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Sun Mar 31 09:34:23 UTC 2013

developers who want to work on open knowledge projects. Our OKF Labs
continue to provide a place where like-minded hackers who want to develop
and use open source tools for open knowledge can collaborate.

*Empowering people to use data to change the world*

Over the past few years, we haven=E2=80=99t just been working to open up th=
e
world=E2=80=99s knowledge: we have also helped more people than ever to use=
, share
and benefit from it.

Our School of Data project works to help journalists and civil society
organisations use data to improve their research and reportage. The Data
Journalism Handbook, a free book that we created with the European
Journalism Centre, shows journalists how to use data to improve the news
and is now being translated into many different languages including Arabic,
Chinese, French, Spanish, and Russian.

*Opening up our culture*

We have long been interested in the digital public domain and the cultural
commons =E2=80=93 from our early attempts to build a global registry of pub=
lic
domain works, to trying to model copyright law in countries around the
world to determine which works are in the public domain.

The Public Domain Review started life as a relatively modest project to
highlight interesting public domain works and to raise awareness of
importance of having an open cultural commons. In the past few years it has
received extensive praise from some of the world=E2=80=99s most prestigious
literary publications, and has a dedicated base of regular readers which is
just about to hit 10,000.

Our OpenGLAM initiative continues to liase with cultural institutions
around the world to encourage them to open up their holdings =E2=80=93 and =
to
support people who are trying to create useful things using open cultural
material, through initiatives such as the Open Humanities Awards.

*Where we=E2=80=99re going*

Since 2004, we=E2=80=99ve become a truly international organisation. We=E2=
=80=99ve gone
from being a handful of like-minded advocates =E2=80=93 mainly based in the=
 UK and
Europe =E2=80=93 to becoming a global network, spanning countries and citie=
s across
the world.

We want to continue to expand and empower this network, to open up
essential information about things that matter =E2=80=93 from carbon emissi=
ons to
clinical trials to our cultural past. We want to catalyse and support
projects which use open knowledge to change the world for the better,
whether through greater accountability, more successful data driven
investigative journalism projects, or more collaborative scientific
research.

We=E2=80=99re looking forward to many more years of open knowledge, and we =
have
some really exciting plans for our tenth year and beyond. We hope you=E2=80=
=99ll
join us.

 Original Page:
http://blog.okfn.org/2013/05/20/happy-9th-birthday-to-the-open-knowledge-fo=
undation/<http://pocket.co/sEYl2>

Shared from Pocket <http://getpocket.com>
--=20
-------------------------------------------------------
Flanders' Channels:
blog: http://dfflanders.wordpress.com/
twitter: http://twitter.com/dfflanders <https://twitter.com/dfflanders>
skype: david.flanders
mobile: 0407 821 686

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<div dir=3D"ltr">I&#39;m pleased to announce that Dr. Rufus Pollock (founde=
r of OKFN) will be visiting Australia in July.=C2=A0 Further details to fol=
low including public lectures in Melbourne, Sydney and a parliamentary lect=
ure in Canberra.=C2=A0 See the OKFN Australasia blog for further announceme=
nts:

<div class=3D"gmail_quote">

<a href=3D"http://au.okfn.org/blog/">http://au.okfn.org/blog/</a>
Happy 9th Birthday to the Open Knowledge Foundation!
				<a href=3D"http://blog.okfn.org" target=3D"_blank">blog.okfn.org<=
/a> | May 20th 2013 			 			 			 			 				 				 				 
If you=E2=80=99d like to give the Open Knowledge Foundation a birt=
hday gift, please consider making a regular or one-off donation to support =
our work opening up knowledge around the world!
Nine years ago today the Open Knowledge Foundation was born. We=E2=80=99=
ve come a long way from our humble beginnings in Cambridge in 2004.
From government to science to culture, open knowledge is now on its w=
ay to being established as an essential part of our information environment=
.
Governments around the world are now putting open data at the heart of t=
heir transparency plans. Major publishers and research funding bodies are s=
upporting and mandating open access to research publications and data. Lead=
ing cultural institutions and cultural portals are opening up their holding=
s.

<p>And there are now more projects, initiatives and organisations than ever=
 before dedicated to using open knowledge to improve the world =E2=80=93 fr=
om civic hacking to citizen science, from data journalism to the digital hu=
manities.</p>

<p>But we still have our work cut out for us: <i>much essential information=
 about the world is still locked up or gathering dust</i>, and <i>much rema=
ins to be done if we are to put this information to work to improve the wor=
ld</i>.</p>

To mark the occasion of us entering our tenth year, we=E2=80=99re going =
to have a quick look at where we=E2=80=99ve come from, and some of our hope=
s for the future.
Where we=E2=80=99ve come from
Many of the Foundation=E2=80=99s earliest projects, principles, activiti=
es and aspirations are still with us today.
The Open Definition =E2=80=93 our foundational text
The Open Definition =E2=80=93 which sets out principles that define =E2=
=80=9Copenness=E2=80=9D in relation to data and content =E2=80=93 was one o=
f the first projects that we launched, and it still underpins everything we=
 do.
The world=E2=80=99s biggest open knowledge events
Early on we still ran our big annual open knowledge events, like the one=
s we run today. Writer and open source advocate Glyn Moody (who now sits on=
 our Advisory Board) wrote of our first edition of the Open Knowledge Confe=
rence (OKCon), Open Knowledge 1.0 in London:

<blockquote><p>The location was atmospheric: next to Hawksmoor=E2=80=99s am=
azing St Anne=E2=80=99s church, which somehow manages the trick of looking =
bigger than its physical size, inside the old Limehouse Town Hall.</p>
<p>The latter had a wonderfully run-down, almost Dickensian feel to it; it =
seemed rather appropriate as a gathering place for a ragtag bunch of ne=E2=
=80=99er-do-wells: geeks, wonks, journos, activists and academics, all with=
 dangerously powerful ideas on their minds, and all more dangerously powerf=
ul for coming together in this way.<br>

</blockquote>
 
Our 2010 and 2011 Open Government Data Camp events helped to transform a lo=
ose knit group of public servants, hackers and advocates into a coordinated=
 force for open data around the world. Last year saw over 1000 people gathe=
r in Helsinki for OKFestival 2012, which was the biggest open knowledge eve=
nt to date. This year, OKCon 2013 in Geneva will convene governments and ci=
vil society representatives from dozens of countries to figure out how to s=
upport the growth of open knowledge internationally.

=E2=80=98Raw data now=E2=80=99
OKF Founder Rufus Pollock=E2=80=99s 2007 call to =E2=80=98Give Us the Da=
ta Raw, and Give it to Us Now=E2=80=99 was adopted and popularised by web i=
nventor Sir Tim Berners-Lee in a 2009 TED talk. This became one of the rall=
ying calls of the open data movement around the world, and was widely cover=
ed up in the media (for example, see articles in the BBC, the Guardian, or =
Wired).

Following the money
A prototype of our Where Does My Money Go? project =E2=80=93 which shows=
 how UK public funds are spent =E2=80=93 was featured on the front page of =
the BBC News. The Open Knowledge Foundation went on to play a leading role =
in securing the release of the COINS and =C2=A325k spending data, which are=
 amongst the most detailed spending databases ever released by any governme=
nt. Our Open Spending project now has over 13 million transactions, coverin=
g over 50 countries and over 80 cities and regions around the world =E2=80=
=93 from Belgium to Bosnia, Portugal to Puerto Rico.

Open source tools for open data
CKAN, our open source data platform, was one of our earliest software pr=
ojects. It is now being used by governments and organisations around the wo=
rld, and last week saw a major new release.
From our earliest years, the Open Knowledge Foundation has attracted dev=
elopers who want to work on open knowledge projects. Our OKF Labs continue =
to provide a place where like-minded hackers who want to develop and use op=
en source tools for open knowledge can collaborate.

Empowering people to use data to change the world
Over the past few years, we haven=E2=80=99t just been working to open up=
 the world=E2=80=99s knowledge: we have also helped more people than ever t=
o use, share and benefit from it.
Our School of Data project works to help journalists and civil society o=
rganisations use data to improve their research and reportage. The Data Jou=
rnalism Handbook, a free book that we created with the European Journalism =
Centre, shows journalists how to use data to improve the news and is now be=
ing translated into many different languages including Arabic, Chinese, Fre=
nch, Spanish, and Russian.

<p><b>Opening up our culture</b></p>
<p>We have long been interested in the digital public domain and the cultur=
al commons =E2=80=93 from our early attempts to build a global registry of =
public domain works, to trying to model copyright law in countries around t=
he world to determine which works are in the public domain.</p>

The Public Domain Review started life as a relatively modest project to =
highlight interesting public domain works and to raise awareness of importa=
nce of having an open cultural commons. In the past few years it has receiv=
ed extensive praise from some of the world=E2=80=99s most prestigious liter=
ary publications, and has a dedicated base of regular readers which is just=
 about to hit 10,000.

<p>Our OpenGLAM initiative continues to liase with cultural institutions ar=
ound the world to encourage them to open up their holdings =E2=80=93 and to=
 support people who are trying to create useful things using open cultural =
material, through initiatives such as the Open Humanities Awards.</p>

Where we=E2=80=99re going
Since 2004, we=E2=80=99ve become a truly international organisation. We=
=E2=80=99ve gone from being a handful of like-minded advocates =E2=80=93 ma=
inly based in the UK and Europe =E2=80=93 to becoming a global network, spa=
nning countries and cities across the world.

We want to continue to expand and empower this network, to open up essen=
tial information about things that matter =E2=80=93 from carbon emissions t=
o clinical trials to our cultural past. We want to catalyse and support pro=
jects which use open knowledge to change the world for the better, whether =
through greater accountability, more successful data driven investigative j=
ournalism projects, or more collaborative scientific research.

<p>We=E2=80=99re looking forward to many more years of open knowledge, and =
we have some really exciting plans for our tenth year and beyond. We hope y=
ou=E2=80=99ll join us.</p>
<p>				 				 				 				 			 		 		 		 	</p>
<p>Original Page: <a href=3D"http://pocket.co/sEYl2" target=3D"_blank">http=
://blog.okfn.org/2013/05/20/happy-9th-birthday-to-the-open-knowledge-founda=
tion/</a></p>
<p>Shared from <a href=3D"http://getpocket.com" target=3D"_blank">Pocket</a=
></p></div>-- <br><div dir=3D"ltr">----------------------------------------=
---------------<div>Flanders&#39; Channels:</div><div>blog:=C2=A0<a href=3D=
"http://dfflanders.wordpress.com/" target=3D"_blank">http://dfflanders.word=
press.com/</a></div>

<div>twitter:=C2=A0<a href=3D"https://twitter.com/dfflanders" target=3D"_bl=
ank">http://twitter.com/dfflanders</a></div><div>skype: david.flanders</div=
><div>mobile: 0407 821 686</div></div>
</div>

--047d7b5d9c8f0c2d8e04ddea6bc2--