[foundation-board] AI4S: another EU FP7 proposal

[Rufus Pollock]

Dear Jonathan,

For my part I'm fully supportive of us participating in both these
bids - they relate to OKF's expertise, they seem to be useful
projects, to be reasonably planned, and we are not having to take on
too central or too bureaucratic a role.

Regards,

Rufus

On 18 January 2011 00:58, Jonathan Gray <jonathan.gray at okfn.org> wrote:
> A quick note to inform the board that we are also involved in another
> EU FP7 bid. Our involvement in this bid has been much more recent than
> CIVIS, which has been in the pipeline for several months. OKF Advisory
> Board member Sören Auer invited us to be part of the consortium. Jo
> also has been helping to try to procure letters of support from OS Geo
> / Open Street Map.
>
> A very brief summary of key things:
>
>  * OKF will be involved in work packages on:
>    - policy modeling as linked open data
>    - involvement in a workpackage on Connecting the Webs of People
> and Data (i.e. Crowdsourced LOD sources, Collective problem solving,
> Social network integration, Analysis and visualization in Web 2.0/3.0)
>    - involvement in the dissemination and publicity activities
> * 200k€ funding for approx. 30 person months work in the 36 month project
> * project would start late 2011/early 2012
>
> A short description is available below. This will also be submitted tomorrow.
>
> All the best,
>
> Jonathan
>
> ## AI4S - Accountable Infrastructure for Sustainable Spatial and
> Societal Strategy
>
> The fundamental role of spatial planning as an instrument in achieving
> the goal of sustainability has long been recognized, establishing the
> need for effective modeling and monitoring frameworks to assess policy
> effectiveness in achieving this goal.  In parallel, the sustainability
> paradigm shift introduced the need for openness, stakeholder and
> community involvement throughout policy decision making life cycles
> and governance processes.   The multitude and complexity of
> multi-scale governance and spatial planning processes for sustainable
> development, is increasingly being met by the challenge of obtaining
> data and appropriate societal interaction media which will enable
> effective policy development and implementation. The literature is
> abundant with sustainability indicator frameworks and modeling tools
> whose implementation however has been hindered in practice, due to
> their data intensity, and top down approach amongst other factors.
>
> Data requirements for policy modeling and monitoring purposes are
> increasing at an unprecedented rate. International treaties and
> programmes, EU directives and policies are continually establishing
> new requirements upon governments and the public sector at different
> levels, for modeling, monitoring and reporting, as well as stakeholder
> and community engagement practice. Yet an effective solution in
> ensuring the long term feasibility and financial viability of meeting
> these requirements, has yet to be found, inherently jeopardizing the
> sustainability of spatial planning and policy development processes.
> This innovative project proposes the investigation of the potential of
> novel ICT solutions and opportunities presented through the use of
> Linked Open Data, to address effectively data and participation needs
> required for sustainable policy modeling and monitoring needs.
>
> The vision of AI4S is twofold. First, we will facilitate governments
> on a national and regional level to model, propose and implement
> policies for sustainable spatial planning based on transparent,
> participatory and accountable processes, and technical means. Second,
> we will leverage societal interaction, participation and inclusion for
> sustainable growth as an intrinsic part of sustainability policy
> making.
>
> The goal of AI4S is to provide the theoretical foundations and
> technical instruments to support open spatial policy modeling for
> sustainable national and regional spatial planning. The cornerstone of
> our approach is the development of policy modeling techniques that
> fully embrace the principles of Linked Open Data (LOD). LOD inherently
> enable openness, transparency and accountability. Further, they apply
> to multi-faceted and interdisciplinary groups of individuals,
> providing great exposure to the general population. AI4S will build on
> these significant properties of LOD, grafting policy modeling with the
> same properties. Policy models and the policy making lifecycle as a
> whole will be delivered as LOD, establishing a sustainable and long
> term alternative policy making framework. This will enable
> accountability and transparency, providing automatic validation of
> policy models. Further, LOD allow citizens to participate in the
> policy making process on an even field: question decisions,
> indicators, policies, and actively participate with data, indicators,
> and policy models. Further, citizens will be able to repurpose
> existing Web 2.0/3.0 data analysis and visualization tools that
> support LOD.
>
> --
> Jonathan Gray
>
> Community Coordinator
> The Open Knowledge Foundation
> http://blog.okfn.org
>
> http://twitter.com/jwyg
> http://identi.ca/jwyg
>
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