[euopendata] Update on pan-European open data competition

Tue Mar 15 11:01:41 UTC 2011

Dear Jonathan,

On 14.03.2011, at 23:53, Jonathan Gray wrote:

> Hi all,
> 
> Following is an update on the pan-European 'Open Data Challenge'
> competition [1]. The Open Knowledge Foundation (OKF) and the Open
> Forum Academy (OFA) are leading the organisation of the competition
> under the auspices of the Share PSI initiative [2]. Updates on
> progress will be sent to both the existing 'euopendata' list and the
> new Share PSI list.

Excellent news!!

> 
> First of all: why bother? From my point of view there are three main
> reasons why this is worth doing:
> 
>  (i) to generate momentum for open data in Europe - encouraging more
> public bodies and more national governments to consider opening up
> their data
>  (ii) to strengthen the community of people interested in open data
> in Europe - e.g. connecting the dots between people in different
> places so we can make better applications and services, share
> expertise and experiences, and so on
>  (iii) to engage new people - e.g. data literate citizens, data
> journalists, designers and so on
> 
> What next? Here is the rough roadmap:
> 
>  * Until late March: soliciting for partners/sponsors
>  * Early April: competition opens
>  * Early June: competition closes
>  * Mid June: winners will be announced in Brussels

Sounds like a plan

> 
> As it says above, we are openly soliciting for input from
> parters/sponsors for this initiative. In particular we are looking
> for:
> 
>  * local contacts - to help with translating the competition website,
> liaising with local entrants, and evangelising about the competition
> in relevant local communities

OKF DE & Open Data Network will cover this for Germany

>  * local, regional and national public bodies - to contribute data
> and to show support for the competition from governments around Europe

we will try to convince them ;)

>  * media partners - to help show support for the competition, and to
> promote it in the country where they are based
>  * sponsors - to contribute towards the prizes
> 
> The competition will have three main strands:
> 
>  * Ideas – Anyone can suggest an idea for projects which reuse public
> information to do something interesting or useful. Applications are
> submitted in the form of a microshort video and short supporting text.
>  * Applications – Teams of developers can submit working applications
> which reuse public information. Applications must be made available
> under an open source license, and teams must include representation
> from at least two European member states.

I would suggest that applications could also be submitted as plain text. Not everybody is familiar with video.

>  * Visualisations – Designers, artists and others can submit
> interesting or insightful visual representations of public
> information.
> 
> Here are our immediate to do items:
> 
>  * Solicit for input from local contacts, public bodies, media
> partners and sponsors - I am coordinating this at the moment so if you
> have any ideas or you'd like more information, please contact me!
>  * Finalise judges
>  * Prepare website for launch - we've registered
> opendatachallenge.org, and need to put together a basic website that
> explains the idea, and that allows people to enter

I volunteer to do this website work.

> 
> Very exciting to (finally!) have the ball rolling on this. :-)

Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!

Daniel

> 
> All the best,
> 
> Jonathan
> 
> [1] For more information see the following (temporary) URL:
> http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3952743/OKF/opendatachallenge.pdf
> 
> [2] For anyone who hasn't yet seen this, Share PSI aims to bring
> together a wide range of stakeholders who are interested in seeing
> European public sector information (PSI) shared more effectively. This
> will feed directly into the Digital Assembly event in June. Membership
> is open to European organisations, and in the first instance involves
> adding your logo to the Share PSI website.
> 
> 
> -- 
> Jonathan Gray
> 
> Community Coordinator
> The Open Knowledge Foundation
> http://blog.okfn.org
> 
> http://twitter.com/jwyg
> http://identi.ca/jwyg
> 
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