[okfn-announce] Open Knowledge Foundation Newsletter No. 10

Mon Mar 16 18:56:50 UTC 2009

Welcome to the tenth Open Knowledge Foundation newsletter!

Contents:

  * OKCon 2009, London, 28th March 2009
  * 5th COMMUNIA Workshop, 26-27th March 2009
  * Beta version of the Open Database Licence (ODbL)
  * Launch of Working Group on Open Data in Science
  * Chris Corbin joins OKF Advisory Board
  * Interview with OKF's Rufus Pollock on NetSquared
  * Public Interest Information Policy in Germany
  * Open Economics: Recent Progress
  * Other news in brief
  * Thanks to our volunteers!
  * Support the Open Knowledge Foundation
  * Further information

OKCON 2009, LONDON, 28TH MARCH 2009
===================================

The Open Knowledge Conference (OKCon) is back for its fourth
installment bringing together individuals and groups from across the
open knowledge spectrum for a day of discussions workshops.

This year the event will feature dedicated sessions on 'open knowledge
and development' and on 'the semantic web and open data'. Plus there's
the usual substantial allocation of 'Open Space' -- sessions,
workshops and discussions proposed either via the CFP or on the day.
If you'd like to give a presentation, or propose a session - please
see the CFP page.

Speakers will include:

 * Leigh Dodds, Talis
 * Jeni Tennison, London Gazette + RDFa
 * Tom Scott, BBC
 * Mark Charmer, AKVO
 * Simon Parrish, Aidinfo
 * Vinay Gupta, Appropedia
 * David Bollier, Author of "Viral Spiral"

We recommend advance registration - as places are limited!

Open Knowledge Conference (OKCon) 2009
http://okfn.org/okcon

OKCon 2009 Registration
http://okfn.org/okcon/register

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

The Open Knowledge Foundation is co-organising the EU funded 5th
Communia Workshop, "Accessing, Using, Reusing Public Sector Content
and Data".

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.
Speakers will include:

 * Tom Watson MP (TBC)
 * Jamie Love (Director, Knowledge Ecology International)
 * Rufus Pollock (Fellow, University of Cambridge + Director, Open
Knowledge Foundation)
 * Tom Steinberg (Director, mySociety)
 * Michael Nicholson (Deputy Chair, PSI Alliance + Expert Member, APPSI)
 * Mr. Luis Manuel Ferrão (European Commission)
 * Brian Fitzgerald (Queensland University of Technology)
 * Mireille van Eechoud (IViR)
 * Naomi Korn (JISC SCA Consultant)
 * Pierre Guillaume Wielezynski (World Food Programme)
 * Carol Tullo (Director, OPSI)
 * Simon Field (Chief Technology Officer, Office for National Statistics)
 * Brian Hoadley (Head of Product Design and Customer Insight, Directgov)
 * Ton Zijlstra + James Burke (Open government data project
commissioned by Ministry for Interior Affairs, Netherlands)
 * Richard Owens (WIPO)
 * Ben White (British Library)
 * Tom Moritz (Internet Archive)
 * Edward Betts (Open Library)
 * Frances Pinter (London School of Economics + Bloomsbury Academic)
 * Aaron Shaw (Fellow, Berkman Centre for Internet and Society,
Harvard University)
 * Paul Gerhardt (Archives for Creativity)
 * Mathias Schindler (Bundesarchiv image collection at Wikimedia Deutschland)
 * Hilary Roberts (Imperial War Museum on Flickr Commons)

5th Communia Workshop
http://communia-project.eu/ws05

BETA VERSION OF THE OPEN DATABASE LICENSE (ODBL)
================================================

As we announced in January the OKF has adopted the Open Data Commons
project. As part of the project Jordan Hatcher has been working on a
new Open Database License (ODbL) - which is now in beta.

Beta version of the Open Database Licence (ODbL)
http://blog.okfn.org/2009/03/16/beta-version-of-open-database-licence-odbl/

Open Database Licence (ODbL)
http://www.opendatacommons.org/licenses/odbl/

LAUNCH OF WORKING GROUP ON OPEN DATA IN SCIENCE
===============================================

There is now a new Working Group on Open Data in Science. In the first
instance, the group will aim to:

 1. Act as a central point of reference and support for people who
think they are interested in open data in science.
 2. Identify practices of early adopters, collecting data and
developing guides.
 3. Act as a hub for the development of low cost, community driven
projects around open data in science.

