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CKAN Hackathon and Local Group launch, Dublin
The following is cross-posted from the Open Government Partnership blog A CKAN hackathon is taking place on Saturday, 28th September at TCube in Dublin, bringing together IT specialists, political representatives and members of the public with an interest in making data open. <img src=”http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2855/9963755924_63f78021c4_z.jpg” width=”350 alt=”dublin-TempleBar”> Developers, designers, journalists, academics, policy makers, creative thinkers, civil […]
Read moreOpen Data Training at the Open Knowledge Foundation
We’re delighted to announce today the launch of a new portfolio of open data training programs. For many years the Open Knowledge Foundation has been working — both formally and informally — with governments, civil society organisations and others to provide this kind of advice and training. Today marks the first time we’ve brought it […]
Read moreRegister now for the OGP Summit and Civil Society Day
This October, the Open Government Partnership Annual Summit is coming to London. We’re helping to organise the Civil Society Day, which will take place on the 30th October at University of London Union, followed on the 31st October and the 1st November by the main conference. The draft agendas for both the main Summit and […]
Read moreThe Global Open Knowledge Foundation Network
Since 2004, the Open Knowledge Foundation has been connecting people and building communities in open data and open knowledge around the world. People in the global Open Knowledge Foundation network run meetups and workshops, campaign for open data, train, advise, and create open source tools and materials to help everyone work with data. The network […]
Read moreSee you at OKFestival 2014
OKFestival is back! As the banners are rolled up and the lights turned off in Geneva, we are already looking forward to the next time we’ll all come together. We are super-excited to announce that OKFestival 2014 will take place on the 15-18 July in Berlin, Germany. OKFestival is the biggest gathering of the open […]
Read moreNew partnership to bring open data to developing countries
We are really excited to announce a new partnership between us, the World Bank and the ODI, which was announced at OKCon in Geneva today. This important joint venture aims to bring open data projects and engagement to developing countries. Here’s the press release. Left to right: Laura James and Rufus Pollock, the Open Knowledge […]
Read moreLinkedUp Open Education Veni Competition: The winners!
The winners for the LinkedUp Veni Competition, organised by the LinkedUp Project were announced today at the Open Knowledge Conference in Geneva. The LinkedUp Project, a multi partner consortium funded by Framework Programme 7, want to push forward the exploitation of the vast amounts of public, open data available on the Web, in particular by […]
Read moreCrowdcrafting: Putting Citizens in Control of Citizen Science
Press Release: Geneva, 17 September 2013 Speaking at the Open Knowledge Conference, the world’s leading event on open data, Co-director of the Open Knowledge Foundation, Rufus Pollock, announced today that the open-source platform Crowdcrafting has grown to accommodate over 120 projects, making it the world’s most diverse open-source platform for online citizen science and crowdsourced […]
Read moreWhat’s the point of open data?
I’ve been puzzling for a while how the open data community can help the many great groups that have been fighting for transparency of key money flows for the past decade and more. I think one answer may be that open data helps us go beyond simply making information available. If done well, it can […]
Read moreOKCon 2013 kicks off
The Open Knowledge Conference 2013 is go! Instagram: @nicolassierro, @okconstickers, @oliviertripet We come to you from the lovely shiny Centre International de Conferences Geneve. The first talks and workshops are already underway, and the lobby is filling with the buzz of greetings, reunions and introductions. Already we’ve seen the launch of a brand new portal […]
Read moreNew Panton Fellows Announced!
We’ve just finished the second round of appointments for the Panton Fellowships, and this year we have three Fellows joining us: Rosie Graves (UK), Peter Kraker (Austria), and Sam Moore (UK). Peter will be joining us at OKCon this year, so please come and find him and introduce yourself! Left to right: Sam Moore, Peter […]
Read more“Follow the Money” with ONE and the Open Knowledge Foundation
The following post is from Alan Hudson, Policy Director (Transparency & Accountability) at ONE and Jonathan Gray, Director of Policy and Ideas at the Open Knowledge Foundation. We want to see a world in which citizens are able to hold decision-makers to account for the use of public money, using information about where it comes […]
Read moreWorking Group Stories: Open Design & Hardware, Open Economics
Last week we published updates from the Public Domain, Open Sustainability and Open Education Working Groups. Look out for more stories next month, to keep up-to-date with the buzzing brilliance of the Network. Open Design and Hardware Working Group The Open Design and Hardware working group celebrated its one year anniversary and is busy working […]
Read moreVeni Open Education Competition: Vote now!
