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

[Neil McEvoy]

Yes this could be very powerful, as it provides metrics that are equally
important at the national level,

Eg in Canada there is now a specific Open Government Resolution. It's now
an 'official' government measure, and it would be productive to see where
each agency stands against this measure.

Neil.



> Hi all,
>
> Yes as Daniel says we are building a scoreboard for EU Member States on
> the
> progress being made with regard to opening up data for re-use. In a
> previous
> incarnation that was already part of the epsiplatform.eu but it's going to
> be revamped. Currently we are in discussion with the EC on which
> indicators
> to use, both to make top-down efforts (policies, legal framworks) as
> bottom-up efforts (open data movement, local activities, court cases)
> visible.
>
> As this is a developing field we don't want to lock the indicators in, but
> are adding a 'collector' for a narrative database to be able to spot
> emerging factors that can serve as indicators. That means we will be
> collecting stories/experiences from data users, data holders, and all the
> other stakeholders on what they actually do/go through when trying to deal
> with open data. The patterns over a body of those stories are of interest
> to
> us. It may show new themes (like data journalism popped up at some point),
> new obstacles, opportunities, or enduring barriers.
>
> best,
>
> Ton
> ePSIplatform community steward
> -------------------------------------------
> Interdependent Thoughts
> Ton Zijlstra
>
> ton at tonzijlstra.eu
> +31-6-34489360
>
> http://zylstra.org/blog
> -------------------------------------------
>
>
> On Mon, Jul 4, 2011 at 1:21 PM, Daniel Dietrich
> <daniel.dietrich at okfn.org>wrote:
>
>> Dear Guo
>>
>> This is an interesting proposal. epsiplatform has done something similar
>> for EU countries in 2009:
>> http://www.epsiplatform.eu/examples/scorecardand 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
>> >
>> > _______________________________________________
>> > okfn-discuss mailing list
>> > okfn-discuss at lists.okfn.org
>> > http://lists.okfn.org/mailman/listinfo/okfn-discuss
>>
>>
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-- 
Neil McEvoy
Founder
Cloud Best Practices Network
http://mcevoy.biz