[@OKFNau] Announcing Open Knowledge Melbourne

[Keith Moss]

Lachlan,

I just wanted to pass on a belated thanks for this post of yours.

It chimes with a fair bit of what I've been thinking about myself - and
gives a good shape to some vague ideas we've had over here in Perth about
the principles and structure of running open knowledge/data/government
meetups effectively.

Please keep us up-to-date with how Open Knowledge Melbourne is going :)

Cheers,

Keith

On Sun Nov 30 2014 at 4:59:48 PM Lachlan Musicman <datakid at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi All,
>
> I would like to announce the start of a weekly meet up called Open
> Knowledge Melbourne. It will be held on Wednesdays, currently we are
> planning on it being at ThoughtWorks, from 6pm-available. (Thanks TW!)
>
> http://www.meetup.com/Open-Knowledge-Melbourne/events/218919493/
>
> In some ways this is an extension or rebirth or rebrand of the
> #DataHack meet-up.
>
> Rationale
> ---------
>
> 1. The annual Hackathons are great events, but my personal experience
> was that we were unable to take up available funding to continue the
> projects because all participants had full time jobs or were otherwise
> engaged. This is a shame and a waste of good ideas and good work.
>
> 2. There seems to be uncertainty amongst the (perceived) natural
> constituency of IT types as to what a *Hack is.
>
> 3. Having now participated in Gov and HealthHack, most noticeable was
> the lack of non technical participants - designers and artists amongst
> others. In Skud's excellent critique* she also notes parents -
> something that we have discussed and are looking into being able to
> provide a space, food and care that are appropriate for children.
> This, unfortunately, will not be available immediately, but is next on
> the radar of "todos".
>
> 4. Open Data is new, and it is good. It will become an essential tool
> to democratic societies. Used well, we can keep government business
> transparent in a time of decreasing investigative journalism, help the
> government produce better services and to think outside the box, and
> develop a better understanding and language around data, it's uses and
> it's limitations.
>
> 5. Data is already being used by the Government and Business. It is
> important that civil society has access to that data, can have an
> authoritative voice in matters of individual privacy. Steve Bennett
> has been doing some excellent work to this end, but I fear he is the
> only one. His discoveries and networks need to be documented and
> worked with further.
>
> 6. Most important: If we don't use the data, it will stop coming out.
> The data needs to be used more often than annually. You cannot keep
> going to the Government and saying "open your data, you never know
> what might happen" if nothing ever happens.
>
> 7. Data analysis, data set analysis, data visualisation requires a lot
> of hard, boring work. Blue collar, dirty hands, mostly boring, work.
> The kind of work that is easier in groups, that takes time, effort, as
> wide a representation of society as possible.
>
> 8. The Open Knowledge movement should be looking to the Free, Libre
> and Open Source Software movement as an example - it can be built, it
> will be built, and we will build it.
>
> *9. Skud's critique -
> infotrope.net/2014/11/28/why-i-dont-like-hackathons-by-alex-
> bayley-aged-39-12
> - is valuable and well argued. But there is one thing that I take
> issue with, and Skud is not alone in making this mistake - we all
> have. A *athon *is* like a marathon. We should be running it all year,
> not just over a weekend. Marathon runners do not only run one weekend,
> one race. They are always preparing for the race. As we should be.
>
> 10. There are plenty of projects that could do with some of this type
> of love. Here is an incomplete short list:
>
>     a. OpenStreetMap eg, improving via changeset discussions
>     https://blog.openstreetmap.org/2014/11/02/introducing-change
> set-discussions
>     b. HipsterMap
>     c. All of Stevage's bike maps
>     d. the Melbourne LocalWiki project
>     e. Wikipedia
>     f. City of Melbourne, Victorian and National Government data -> either
> into
>         the above or just generally hacked
>     g. Growstuff
>     h. ???
>
> Endnote
> -------
>
> This is about Open Knowledge - there is no primacy given to data or
> computer scientists.
>
> This is about inclusion and democracy, and we will have to put in
> special effort to make sure that all people are welcome and able to
> come. Racism, sexism, gender or ability discrimination will be
> unwelcome and called out. Processes and services will be put into
> place to make sure that under represented groups feel able to attend.
> Most importantly outreach and dialogue should be entered into with as
> many groups as possible to make sure we do all we can to make the
> space as inclusive as possible.
>
> There will be a minimisation of speaker centric presentations. They
> will not be unwelcome, but I'm imagining a space where multiple groups
> are doing multiple things - some people are learning new software,
> others are working on particular projects, others are discussing
> results, or discussing the organisation of the night and the work that
> is done.
>
> So. That's my proposal. A small amount of discussion has happened
> between a handful of people to get to this point. I encourage you to
> get involved in any way you feel comfortable - all ideas, advice, and
> criticism is welcome.
>
> http://www.meetup.com/Open-Knowledge-Melbourne/events/218919493/
>
> Cheers
> Lachlan
>
> --
> You have to be really clever to come up with a genuinely dangerous
> thought. I am disheartened that people can be clever enough to do that
> and not clever enough to do the obvious thing and KEEP THEIR IDIOT
> MOUTHS SHUT about it, because it is much more important to sound
> intelligent when talking to your friends.
> This post was STUPID.
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> -----------------------------------------------
> The Most Terrifying Thought Experiment of All Time
> http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/bitwise/2014/07/rok
> o_s_basilisk_the_most_terrifying_thought_experiment_of_all_time.html
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