There is just one week left to chose a winner in the ‘People’s Choice’ strand of the LinkedUp Veni Competition. The Veni Competition is the first in the LinkedUp Challenge, a series of three consecutive competitions looking for interesting and innovative tools and applications that analyse and/or integrate open web data for educational purposes. Twenty-two […]
Read moreOKCon 2013 Guest Post: Which bar to raise?
The following post is by Paul Maassen, who together with Daniel Dietrich and Anders Pedersen will be coordinating the workshop ‘Raising the bar for ambition and quality in OGP: workshop to develop a ‘Civil Society National OGP Review’, to be held on Tuesday 17 September, 14:45 – 16:00 @ Room 5, Floor 3, as part of […]
Read moreOKCon 2013 Guest Post: Open governance groups around the world compare local authority finances
This article, by Marc Joffe and Ian MakGill, originally appeared on the Guardian website on 01 August 2013. Marc Joffe will be speaking in the Open Finance and OpenSpending – Workshop on Wednesday 18 September, 14:45 – 16:00 @ Room 7, Floor 2. Open governance groups around the world compare local authority finances Council finances […]
Read moreAn Open Letter on the UK’s Proposed Lobbying Bill
The following is an open letter to the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister about the UK’s proposed Lobbying Bill, initiated by the Open Knowledge Foundation and signed by organisations working for greater government transparency and openness in the UK and around the world. A version of the letter was printed in today’s edition of […]
Read moreWorking Group Stories: Public Domain, Open Sustainability, Open Education
Working Groups Stories, a blog series we started back in May, is our way of showcasing the incredible work being done in all different domains across the Open Knowledge Foundation Network. Working groups are domain-specific groups, promoting, defining and producing open knowledge in everything from Archaeology to Shakespeare. Public Domain Working Group The Public Domain […]
Read moreOpen Education Handbook Booksprint
Yesterday seventeen open education experts came together to begin writing the Open Education Handbook. The handbook is part of the LinkedUp project, and the project team have chosen to also make it one of the first activities of the soon-to-be-launched Open Education Working Group. The handbook takes the form of an open, living document and […]
Read moreGet ready for the OKCon workshops!
Lovely attendees of OKCon, it’s time to make plans for the workshops you want to attend! Each workshop session now has detailed information about moderators and speakers, topics that will be covered, and practical information about capacity limits and where and when they will be taking place. There are three very easy steps to follow: […]
Read moreOpen Data Census: Help assess the state of open government data
Would you like to help track the state of government data? Then now is the time to join the Open Data Census community as one of the Country Editors for your country and help our community-driven push to show governments of the world the state of open data! The Open Data Census is a tool […]
Read moreThe world needs better lobbyist registers – but the UK’s proposed lobbying bill won’t help
Lobbyist registers are supposed to enable citizens to find out who is lobbying whom for what, and how much they are spending in the process. They are supposed to help to safeguard against big money having an unfair influence in politics – ultimately to ensure that political decisions are based on argument, evidence and democratic […]
Read moreIt is time for Open Services
The following guest post is by Guillermo Moncecchi. In a previous post, we advocated for the generation of a Public Digital Infrastructure (PDI), suggesting that governments should advance in the provision of open digital capabilities, free of restrictions, to do, within the law, whatever we want with them. These capabilities would be built on top […]
Read moreIntroducing “A free, libre and open Glossary”
The following guest post is by Chris Sakkas. A few months ago, we ran into a problem at work. ‘Let’s open source this,’ my boss said, and then ran a conventional brainstorming session. I am constantly frustrated by people misusing terms like free, libre and open that have well-established definitions. I decided to spend an […]
Read moreHow can open data lead to better data quality?
