Global Open Data Initiative moving forward

[Christian Villum]

From the Global Open Data Initiative blog:

Global Open Data Initiative moving forward

October 4, 2013 in Announcements

The Global Open Data Initiative is a coalition of civil society organisations working together in the area of open government data and open government.

Our basic goal is that citizens will have full and open access to the government data that is needed in order to build effective government and governance.

The Global Open Data Initiative will serve as a guiding voice internationally on open data issues. Civil society groups who focus on open data have often been isolated to single national contexts, despite the similar challenges and opportunities repeating themselves in countries across the globe. The Global Open Data Initiative (GODI) aims to help share valuable resources, guidance and judgment, and to clarify the potential for government open data across the world.

Provide a leading vision for how governments approach open data. Open data commitments are among the most popular commitments for countries participating in the Open Government Partnership. The Global Open Data Initiative recommendations and resources will help guide open data initiatives and others as they seek to design and implement strong, effective open data initiatives and policies. Global Open Data Initiative resources will also help civil society actors who will be evaluating government initiatives.

Increase awareness of open data. Global Open Data Initiative will work to advance the understanding of open data issues, challenges, and resources by promoting best practices, engaging in online and offline dialogue, and supporting networking between organizations both new and familiar to the open data arena.

Support the development of the global open data community especially in civil society. Civil society organizations (CSOs) have a key role to play as suppliers, intermediaries, and users of open data, though at present, relatively few organizations are engaging with open data and the opportunities it presents. Most CSOs lack the awareness, skills and support needed to be active users and providers of open data in ways that can help them meet their goals. The Global Open Data Initiative aims to help CSOs, to engage with and use open data whether whatever area they work on – be it climate change, democratic rights, land governance or financial reform.

Our immediate focus is on two activities:

1. To consult with members of the CSO community around the world about what they think is important in this area
2. Develop in collaboration with the CSO community a set of principles to guide open government data policies and approaches and to help initiate, strengthen and further elevate conversations between governments and civil society.

Watch this space for further updates.

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- See original post at: http://globalopendatainitiative.org/2013/10/04/global-open-data-initiative-moving-forward/

Christian Villum

Community Manager, Open Government Data + Local Groups Network
skype: christianvillum  |  @villum
The Open Knowledge Foundation
Empowering through Open Knowledge
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[James McKinney]

Re: "Increase awareness of open data", will GODI target a specific audience? Otherwise I see significant overlap with the ODI UK and its international nodes.

[Rufus Pollock]

On 4 October 2013 16:34, James McKinney <ja...@opennorth.ca> wrote:

Re: "Increase awareness of open data", will GODI target a specific audience? Otherwise I see significant overlap with the ODI UK and its international nodes.

James: the general idea is, I think, for GODI to have a specific focus among civil society organizations, and to a lesser extent governments (to the extent that governments provide essential information that civil society organizations and citizens require).

Regarding overlap: I would imagine - and in some ways hope - that there is connection with other international initiatives as this is likely reinforcing and supportive - indeed many of the current partners in GODI (which includes, at present, Sunlight, the Web Foundation, Fundar and Open Institute along with the Open Knowledge Foundation) have themselves been active for some time internationally promoting open data. Re the ODI specifically, my understanding is that the UK's ODI is focused on business engagement and start-up side of things rather than civil society.

Regards,

Rufus

 

On Friday, 4 October 2013 08:55:37 UTC-4, Christian Villum wrote:
From the Global Open Data Initiative blog:


Global Open Data Initiative moving forward
October 4, 2013 in Announcements

The Global Open Data Initiative is a coalition of civil society organisations working together in the area of open government data and open government.

Our basic goal is that citizens will have full and open access to the government data that is needed in order to build effective government and governance.

[...]

[James McKinney]

Thanks, Rufus, I was just confirming the specific focus, as the blog post was unclear. If the answer had been "we're focusing on businesses, governments and CSOs" then I would have considered GODI overbroad and duplicative, so thanks for clarifying.

James

[Chris Last]

I think it important that standards in Open Data are initially set, then evolved, partly though measurements - let's look beyond a world where there is more open data, to one where quality matters more.

Who better than GODI to set standards?

C.

[dwight...@gmail.com]

The Draft is excellent.  We've been needing this.  I'm posting it to other lists.

Dwight Hines

Maine, 

USA

[Paul Carline]

Hi Christian, since you're based in Denmark I'm wondering if the initiative is already operating at the EU level i.e. do you have any database of CSOs working for greater transparency, openness and participation at the EU level? A specific concern is the proposal by the Commission/Council to carry out a revision of the Lisbon Treaty 'behind closed doors'. What civil society needs is a constitutional convention to replace the current treaty basis with a citizen-friendly EU constitution. Is there any way that GODI can help in this? Thanks, Paul

[Christian Villum]

Hi Paul, 

Thanks for sharing thoughts on this. We're not currently putting together a unified database, even though that would be useful. However, I imagine such a database must be somewhere out there already? (I would be curious to know). At present we are working off the existing networks of the 5 partnering organizations.

Your idea for constitutional reform is the kind of idea that could be discussed at the GODI-session at the Open Government Partnership Summit in London this coming week (or maybe rather at the CSO-event on Wednesday). Will you be there at either of those, by any chance?

-Christian

-- 

Christian Villum

Community Manager, Open Government Data + Local Groups Network
skype: christianvillum  |  @villum
The Open Knowledge Foundation
Empowering through Open Knowledge
http://okfn.org/  |  @okfn  |  OKF on Facebook  |  Blog  |  Newsletter

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[Christian Villum]

That's right, thank you Julia - will surely be useful in this context onwards.

-Christian

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Christian Villum

Community Manager, Open Government Data + Local Groups Network
skype: christianvillum  |  @villum
The Open Knowledge Foundation
Empowering through Open Knowledge
http://okfn.org/  |  @okfn  |  OKF on Facebook  |  Blog  |  Newsletter

On Mon, Oct 28, 2013 at 3:26 PM, Julia Keserű <jke...@sunlightfoundation.com> wrote:

Hey all,

Sunlight created a list of transparency NGOs, this might be useful.

https://docs.google.com/a/sunlightfoundation.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AoQuErjcV2a0dF85QTRRSEFtR3pfcjN4VHdwLVYzSXc#gid=0

Best,

Julia

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