[okfn-discuss] The Open Data Census - Tracking the State of Open Data Around the World

Wed Feb 20 13:49:33 UTC 2013

Just wanted to let folks know that I've put up a big post today about
the Open Data Census work we've been doing:

<http://blog.okfn.org/2013/02/20/open-data-census-tracking-the-state-of-open-data-around-the-world/>

It includes an update on all the contribution so far, some plans for
what we do next including work on the Census this Saturday at Open
Data Day (<http://okfn.org/events/open-data-day-2013/census>).

Regards,

Rufus

## Intro

Recent years have seen a huge expansion in open data activity around
the world. This is very welcome, but at the same time it is now
increasingly difficult to assess if, and where, progress is being
made.

To address this, we started the [Open Data Census][census] in order to
track the state of open data globally. The results so far, covering
more than 35 countries and 200 datasets, are now available online at
<http://census.okfn.org/>. We'll be building this up even more during
Open Data Day this weekend.

This post explains why we started the census and why this matters now.
This includes the importance of quality (not just quantity) of data,
the state of the census so far, and some immediate next steps - such
as expanding the census to the city level and developing an “open data
index” to give a single measure of open data progress.