It is currently working on:

 * a prize for open data in science
 * a service to request that a given dataset to be made open or to
request clarification about whether or not it can be re-used
 * case studies on the benefits of open data in different domains

Working Group on Open Data in Science
http://blog.okfn.org/2009/03/13/working-group-on-open-data-in-science/

CHRIS CORBIN JOINS OKF ADVISORY BOARD
=====================================

We are pleased to announce that Christopher Corbin is now a member of
the Open Knowledge Foundation Advisory Board:

> Christopher Corbin is an independent researcher and advisor on the information society and the knowledge economy with specific interest in policy and its implementation with respect to public sector information. He is an openly selected expert advisor on Europe to the UK Advisory Panel for Public Sector Information (APPSI). Recent project involvement with respect to public sector information policy has included the European Union eContentplus funded ePSIplus Thematic Network (2006-2009), the Geographic Information Network in Europe (GINIE) (2001-2004). He has also contributed to the OECD initiatives on Public Sector Information policy principles.

His wealth of experience regarding all things related to public sector
information will be invaluable to the OKF. Welcome aboard Chris!

Chris Corbin joins OKF Advisory Board
http://blog.okfn.org/2009/03/05/chris-corbin-joins-okf-advisory-board/

INTERVIEW WITH OKF'S RUFUS POLLOCK ON NETSQUARED
================================================

Netsquared published an interview with Rufus Pollock, co-founder of
the Open Knowledge Foundation.

The interview includes discussion about the distinction between price
and value, about the Open Knowledge Definition, about CKAN, about
decentralised approaches to working with large quantities of data,
about packaging for knowledge and about ‘Shiny Front End Syndrome’. It
ends with 3 suggestions for people publishing collections of content
or data.

Interview with Rufus Pollock on NetSquared
http://blog.okfn.org/2009/01/27/interview-with-rufus-pollock-on-netsquared/

PUBLIC INTEREST INFORMATION POLICY IN GERMANY
=============================================

The OKF's Jonathan Gray wrote a short piece for Berlin-based think
tank Das Progressive Zentrum on public interest information policy in
Germany. The piece finishes with three policy suggestions:

 1. Support legislation as well as licensing and pricing policies that
support public re-usability of Public Sector Information. The creation
of a national register of PSI assets, and the commissioning of a
country-wide and cross-sector report would help to inform appropriate
activity in this area.
 2. Support mandates for open access to publicly funded research.
These should target higher education institutions, as well as funding
bodies and umbrella organisations.
 3. Keep the public domain in the public domain. Encourage publicly
funded cultural heritage institutions to allow digital copies of their
holdings to be re-used by the public. Encourage the adoption of
intellectual property law and policy that takes account of public
interest, as well as private interests

Public Interest Information Policy in Germany
http://blog.okfn.org/2009/02/17/public-interest-information-policy-in-germany/

OPEN ECONOMICS: RECENT PROGRESS
===============================

There were some substantial improvements and additions to our Open
Economics project including:

 * Improved javascript graphing.
 * Extend Millenium Development Goals package and added web interface.
 * First efforts at ‘Where Does My Money Go’ - a project to visually
represent UK public spending

Open Economics: Recent Progress
http://blog.okfn.org/2009/01/23/open-economics-recent-progress/

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

  - KForge v0.15 Released
http://blog.okfn.org/2009/02/16/kforge-v015-released/

  - Open Shakespeare Book Design
http://blog.okfn.org/2009/02/26/open-shakespeare-edition-book-design/

  - Open Everything Berlin + CC Salon Berlin
http://blog.okfn.org/2009/02/27/open-everything-berlin-cc-salon-berlin/

  - BarCamp UKGovWeb 2009
http://blog.okfn.org/2009/02/06/barcamp-ukgovweb-2009/

  - Photographing public domain works - Wikipedia Loves Art
http://blog.okfn.org/2009/01/28/wikipedia-loves-art/

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

As usual, a big thank you to our volunteers and to our extended
virtual community for all of their valuable input!

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.