[foundation-board] Update on new EU FP7 bid (CIVIS)

Thu Dec 9 16:27:15 UTC 2010

Hi all,

Just a quick note to inform the board that I met with one of the
leading members of an FP7 project bidding team that we are part of.

Here's a rough picture of what's happening:

  * Timeframe for bid: currently working hard on this, to be submitted
in early 2011.
  * Topic: using open data + data visualisation to improve policy
making process for citizens and decision makers
  * How are we involved: I've been speaking about this for a while to
Andrew Vande Moere, a senior lecturer at KU Leuven (also affiliated
with the University of Syndey) the guy behind infosthetics.com. I've
been corresponding with him for a while, and invited him to advise
Where Does My Money Go? before the project really got started.
  * What would the OKF be doing?: data refinement/storage/etc,  data
visualisation, community building, some informal impact assessment,
and other things.
  * What would outputs be? Open source toolkit for visualising open
data from cities for citizens and policy-makers. [1]
  * Do we have the expertise to do this?: I anticipate that many of
the core competencies are basically very similar to Where Does My
Money Go? So yes.
  * Do we have the (human) resources to do this?: Bearing in mind this
is an EU project, bidding now means that we will not start for *ages*.
By this time, its possible the 4IP funding will be over and we will
have a load of Shuttleworth stuff under our belt. Also I expect our
real capacity will have significantly grown (if our community/network
building continues to be successful), and hence there will be more
potential people we can take on for this on fixed term contracts.
  * Total bid: not yet finalised, but probably somewhere in the region
of 3 million euros
  * Number of partners: around 10 (including University of Potsdam,
City University London, Greater London Authorities, KU Leuven, and
others)

I currently own all action items associated with this.

This is just a note to let the board know that this is happening, and
requires no immediate action items. If you'd like more information, or
you have any questions/issues, please say now!

Hope you're all well!

J.

[1] for a *rough* idea of the kind of thing this could be like, see
this recent project from one of the consortium members:
http://infosthetics.com/archives/2010/12/placesurvey_opening_up_the_driving_factors_behind_the_satisfaction_of_citizens.html

-- 
Jonathan Gray

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

http://twitter.com/jwyg
http://identi.ca/jwyg