[okfn-coord] COMMUNIA catch-up

Mon Nov 24 19:51:22 UTC 2008

Hi all,

Pro and I just had a chat about where we' re up to with COMMUNIA
Workshop in March.

  http://okfn.org/board/wiki/CommuniaWorkshop

We're now ready to start inviting people.

Rufus: are you able to invite Javier Hernandez-Ros and Tom Watson? And
do you have a contact at Eurostat? Apart from that I think Pro and I
have everyone else covered.

We can use the blurb below.

J.

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Subject: 4th COMMUNIA Workshop: Accessing, Using and Reusing Public
Sector Content and Data

# When: 26-27th March 2009
# Where: New Academic Building, London School of Economics, London UK

Across the world there is a growing recognition of the social and
commercial value of public sector content and data: be that the text
of laws, the holdings of public museums, or the geospatial and
environmental information collected by government agencies. Can better
access, and use, of such information increase democratic
participation, improve governance and generally enhance the life of
citizens?

This two day workshop will focus on how we can unlock the huge
potential of public sector material. It was also examine the current
obstacles to doing this -- legal, technological and social -- as well
as how they can be overcome. In particular, much of the  potential
utility of public sector material depends on its being reused and
interlinked and there are major legal and technological issues to be
addressed if this potential is to be realized.

The workshop will bring together researchers, policy-makers,
stakeholders and representatives from across Europe for presentations
and discussions about projects, policies and practices aimed at
disseminating, connecting and building upon public sector material.

There will be four main sessions focusing on:

 * Social and economic value of public sector material
 * Getting the rights right - law and policy
 * Technology
 * Exemplars and Obstacles - case studies

In addition, the workshop will provide open space in which discussions
of topics of interest not specifically listed in the programme.