Open data can be freely used by anyone – which means that data users can help to fix, enrich or flag problems with the data, leading to improvements in its quality. The Open Knowledge Foundation is currently looking to collect the best examples and stories we can find about how open data can lead to […]
Read morePublishing research without data is simply advertising, not science
The following post is by Graham Steel. It is an adaptation of a five minute lightning talk given at Glasgow’s 1st Open Knowledge Foundation meet-up. Commencing in 2001, I became involved in the Charitable Sector as Vice-Chair of a support group for families affected by a rare and invariably fatal neurodegenerative disease. This led to […]
Read moreThe Open Knowledge Foundation Newsletter, September 2013
Sign up for monthly updates to your inbox here Howdy! And welcome to your monthly spotlight on the Open Knowledge Foundation. There’s a whole load of stuff coming up as always, with our community becoming ever more global and ever more active – find out some of it below. It’s just 2 weeks until we’ll […]
Read moreOpen Economics: the story so far…
A year and a half ago we embarked on the Open Economics project with the support of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and we would like a to share a short recap of what we have been up to. Our goal was to define what open data means for the economics profession and to become […]
Read moreOKCon 2013 Guest Post: Is Open Source Drug Discovery Practical?
The following guest post is by Matthew Todd, Senior Lecturer at the School of Chemistry, The University of Sydney and Sydney Ambassador of the Open Knowledge Foundation. As part of OKCon 2013 Matthew will host a satellite event entitled ‘Is Open Source Drug Discovery Practical?’, taking place on on Thursday 19 September from 09:00 – 12:00 […]
Read moreEven after earthquakes, we need Open
The following guest post is by Chistian Quintili from Open Ricostruzione. Open Ricostruzione is an Italian civic project focused on people engagement after the earthquake which damaged cities of Emilia-Romagna in 2012 Open Ricostruzione is pleased to have a little corner in the OKF network. Our project, in short, is a website to monitor public […]
Read moreNew Sources and Rights section on The Public Domain Review
Today sees the announcement of two exciting new developments on The Public Domain Review, changes which centre on better celebrating those institutions which have decided to open up their collections and helping users understand the different rights for reuse that apply to the content. New sources section The new sources page – http://publicdomainreview.org/sources/ – lists […]
Read moreOKCon 2013 Guest Post: Open Data Toolkits and Assessment Tools
The following guest post is by Iulian Pogor (World Bank), Meghan Cook (University at Albany) , Barbara Ubaldi (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development– OECD), and Ton Zijlstra (Open Knowledge Foundation) who are among the coordinators of the workshop Open Data Toolkits and Assessment Tools, which will take place at OKCon 2013, as part of the Open Development and Sustainability programme, on Tuesday […]
Read moreThe first Open Knowledge Foundation Glasgow Meetup
The following guest post is by Lorna Campbell, former assistant director of the Centre for Educational Technology and Interoperability Standards (CETIS). It is cross-posted from her blog. Last night Sheila and I went along to the first meeting of the Open Knowledge Foundation in Glasgow. The meeting was hosted by the Electron Club and the […]
Read moreOpen Data Privacy
“yes, the government should open other people’s data” Traditionally, the Open Knowledge Foundation has worked to open non-personal data – things like publicly-funded research papers, government spending data, and so on. Where individual data was a part of some shared dataset, such as a census, great amounts of thought and effort had gone in to […]
Read moreThe Data Journalism Handbook now available in French, Spanish and Russian
Last year the Open Knowledge Foundation worked with the European Journalism Centre to publish the Data Journalism Handbook, a free, openly licensed reference book showing journalists how to use data to improve the news. The fact that the book is openly licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike license has enabled various translation and localisation initiatives […]
Read moreVisualizing How the Brazilian Government Underspends on the Public Good
This post is authored by Vitor Batista, who works as developer for the Open Knowledge Foundation, and Neil Ashton, Data Roundup Editor for the School of Data blog. It is cross-posted from the PBS Ideas and OpenSpending blogs. Brazilian NGO INESC (Institute of Socio-Economic Studies) and Open Knowledge Foundation Brasil want Brazilians to participate in […]
Read moreBeneficial ownership registries should be published as open data
In the coming months many governments around the world will decide whether databases of who really owns and controls companies should be made public or not. As we’ve said before, we think registers of ‘beneficial ownership‘ (i.e. registers of who really stands to benefit from company ownership, not just whomever it is convenient or expedient […]
Read moreOpen Education Working Group and Panel at OKCon 2013
Cross-posted from the OKCon Blog. Discussions around open education tend to focus primarily on Open Educational Resources (OER) – freely accessible, openly licensed resources that are used for teaching, learning, educational, assessment and research purposes. However open education is a complex beast made up of many aspects, and the important elements of opening up […]
Read moreOn the trail of “Open Steps” – visiting open knowledge communities around the world
This is a guest blog post from Open Steps, an initiative by two young Berliners Alex (a software developer from Spain) and Margo (a graduate in European politics from France) who decided to leave their daily lives and travel around the world for one year to meet people and organizations working actively in open knowledge […]
Read moreGlobal Community Stories #5: Nepal, Czech Republic, Greece, Japan, Brazil and Texas US.
