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

Fri Aug 5 08:04:40 UTC 2011

Thanks for setting up the list.

From FutureEverything's point of view we are concerned that many people don't see the bigger picture of which open data is just a part.
The journalists and developers will provide the interpretation approach that was proposed in Francis Maude's speech at the Wellcome Trust in London back in November was concerning. We believe that although the geeks and the journalists will do the best that they can, the shift in the way that data drives decisions, services and how people potentially engage with civil society means that there has to be another layer. Maybe this comes from data literacy and raising the awareness of the power of data, both public, personal and private sector?

We are very interested in how citizens can create and take ownership of data. As the world becomes increasingly data driven, communities being able to create their own data that can be used to augment or contest official data and decision making processes, and raise awareness and understanding is potentially very empowering.

Looking forward to the discussion

Julian Tait
Open Data Cities and DataGM
FutureEverything CIC

On 4 Aug 2011, at 11:59, Toby Blume wrote:

> Thanks David and David for kicking this off….
>  
> We’ve been having lots of disparate conversations about open data and so it’s great to help and pull things into a more contained space (and hopefully a more coherent and connected discussion).
>  
> A couple of thoughts and a couple of questions:
>  
> David P – can you explain a little more about the groups you’ve mentioned please. as I’m now slightly confused about the difference between them and this list. do they not do the same thing (ie connect people and conversation around open data and civil society?). I’m sure there are differences, or you wouldn’t have set up this list, but I’m not sure I quite understand them.
> 
> David K – do you see this group as focussing on how civil society uses public data? How civil society opens up its own data? Or both? clearly they are related and both needed, I just wasn’t sure what you were proposing.
>  
> From Urban Forum’s point of view, we’re very interested in the potential opportunity for communities and civil society to use open data to; hold the state to account, contribute to design and review/evaluation of public services and to inform their own work/activities. [that’s not to say we’re not interested in how civil society becomes more open and accountable to beneficiaries by adopting an open data approach. We are….just haven’t expended as much brain time to that as to the civic participation/community involvement side of things].
>  
> Some of the key challenges we see at present in relation to open data are:
> 1)     That the sector is woefully unaware of the whole agenda (aside from a small minority…who I suspect are those on this list!). And even our ‘champions’ in Whitehall – OCS – are (by their own, private, admission) pretty clueless about what government is doing and how it relates to the sector.
> 2)     Open data is for the most part being led by/left to techies and datageeks…and the implications of are that a developer-led agenda will deliver developer-based solutions (ie for the geeks by the geeks)…and the real potential for opendata to be transformative will be lost.
> 3)     The government (and much of the debate) is couched in terms of ‘transparency’ as if this is an end in itself…rather than this being a precursor for greater accountability. Transparency can be hugely disempowering – eg publishing 125,000 lines of public spending data without any context/explanation, is worthless (and worse than that, it creates an expectation that we’re missing something if we don’t try and interrogate it to find the ‘killer fact’ needle in the proverbial haystack. We must move the debate on and challenge this type of thinking if we are to use opendata in any meaningful way.
> 4)     We currently don’t have (or don’t know of) the necessary tools to use opendata effectively – and by tools I mean ones that are designed for citizens and community organisations to use…not people with Phd.s in GIS!
> 5)     The real potential in opendata lies in integrating/using different public data sets, along with civil society’s own data (and that from the private sector).
> 6)     If we do nothing the private sector will be all over this agenda like a rash and we will be so far behind it will be impossible to ever catch up.
>  
>  
> Anyway…that’s some thoughts from me.
>  
> Look forward to hearing what others think
>  
> Best wishes
>  
> toby
>  
> Toby Blume
> Chief Executive
> Urban Forum
>  
> E-Mail: toby at urbanforum.org.uk  Web: www.urbanforum.org.uk
> Tel: 020 7253 4816                     Fax: 020 7253 4817
> Urban Forum is the trading name of Diverse Cities, a company limited by guarantee, number 3418682, and a registered charity, number 1096131. Registered address: 33 Corsham Street, London N1 6DR.
>  
> Twitter: http://twitter.com/tobyblume/ 
>  
> From: open-civil-society-bounces at lists.okfn.org [mailto:open-civil-society-bounces at lists.okfn.org] On Behalf Of David Pidsley
> Sent: 04 August 2011 11:18
> To: List for Open Civil Society
> Subject: Re: [open-civil-society] Introducing open-civil-society {Scanned by Mailsafe}
>  
> 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
>  
> 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.
>  
> 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
> Facebook.com/davidpidsley
> 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
> 
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