[okfn-announce] Open Knowledge Foundation Newsletter No. 9

Fri Jan 23 01:23:32 UTC 2009

Welcome to the ninth Open Knowledge Foundation newsletter!

Contents:

   * Hans Rosling of Gapminder joins the OKF Advisory Board
   * Open Milton launched for Milton's 400th birthday
   * Open Data Commons now at the OKF
   * 5th COMMUNIA Workshop in London, 26-27th March 2009
   * What Obama can do to promote openness
   * Post-event information: Workshops on Public Information + Open Science
   * Post-event information: Open Everything London + Berlin
   * Greek and Icelandic translations of the Open Knowledge Definition (OKD)
   * Other news in brief
   * Thanks to our volunteers!
   * Support the Open Knowledge Foundation
   * Further information

HANS ROSLING OF GAPMINDER JOINS THE OKF ADVISORY BOARD
======================================================

In December Professor Hans Rosling, Director of the Gapminder
Foundation and Professor of International Health at Karolinska
Institutet, joined the Open Knowledge Foundation's Advisory Board.

The Gapminder project is an excellent example of how public data can
be built upon to create rich and compelling new applications. Hans is
a strong proponent of allowing public data to be accessed and re-used.
Futhermore his experience in emerging visualisation technologies will
be extremely useful in directing the OKF's projects and activities in
the area of open visualisation. Welcome aboard Hans!

Hans Rosling of Gapminder joins the OKF Advisory Board!
http://blog.okfn.org/2008/12/16/hans-rosling-of-gapminder-joins-the-okf-advisory-board/

OPEN MILTON LAUNCHED FOR MILTON'S 400TH BIRTHDAY
================================================

The 9th of December 2008 was John Milton's 400th birthday. To
celebrate this life-long advocate of liberty we launched 'Open Milton'
– an open set of Milton's works, together with ancillary information
and tools, in a form designed for reuse. In addition to the works
themselves there is a chronology, statistics, a concordance and search
facilities.

>From new printed editions of Milton's works (any budding illustrators
out there?) to new kinds of electronic resources for research or
education - we hope people take the material and do interesting things
with it. Happy birthday John!

Open Milton
http://www.openmilton.org/

Open Milton launched for Milton's 400th birthday!
http://blog.okfn.org/2008/12/09/open-milton-launched-for-miltons-400th-birthday/

OPEN DATA COMMONS NOW AT THE OKF
================================

The Open Data Commons project has now found a new home here at the
OKF.  Open Data Commons hosts open data licenses such as the Public
Domain Dedication & License (PDDL) - developed by Jordan Hatcher and
Dr Charlotte Waelde. There is also a new mailing list for discussion
of the Open Data Commons licenses and any related open data issues.

Open Data Commons now at the OKF
http://blog.okfn.org/2009/01/22/open-data-commons-now-at-the-okf/

New Open Data Commons Discuss List
http://lists.okfn.org/mailman/listinfo/odc-discuss

5TH COMMUNIA WORKSHOP IN LONDON, 26-27TH MARCH 2009
===================================================

In November the OKF became a member of the EU funded COMMUNIA network,
which is "the European Thematic Network on the Digital Public Domain".
We are currently organising the 5th COMMUNIA Workshop, "Accessing,
Using and Reusing Public Sector Content and Data", which will take
place at London School of Economics, 26-27th March 2009.

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:

   1. Social and economic value of public sector material
   2. Getting the rights right: law and policy
   3. Getting the right tools for the job: technology and communities
   4. Exemplars and Obstacles: case studies

OKF joins COMMUNIA network
http://blog.okfn.org/2008/11/25/okf-joins-communia-network/

5th COMMUNIA Workshop: Accessing, Using and Reusing Public Sector
Content and Data, London, 26-27th March 2009
http://blog.okfn.org/2008/12/19/5th-communia-workshop-london-26-27th-march-2009/

WHAT OBAMA CAN DO TO PROMOTE OPENNESS
=====================================

With the inauguration of US President-Elect Barack Obama - we thought
we'd prepare a brief list of things he can do to promote openness in
his new role.

   1. Open government data.
   2. Open access to publicly funded research.
   3. Publish public information in way which makes it easy to re-use.
   4. Legal and licensing clarity.
   5. Make material open by default.

Further details are available on the blog.

