[okfn-discuss] Anyone interested? Creating an "Open Knowledge Index"

Mon Jul 4 11:21:18 UTC 2011

Dear Guo

This is an interesting proposal. epsiplatform has done something similar for EU countries in 2009: http://www.epsiplatform.eu/examples/scorecard and is about to carry the research out again soon.

So apart from defining the criteria for the index the real challenge would be to carry it out in as many countries as possible. Any idesas on this? 

Daniel

On 03.07.2011, at 03:21, Guo Xu wrote:

> Dear list(s),
> 
> The OKCon has passed and generated many ideas for exciting future projects.
> 
> One of the promising ideas I discussed with several participants was
> to compile an index to track progress in opening data - both over time
> and across countries. This would serve several purposes:
> 
> 1) Enable the public to make cross-country comparisons (i.e. which
> country performs well?) and track longitudinal developments (i.e.
> which country has improved on opening data?)
> 2) Serve as a useful tool for conducting open knowledge research (e.g.
> correlating the index with socio-economic variables - does open
> knowledge really foster innovation and growth?)
> 3) Ideally, increase impact of OKF in public - making the "Open
> Knowledge Index" a citable measure of open government
> 
> There are many indices out there - for tracking democracy, corruption,
> innovation and human development - so why not a measure to track
> progress in opening government? Such an index (leaving aside
> methodological problems for now) could greatly increase visibility of
> OKF's work: A success case here is Transparency International - before
> Ti published its corruption index, journalists had a hard time reading
> and understanding all the reports - with the creation of the
> Corruption Perception Index, Ti has become one of the most known NGOs
> in fighting corruption.
> 
> So why not have an Open Knowledge Index, released annually in a report
> and during the OKCon? This would greatly increase media attention!
> 
> I have some professional experience in creating indices (my research
> institute has been compiling the German innovation index for a while
> and we are currently drafting the funding proposal for an index of IT
> infrastructure resilience). The Open Economics WG itself has developed
> some experience with creating composite indices with the Yourtopia app
> we submitted previously at the Apps4Development competition. I would
> therefore volunteer to coordinate such an index within the Open
> Economics group, mainly as an open academic project. The first step
> would be to construct a prototype; in the longer run, we might also
> consider applying for research grants in order to create the index
> annually.
> 
> Just wanted to start a discussion and see who would be interested - we
> are planning to discuss this in greater detail during our regular
> Skype meetups.
> 
> Guo
> 
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