A year for and by our communities – December 2023

Hello!

The year is almost over, but Open Knowledge is still busy advocating openness as a design principle. Before we take stock of our activities, in this newsletter we want to share how intense the last few months have been, with key events and projects for our current and future agenda.?

We've been cooking up the next Open Data Day behind the scenes, to ensure that by 2024 the reach of the open data community around the world is even greater. Here's how you can support the event.

We held four online round tables, in different geographies and languages, and a face-to-face event In Ethiopia?to develop a Digital Public Infrastructure for Electoral Processes. See how the conversations went and find out how you can join the alliance that promises to be the hot topic of 2024.

We were also present in Brussels, Barcelona,?Montevideo and San José at different community events. And we launched a report with some of our partners in Europe analysing the current tensions affecting the development of digital commons.

And, of course, the Open Knowledge Network doesn't stop either. Find out about the celebrations for the 10th anniversary of the Brazil chapter, and about the latest interactions with students in Greece and Somalia.

Enjoy your reading! See you next year!

It won't be long until Open Data Day 2024, the biggest celebration of the open data community in the world. In 2023, ODD had 184 events registered in 25+ countries using 15 languages - and we expect these numbers to be even more impressive next year. Some of the new features for 2024 include co-leading the event along with Open Knowledge Network members across 4 continents and a thematic focus on Open Data for Advancing Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

OKFN is looking for partners to help finance the event as a whole and sponsors to offer local grants, as in recent years, to help promote events worldwide.?We need your partnership to make Open Data Day happen and maximise our impact as a movement!

Please contact us if you or your organisation want to support the Open Data Day and?work together to promote open knowledge around the world.

???? Check out the Sponsorship Pack ????

An alliance working towards more trustworthy, resilient, and transparent elections

OKFN is creating and enabling an international alliance to advocate, design and implement?building blocks for a Digital Public Infrastructure for Electoral Processes. The goal is to create open-by-design technology that can be reused to make democratic processes more trustworthy, resilient, and transparent.

Over the last few months, we've held four online roundtables with representatives from around the world (see below) and also a face-to-face workshop in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, at the annual meeting of members of the Digital Public Goods Alliance (picture below).

From the outset, this project has gained traction and generated a lot of interest in the communities involved with open technologies and elections. By 2024 there will be 65 electoral processes around the world. We believe that making all the Electoral DPI open by design and by default will increase the trust in democracy.

“Even if more governments are turning to open source?for daily work, it hasn’t taken as much root around elections." –?Nicole Martinelli, Tech editor, contributor of the OPEN SOURCE INITIATIVE ??Read the full blog

Round Table?Documentation ???

Round Table 1 – Latin America

With voices from Argentina, Colombia, Guatemala, and Ecuador.

? Read the full debrief

Round Table 2 – International

With voices from the US, France, Germany, Bangladesh, Czech Republic, Italy, Australia and the Netherlands.?

? Read the full debrief

Round Table 3– Anglophone Africa?

With voices from Nigeria, Ghana, Uganda, Zimbabwe, and Senegal.

? Read the full debrief

Round Table 4 – Francophone Africa

With voices from Cameroon, Senegal, Togo, and Ivory Coast.

? Read the full debrief

Do you know of existing projects or professionals contributing to a digital public infrastructure for elections? Add them now to our Project Repository or Global Directory under the Open Elections category.

???? Nominate a project now ????

And also learn how you can get involved with the coalition.

Thanks to the generous support of NLnet foundation , we have kickstarted the Frictionless specifications update, planned for?June 2024.?Our overarching goal is to make the Frictionless specs, namely the Data Package, Data Resource, File Dialect, and Table Schema standards, a finished product, establishing a sustainable mechanism for future maintenance extension.

Shaping the digital future to reduce global injustice

In a key week for AI regulation in Europe, our CEO Renata ávila spoke at the European Parliament on the panel "Creativity, Ownership and Public Value in the Age of AI", promoted by FEPS Europe : "Together, we can place human beings at the centre of technological change"(above). Renata?also took part in the II Jornadas “Pensar la Justicia Digital Global", organised by Oxfam Intermón and the Ajuntament de Barcelona (below).

The South at the world’s centre: OKFN dive into Uruguay’s data marathon

Our team has been in Uruguay ???? over the last month for a pool of events – AbreLatam ConDatos, #FestivaldeDatos, Calaveras y Datitos – that the Uruguayan civil society called a "data marathon" (#MaratónDeDatos). We attended many sessions, contributed to many initiatives and had many conversations with the open data communities. Very soon, more news about a promising partnership for the next year: School of Data ?? + Escuela de Datos ???? + Escola de Dados ????.

Smart Cities are open cities: OKFN advocates for open data at a summit in Costa Rica?

Also in Latin America, our software developer Andrés Vázquez spoke at the Smart Cities Summit in Costa Rica ????. His statement was that there are no smart cities if they are not open: "A smart city knows that other cities face similar challenges and works in community with them to learn, collaborate and build." ? See his presentation here (in Spanish).

In May this year, together with Open Future Foundation and Wikimedia Europe, we gathered for 3 days in Berlin with a group of experts, producers, and organisers of the digital commons. We came to a series of conclusions, brilliantly captured by the report Problematizing Strategic Tension Lines in the Digital Commons.

Open Knowledge Network

Check out the latest highlights from our global movement.

???? This year, Open Knowledge Brasil celebrated its 10th anniversary. The celebration featured video testimonials?#OKBR10anos from key people in the movement in Brazil. In this interview (in Portuguese), executive director Fernanda Campagnucci reflects on the chapter's trajectory and the convergence between open data and reducing inequalities.

???? Open Knowledge Greece held workshops for students about datasets for climate and environment issues from different municipalities of Thessaloniki Greece.

???? Open Knowledge Somalia also organised a training workshop for university students, "Strategies and Tools for Research and Data Management". A fantastic opportunity for students to enhance their skills.

???? Join the Open Knowledge Network ????

Save the dates!

FOSDEM 2024 – Brussels 3-4 February ?

FOSDEM is a free event for software developers to meet, share ideas and collaborate. For the 4th year, OKFN will be co-hosting the Open Research Devroom.

csv,conf,v8 – Puebla, Mexico 29-31 May ?

The most beloved community conference for datamakers is back in May 2024, now in Mexico!?The call for session proposals is open?for submissions in English or Spanish. Deadline: January 10th.

About us.

Open knowledge is any content, information or data that people are free to use, re-use and redistribute — without any legal, technological or social restriction.

The Open Knowledge Foundation's mission is to create a free, fair and open future, advancing open knowledge as a design principle beyond just data. We do it by creating tools, developing models, harnessing communities and advocating for standards and policies in a sustainable, ethical and agile manner.