[okfn-coord] Fwd: EU Open Data Summit / new farmsubsidy.org website

[Jonathan Gray]

FYI


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Jack Thurston <mail at jackthurston.com>
Date: Wed, Jun 3, 2009 at 1:45 PM
Subject: EU Open Data Summit / new farmsubsidy.org website
To: Julian Todd <julian at goatchurch.org.uk>, Rob McKinnon
<rob at theyworkforyou.co.nz>, Jonathan Gray <jonathan.gray at okfn.org>,
Richard Pope <richard at memespring.co.uk>, Jan Seifert
<email at jan-seifert.de>, Jon Worth <jon at jonworth.eu>,
bente.kalsnes at gmail.com, kate moyse <moysekate at hotmail.com>, david
osimo <david.osimo at gmail.com>, Nils Mulvad
<nils.mulvad at kaasogmulvad.dk>, Tommy Kaas
<tommy.kaas at kaasogmulvad.dk>, Brigitte Alfter <brig at mail.dk>, Hajo
Friedrich <h.friedrich at faz.de>, Sara Hagemann <S.Hagemann at epc.eu>


Dear Summiteers,

Sorry it's been so long since I promised a follow up email after the
Open Data Summit. I wanted to wait until the new farmsubsidy.org site
was up and due to some technical glitches this got delayed a couple of
weeks. It's now up and while there are things that Simon is still
working on, from minor bug fixes to setting up the functionality for
custom lists, maps, and some improvements to styling etc, you can see
the basic shape of it. The search is super fast, thanks to Simon's
innovative database design:

http://farmsubsidy.org

It would be immensely useful to have your feedback on what can be
improved, what doesn't make sense etc.

There is an open, editable, bug log here:

http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=rSi1QF8BSoY4BwR9gGxHl0A

Fishsubsidy.org will follow later this month and will follow a very
similar design.

>From where I'm standing summit was a tremendous success and I hope you
found it productive and enjoyable. We got a lot of work done,
identified a huge amount more that could be done (!), held a press
conference to a packed room (rare for NGOs in Brussels!) and generated
a lot of attention for the new style of collaboration between
journalists, data experts and researchers. I think there's a real
appetite for more of this and we're working on making that happen.

Jonathan has rounded up some of the blog reactions at the end of his
own blog post:
http://blog.okfn.org/2009/05/11/european-open-data-summit/

Brigitte's report here:
http://www.wobsite.be/index.php?page=4&detail=471

Some kind words from Hajo:
http://blogs.euobserver.com/friedrich/2009/05/13/follow-the-money/

The millionaires list was on the front page of the IHT and featured in
the New York Times to. We were also on the home page of the EU
Observer website, the main online news source for EU affairs. There
was a lot of other media interest and some offers of help from
volunteers, which is great. People seem to agree that we're doing good
work and want to be part of it.

Don't forget about all the fantastic data that Jonathan uncovered and
collated into the Inventory. This is still a work in progress and
please do use it record any data you uncover in the future:

http://ckan.net/tag/read/eutransparency

Kate is busy editing the video footage and we should have a short film
that tells the story of farmsubsidy.org before too long. There'll be
screenings in London and Brussels and it will be available online and
on DVD.

Now the question is, when should we hold the 'second' European Open
Data Summit? I'm starting to work on finding some funding for it - any
leads on that score would be really appreciated. It's a slightly
austere world out there among the private foundations, but I think we
have a good claim to be right up there on the value-for-money scale
and am sure there is an appetite among foundations for supporting the
kind of innovative collaboration that we have begun.

If anyone has any outstanding travel expenses for getting to Brussels,
I enclose a form for reimbursement. I'll need original receipts or
tickets. (Jan - this doesn't apply to you as you've already sent yours
in).

Many thanks,

Jack









--
Jonathan Gray

Community Coordinator
The Open Knowledge Foundation
http://www.okfn.org



-- 
Jonathan Gray

Community Coordinator
The Open Knowledge Foundation
http://www.okfn.org