[okfn-discuss] OKF website, about open knowledge/ open data

[Laura James]

Gene,

That's a good point - I agree it's not very clear and we should work at
improving the site, both in explaining the knowledge side, and also in
providing some clearer examples from different domains as to how openness
can help.

However, I think the main thing is that for us, open knowledge isn't just
open data+content, it's also the real reason why we do open data.  I
blogged about this recently:
http://blog.okfn.org/2013/05/01/open-knowledge-much-more-than-open-data/ -
excerpt: Open knowledge is what open data becomes when it’s useful, usable
and used. At the Open Knowledge Foundation we believe in open knowledge:
not just that data is open and can be freely used, but that it is made
useful – accessible, understandable, meaningful, and able to help someone
solve a real problem.

Data is super useful because you can break it down into components, and
reconnect it to find useful insights.  With content - when we talk about
images, texts, audio and so on - that's still quite hard, compared to how
easy it is to componentise data, and so it's harder to get the benefits of
remixing etc. Rufus explains this well in this post from 2011:
http://blog.okfn.org/2011/09/15/open-data-a-means-to-an-end-not-an-end-in-itself/
<http://blog.okfn.org/2011/09/15/open-data-a-means-to-an-end-not-an-end-in-itself/>

Best regards,

Laura



-- 

Dr Laura James

Co-Director  | skype: laura.james  |  @LaurieJ <https://twitter.com/LaurieJ>

The Open Knowledge Foundation <http://okfn.org/>

Empowering through Open Knowledge
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On 18 June 2013 12:12, Gene Shackman <eval_gene at yahoo.com> wrote:

> Hi folks
>
> I'm just starting to get into open knowledge and it is a very interesting
> area. The Open Knowledge Foundation looks like a great place to start
> learning about it. However, I had some questions about the home page
>
> http://okfn.org/
>
> From the viewpoint of a novice, it seems like a lot of the website seems
> to be about open -data-.
>
> For example, there is the "learn about openness" box in the center. This
> goes to a page "What is open data" http://okfn.org/opendata/  which says
> “Open data is data that can be freely used, reused and redistributed by
> anyone – subject only, at most, to the requirement to attribute and
> sharealike.”
>
> The "about us" drop down header also has a link to the same page, with the
> label "what is open data" (but no drop downs for what is open knowledge or
> open research or open not data)
>
> The Projects drop down has "data journalism handbook", "open data
> commons", "open data handbook"
>
> Down near the bottom, you have 4 image boxes, 2 of which are about data,
> "school of data" and ckan, the open data platform.
>
> There ARE mentions of other open stuff, for example the "about us" page
> does say "The Open Knowledge Foundation (OKF) is a non-profit organization
> founded in 2004 and dedicated to promoting open data and open content in
> all their forms – including government data, publicly funded research and
> public domain cultural content."
>
> But it seems to me, as a novice to the field, most of the info is about
> data. Perhaps people who know this area would easily understand the non
> data aspects, but I'm looking at it as someone who doesn't know much about
> this open access stuff (yet).
>
> Maybe if you had something like your following about us statement
> (modified) on the home page, where people first see the OKF without having
> to click on anything, it would be more evident what open access is all about
> "promoting open data and open content in all their forms – including data,
> research, reports, papers, and cultural content."
>
> I hope that makes sense.
>
> Gene
>
>
> Gene Shackman, Ph.D.
> The Global Social Change Research Project
> http://gsociology.icaap.org
> Free Resources for Methods in Evaluation and Social Research
> http://gsociology.icaap.org/methods
> ----------
> Applied Sociologist
> ----------
>
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