The global community of Open Knowledge Foundation Local Groups around the world is once again brimming with great tales of how the community is working tirelessly to promote open data and open knowledge around the world. This time we hand the mic to our friends in Japan, Brazil, Nepal, Greece, Czech Republic and Texas, […]
Read moreGetty Releases 4,600 Images into the Public Domain
A depiction of a banquet by 17th Centruy Italian artist, Morazzone, one of the many scans now in the public domain Cross-posted from the OpenGLAM Blog. Yesterday the J. Paul Getty Trust launched its Open Content Program which saw the release of 4,600 high-resolution scans of works from the Getty Museum in Los Angeles into […]
Read moreNatural resource revenues should be published as open data
Who pays what for a given country’s natural resources? With billions of dollars changing hands for access to oil, gas and mineral reserves every year, there is huge potential for corruption, conflict, injustice and environmental destruction around the extraction of natural resources. We think that information about natural resource revenues should be published as open […]
Read moreIntroducing the Open Economics Principles
The Open Economics Working Group would like to introduce the Open Economics Principles, a Statement on Openness of Economic Data and Code. A year and a half ago the Open Economics project began with a mission of becoming central point of reference and support for those interested in open economic data. In the process of […]
Read moreOKCon 2013 Accommodation Subsidy Programme launching today!
Cross-posted from the OKCon Blog. Event. OKCon 2013 – 16th-18th September 2013, Geneva, Switzerland. How to apply. Find the instructions and the submission form on the OKCon 2013 Accommodation Subsidies webpage. Deadline. The deadline to submit your application is Monday 12th August, 23:59:59 GMT. Questions? Feel welcome to contact financialaid@okcon.org We are glad to invite our attendees who haven’t been awarded a […]
Read morePredicting city bankruptcies with open data: The case of Detroit
This is a guest post by Marc Joffe of Public Sector Credit Solutions. Many have noticed that the United States last week was struck by its biggest municipal bankruptcy ever, when the City of Detroit declared bankruptcy. Less well known is the fact that Moody’s, the major credit rating agency, downgraded the City of Chicago […]
Read moreOKCon 2013 Guest Post: Open Data Portal on Land Rights
Cross-posted from the OKCon Blog. Introducing a series of guest posts by OKCon 2013 speakers that we will publish over the coming weeks. This first post is by Laura Meggiolaro, Land Portal Coordinator, International Land Coalition, who will be speaking on the main stage during the Open Development and Sustainability session on Wednesday 18th September […]
Read moreWhat’s the deal with the UK government’s new spending tool?
We were pleasantly surprised to learn that this morning the UK government launched a new tool to explore UK public spending. The ‘Government Interrogating Spending Tool’ (fear not – you the user are supposed to be the giver, not the receiver, of interrogation) or ‘GIST’ is, according to the Cabinet Office, “one of the first […]
Read moreOpen tax data, or just VAT ‘open wash’
This post is by Chris Taggart, the co-founder and CEO of OpenCorporates, the largest open database of companies in the world, and a member of the Open Government working group. [Disclosure: I am on the UK Tax Transparency Board, which has not yet discussed these proposals, but will be doing so at the next meeting […]
Read moreCity Spending Party around the world
Last weekend more than a hundred budget nerds and engaged citizens gathered at 20 spending data parties to open up city spending and budgets. From Lagos to Kathmandu groups dived into budget data across the OpenSpending community as part of this first global City Spending Data Party from July 19 to July 21. The spending parties helped […]
Read moreNetwork Summit
Twice-yearly the whole community of the Open Knowledge Foundation gathers together to share with, learn from and support one another. The Summer Summit 2013 took place in Cambridge (UK) last week (10th-14th July), with staff updates on the Thursday and network representatives joining on the Friday, Saturday and Sunday. It was so inspiring to hear […]
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