pilot initiative of our School of Data and P2PU, to help people explore a topic, while at the same time building their data skills through experimentation and doing. Image CC-By-SA J Brew on Flickr At the School of Data, we teach […]
Read moreOpening Public Data in South Africa
Cape Town City Hall, Felix Gottwald It seems somewhat absurd to me that publicly funded institutions in South Africa should be allowed to copyright data produced using public funds. Of course, it is reasonable to expect that physical assets such as buildings, vehicles or machinery should appear on their balance sheets and be reserved for […]
Read moreGlobal Community Stories #2: Brazil, Spain, Czech Republic, Nepal, Iceland and Belgium
We continue our new monthly digest showcasing initiatives from our local communities across the globe, this time proudly featuring Brazil, Spain, Czech Republic, Nepal, Iceland and Belgium. The Open Knowledge Foundation’s many (30+!) Local Group communities stand behind a myriad of different activities every month. As you may also have read in our first edition of […]
Read moreOpen Research Data Handbook – Call for case Studies
The OKF Open Research Data Handbook – a collaborative and volunteer-led guide to Open Research Data practices – is beginning to take shape and we need you! We’re looking for case studies showing benefits from open research data: either researchers who have personal stories to share or people with relevant expertise willing to write short […]
Read moreSustainable energy policy demands sustainable open data
What kinds of energy are we producing, and what kinds are we consuming? How much comes from renewable sources? What is our energy dependency on other countries? Energy policy is today at the heart of every country’s agenda, but can citizen discuss it fairly? Do even policymakers have enough reliable information to implement new energy […]
Read moreWill Obama’s new $100m brain mapping project be open access?
On Tuesday President Obama unveiled a new $100 million research initiative to map the human brain. The BRAIN (Brain Research Through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies) initiative will “accelerate the development and application of new technologies that will enable researchers to produce dynamic pictures of the brain that show how individual brain cells and complex neural circuits […]
Read moreLandmark ruling will enable more lifesaving generic drugs in developing countries
Earlier this week the Guardian and the BBC reported on a landmark ruling in India which will hopefully pave the way for greater access to lifesaving generic drugs in developing countries. The Indian supreme court has rejected a new patent on a “slightly altered” version of Glivec, a cancer treatment drug developed by the pharmaceutical […]
Read moreUse Templates to Make News Apps Quickly
Coding is expensive and slow, journalism should be cheap and fast. This is the main problem I face as a data journalism producer. My responsibility is to produce news apps for Helsingin Sanomat, a main daily newspaper in Finland. When there is a breaking news event, we have about five hours to come up with […]
Read moreThe Open Knowledge Foundation Newsletter, April 2013
Sign up on the right to receive our newsletter straight into your inbox every couple of months! It’s exciting times at the Open Knowledge Foundation! We’re determinedly ignoring the never-ending winter here in Europe – Spring has definitely sprung for us, with more activity than ever across the network, creating change by educating, empowering, evangelising […]
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