What Obama can do to promote openness
http://blog.okfn.org/2009/01/20/what-obama-can-do-to-promote-openness/

POST-EVENT INFORMATION: WORKSHOPS ON PUBLIC INFORMATION + OPEN SCIENCE
======================================================================

We had a handful of open knowledge events before Christmas - including
a Workshop on Public Information, a Workshop on Open Scientific
Resources, Open Everything London, and Open Everything Berlin.

The Workshop on Public Information - supported by the Cabinet Office,
the Office of Public Sector Information (OPSI), the Power of
Information (POI) Taskforce and mySociety - brought together a wide
range of stakeholders for a day of fruitful and interesting
discussions about technical, legal and social aspects of public
information discovery and re-use. We also added 36 new packages of UK
government and other offical collections of documents and datasets to
CKAN.

At the Workshop on Open Scientific Resources we started drafting a set
of guidelines for making content and data open, and started planning
an 'unlocking service' to request material be made open, or terms of
use to be clarified. We added 50 new science packages to CKAN.

After the Workshop on Public Information
http://blog.okfn.org/2008/11/04/after-the-workshop-on-public-information/

After the Workshop on Open Scientific Resources
http://blog.okfn.org/2008/11/12/after-the-workshop-on-open-scientific-resources/

POST-EVENT INFORMATION: OPEN EVERYTHING LONDON + BERLIN
=======================================================

Open Everything London was headlined by Glyn Moody, Charles Leadbeater
and Rufus Pollock - and included speed geeks, discussions, open space,
as well as talks from:

 * Richard Allen, Chair of the Power Of Information Task Force
 * Charles Armstrong, Founder of Circus Foundation + CEO of Trampoline Systems
 * Helen King, Principal Advisor, Shuttleworth Foundation
 * Geoff Mulgan, Director of the Young Foundation + Visiting Professor
at University College, London, the London School of Economics and
University of Melbourne + Chair of Involve
 * Tom Steinberg, Founder and Director of mySociety

Open Everything Berlin started with a handover from Open Everything
Hong Kong and finished with a handover to Open Everything Madison.
There was a rich mix of sessions - covering everything from open
design and open fashion to open hardware. The day ended with the
launch of Ivo Gormley's Us Now.

Open Everything London
http://openeverything.wik.is/London

Open Everything Berlin
http://openeverything.wik.is/Berlin

GREEK AND ICELANDIC TRANSLATIONS OF THE OPEN KNOWLEDGE DEFINITION (OKD)
=======================================================================

We added an Icelandic translation of the Open Knowledge Definition
thanks to Hjalmar Gislason and Icelandic Open Data, and a Greek
translation thanks to Ioannis Doukas of King's College London and the
University of Athens.

If you'd like to translate the Definition into another language, or if
you've already done so, please get in touch!

Open Definition
http://opendefinition.org/

OTHER NEWS IN BRIEF
===================

   - New draft of GFDL aims to be interoperable with CC-BY-SA
http://blog.okfn.org/2008/11/04/gfdl-v13-cc-by-sa/

   - Biblios - "world's largest database" of open bibliographic data goes beta!
http://blog.okfn.org/2008/12/02/biblios-worlds-largest-database-of-open-bibliographic-data-goes-beta/

   - Musopen - free public domain music!
http://blog.okfn.org/2008/12/08/musopen-free-public-domain-music/

   - Australian Bureau of Statistics to use an open license!
http://blog.okfn.org/2008/12/10/australian-bureau-of-statistics-to-use-an-open-license/

   - More library-related open data
http://blog.okfn.org/2009/01/05/more-library-related-open-data/

THANKS TO OKF VOLUNTEERS!
=========================

As usual, a big thank you to our volunteers and to our extended virtual
community for their help with our projects and activities!

SUPPORT THE OPEN KNOWLEDGE FOUNDATION
=====================================

A donation to the Open Knowledge Foundation would greatly help us with
our overhead costs, including hosting (currently around £1000/year) and
project development. To find out more about supporting our work, please
visit:

     http://www.okfn.org/support

FURTHER INFORMATION
===================

If you would like to know more about what we are up to, please take a
look at our active projects page.

     http://www.okfn.org/projects/

If you are interested in participating in any of the OKF's projects,
please see our participate page, or join the OKF discuss list.

     http://www.okfn.org/participate/
     http://lists.okfn.org/mailman/listinfo/okfn-discuss

For further news and comments, see our blog:

     http://blog.okfn.org

The Open Knowledge Foundation is a not-for-profit organization. It is
incorporated in the United Kingdom as a company limited by guarantee
with company number 5133759. The registered office is 37 Panton Street,
Cambridge, CB2 1HL, UK.