[open-government] Web Foundation Announces New Project to Assess Potential of Creating Open Government Data Initiatives in Chile, Ghana and Turkey

Thu Aug 12 16:45:07 UTC 2010

Some of us are already around but mainly as lurkers so far, sorry. I  
hope we'll be able to contribute to some discussions and foster some  
others in the near term :)

-- 

Jose M. Alonso
Manager, eGovernment and Open Data, CTIC
co-Chair, eGovernment Interest Group, W3C
Senior Advisor, W3C Spain
Parque Científico-Tecnológico
C/ Ada Byron, 39
33203 - Gijón, Asturias, Spain
tel.: +34 984390616; +34 984291212; fax: +34 984390612
email: josema.alonso at fundacionctic.org
twitter/identi.ca: @josemalonso
http://datos.fundacionctic.org
http://www.w3.org/eGov/
Política de Privacidad: http://www.fundacionctic.org/privacidad

El 11/08/2010, a las 16:03, Jonathan Gray escribió:
> Many thanks Craig! You *just* beat me to it. Had link queued up in a
> tab to post to the list! ;-)
>
> Very much look forward to following progress on this. Would be most
> grateful for any status updates from your end -- and if you could
> invite relevant folks to this list/group?
>
> All the best,
>
> Jonathan
>
> 2010/8/11 Craig Heintzman <craig at webfoundation.org>:
>> FYI - Steve Bratt, CEO of the World Wide Web Foundation (founded in  
>> 2009 by
>> Tim Berners-Lee) just announced moving forward with a project to  
>> assess the
>> potential of creating open government data initiatives in Chile,  
>> Ghana, and
>> Turkey -- the first step of what we hope to be a global initiative  
>> focusing
>> on low- and middle-income countries. Link and text copied below.
>> Craig
>>
>> -------------------------
>> http://www.webfoundation.org/2010/08/potential-of-open-government-data-in-chile-ghana-and-turkey/
>>
>> Within less than a year, the United Kingdom and United States have  
>> put
>> hundreds of thousands of rich datasets on the Web in machine readable
>> formats. Thousands of applications have been built — the vast  
>> majority
>> without taxpayers’ money — by civic hackers to analyze, mash-up,  
>> and map
>> these data. Potential benefits of an Open Government Data (OGD)  
>> practice
>> include new services, new insights, increased citizen  
>> participation, new
>> businesses and better governance. Though other countries, provinces  
>> and
>> cities are exploring OGD, there has been little activity in low and  
>> middle
>> income countries (see map at left). Given the potential benefits and
>> reasonable costs, it is importance to assess how relevant an OGD  
>> initiative
>> might be in these countries as well.
>>
>> The World Wide Web Foundation, with the our partner Fundacion  
>> (CTIC), is
>> taking the first steps in this direction.   We are starting a new  
>> project to
>> conduct an assessment of the feasibility and potential of an OGD  
>> program in
>> three diverse countries — Chile, Ghana and Turkey.  The bottom line
>> questions are:  Is the country ready to engage in an OGD  
>> initiative?  If so,
>> what support might they need?  If not, why not, and what lesson can  
>> we take
>> away from this assessment?
>>
>> The project originated in response to a call for proposals from the
>> Transparency and Accountability Initiative:  a donor collaborative  
>> that
>> includes the Ford Foundation, Hivos, theInternational Budget  
>> Partnership,
>> the Omidyar Network, the Open Society Institute, the Revenue Watch
>> Institute, and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. The  
>> funding for
>> this project originates from the Omidyar Network and the Open Society
>> Institute.  The project runs in parallel to a similar feasibility  
>> study
>> focusing on India, also support by the Transparency and  
>> Accountability
>> Initiative, and run by the Centre for Internet and Society.
>>
>> Our work is starting with the development a new methodology for  
>> assessing
>> OGD readiness, based on our experience and an excellent paper  
>> commissioned
>> by the Transparency and Accountability Initiative and written by  
>> Becky
>> Hogge from earlier this year. We will then conduct research through  
>> visits
>> to each country, Web studies, and phone and email interviews to  
>> complete the
>> assessment by the end of October. As Tim Berners-Lee said in his  
>> interview
>> with Becky, “It has to start at the top, it has to start in the  
>> middle and
>> it has to start at the bottom.” In other words, we must talk with  
>> people
>> from the highest levels of government, the public administration  
>> officials
>> who collect and care for data, and the people who will leverage the  
>> data to
>> create new applications. And we will do so during this study. The  
>> results
>> should be available before the end of this year.
>>
>> The Web Foundation is committed to supporting efforts around OGD in
>> individual countries, and as a emerging movement around the world.  
>> This is
>> evidenced by the work of Web Foundation Directors Tim Berners-Lee  
>> and Nigel
>> Shadbolt in the UK and US, the W3C Brazil Office in their country,  
>> and W3C’s
>> eGovernment Interest Group, as well as work to built capacity in the
>> Caribbean. If you want to learn more, please contact me or Stephane  
>> Boyera.
>>
>> About World Wide Web Foundation
>>
>> World Wide Web Foundation leads transformative programs to advance  
>> the Web
>> as a medium that empowers people to bring about positive change.  
>> Created
>> under a seed grant from the John S and James L Knight Foundation,  
>> the Web
>> Foundation brings together business leaders, technology innovators,
>> academia, government, NGOs, experts, developers and end users to  
>> tackle
>> challenges that, like the Web, are global in scale. By funding  
>> education,
>> outreach, research and the next generation of Web technologies, Web
>> Foundation strives to enable all people to share knowledge, access  
>> services,
>> conduct commerce, participate in good governance and communicate in  
>> creative
>> ways. Web Foundation is a registered tax exempt, public charity in
>> Switzerland and the United States.
>>
>> --
>> Craig Heintzman
>> World Wide Web Foundation
>> M: +1.857.756.8008
>> O: +1.617.391.0251
>> W: webfoundation.org
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> open-government mailing list
>> open-government at lists.okfn.org
>> http://lists.okfn.org/mailman/listinfo/open-government
>>
>>
>
>
>
> -- 
> Jonathan Gray
>
> Community Coordinator
> The Open Knowledge Foundation
> http://blog.okfn.org
>
> http://twitter.com/jwyg
> http://identi.ca/jwyg
>
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