[open-civil-society] Introducing open-civil-society

Thu Aug 4 10:17:55 UTC 2011

Further to Dave's summary, I'd like to welcome everyone to the list and
encourage you to use:

our Civil Society Data Hub at http://thedatahub.org/group/civil-society which
is a group for anyone interested in sharing open data related to Civil
Society (voluntary, civic and social organisations); it is a great place to
start moving datasets into, for example from http://data.ncvo-vol.org.uk
; and

OKF's Civil Society Interest Group http://okfn.org/groups/civil-society/ for
members and meeting people.

By way of a definition:

"Civil Society is composed of the totality of voluntary civic and social
organizations and institutions that form the basis of a functioning society,
as distinct from the force-backed structures of a state (regardless of that
state's political system) and commercial institutions of the market."
Wikipedia <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_society>

For anyone just getting started in this space, you might like to read
this article from October on Options for young volunteers: 'scrape vs.
scrounge' for open charity data <http://davidpidsley.com/open-our-future>.

Feel free to contact me on anything open civil society related.

Kindest regards,

David

David Pidsley
Ambassador for Civil Society,
Open Knowledge Foundation

davidpids at gmail.com
Mobile: 07967 488604
Skype: davidpids
Twitter.com/davidpidsley <http://twitter.com/davidpidsley>
Facebook.com/davidpidsley
LinkedIn.com/in/davidpidsley <http://linkedin.com/in/davidpidsley>
Blog: http://davidpidsley.com

On 4 August 2011 10:53, David Kane <David.Kane at ncvo-vol.org.uk> wrote:

>
> Hello - if you're receiving this email, it's because you've signed up to
> the open-civil-society email discussion list.
>
> A little background to the list - it came about as the result of a
> conversation between myself and Jonathan from the Open Knowledge
> Foundation. We talked about how there seemed to be a growing community
> of people coming together who were interested in open data/open
> knowledge and charities/civil society/social enterprise.
>
> Jonathan very kindly offered OKFN's services in terms of hosting an
> email discussion list - and so open-civil-society was born, as an
> attempt to connect those people. But with no greater masterplan than
> that.
>
> What the list is specifically for is up to the list members. I think I'm
> particularly interested in a few things:
>
>  - how do open data and civil society work together? - what happens when
> the practical collides with the technical? I'd be really interested in
> case studies that people have of open data working for charities-
> whether that's helping them become more accountable or improve their
> services, or how they use open data to hold others to account.
>
>  - sharing any events, reports, websites or data sets that are released
> - it's always useful to be kept up to date with *relevant* material.
>
>  - 'theoretical' discussion - what does open data mean for civil
> society? Does civil society have an obligation to be more open? Where
> are the boundaries between being a private organisation and being
> accountable? Do the arguments for government becoming more open apply to
> civil society or are there different ones? Are the benefits the same?
> What are the downsides?
>
> That's my starter for 10 - but I'm sure there are lots of other ideas.
> Interested in thoughts that you have.
>
> I'd also encourage you all to promote the list to others who might be
> interested. It's been very informal and twitter-based so far (and the
> list has actually been set up for a long time without any promotion!)
> I'm the only moderator on the list so far - so any other volunteers for
> that are welcome!
>
> Thanks
>
> David
>
>
> David Kane
> Research Officer
> National Council for Voluntary Organisations
> david.kane at ncvo-vol.org.uk | 020 7520 2579
> www.ncvo-vol.org.uk/almanac | @kanedr
>
> _______________________________________________
> open-civil-society mailing list
> open-civil-society at lists.okfn.org
> http://lists.okfn.org/mailman/listinfo/open-civil-society
>
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