[okfn-discuss] Revenue Watch Institute / Open Knowledge Indicator

[Velichka Dimitrova]

Dear all,

I am Velichka, the Coordinator of the Open Economics Working Group and
I would like to tell you about our chat with the Revenue Watch
Institute and see if there would be any possibilities for cooperation.
They contacted us after we presented the Open Knowledge Indicator at
the Warsaw camp and asked for a Skype conference, which we had this
week.

The Revenue Watch institute (http://www.revenuewatch.org/) gathers
data on the transparency of governments and corporations in terms of
information about natural resources revenues. Their next project will
involve geospatial data, which they have gathered on mining and
extraction concessions, which they would like to combine with data on
governane and jurisdiction. RWI already has presented a Revenue Watch
Index (http://www.revenuewatch.org/rwindex2010/index.html), ranking 41
natural resources extracting countries according to measures of
governance,  institutions and access to information. They had the
resources to employ researchers, who gathered the primary data for
them through interviews with the governments.It would be a good idea
if somebody (coordinators or members of your WGs), who already has
experience in geospatial mapping could contact them and share
experience. Please, send me an email and I will give you their contact
details.

Our current project on the Open Knowledge Indicator
(http://openeconomics.net/open-knowledge-indicator/) ranked 38
countries according to three dimensions of open knowledge: capability,
legislation and open knowledge society. We have considered extending
the index to include more countries and would possibly like to release
an updated index every year. We depend, however, on secondary data and
the legislative measures will probably not change significantly every
year. If you have any ideas on how to improve and proceed with this
index, including disseminating the idea and the possible adoption of
the OK Indicator by other groups and institutions, please let me know.

Best,

Velichka Dimitrova