[open-development] New report on sharing aid information is now open for comments

Mon Sep 21 17:24:11 UTC 2009

Hi folks,

A report by the Open Knowledge Foundation <http://okfn.org/>  and
aidinfo <http://aidinfo.org/>  has just been published for open
consultation and we want your views. The report, Unlocking the potential
of aid information <http://www.co-ment.net/text/1612/> , looks at how to
make information related to international development (i) legally open,
(ii) technically open and (iii) easy to find.

The report aims to inform the development of an International Aid
Transparency Initiative (IATI <http://aidtransparency.net/> ) platform
for publishing and sharing aid information. IATI is not about creating
another database on aid activities, but developing standards and
creating a platform that will enable existing databases - and potential
new services - to access this aid information and create compelling
application providing more detailed, timely, and accessible information
about aid.

The report and background can be found at
http://wiki.okfn.org/AidinfoReport

There are three main recommendations in the report:

*	Recommendation 1 - Aid information should be legally open. The
standard should require a core set of standard licenses for pubishing
aid information under. 
*	Recommendation 2 - Aid information should be technically open.
The standard should require that raw data is made available in bulk (not
just via an API or web interface) with any relevant schema information 
*	Recommendation 3 - Aid information should be easily findable.
The standard should require that aid organisations add their knowledge
assets to a registry with some basic metadata describing the
information.

There are two documents available for open consultation: 

*	An IATI Platform background consultation note: Commentable
version <http://www.co-ment.net/text/1613/>  
*	The technical consultation paper Unlocking the potential of aid
information: Commentable version <http://www.co-ment.net/text/1612/>  

Look forward to hearing from you.....

Simon

Simon Parrish | aidinfo @ Development Initiatives | * email:
simon at devinit.org <mailto:simonp at devinit.org>  | : Web:
http://www.aidinfo.org <http://www.aidinfo.org/>   | : Web:
http://www.devinit.org <http://www.devinit.org/>   | : Web:
http://www.commit4africa.org <http://www.commit4africa.org/>   | ( UK
mobile: +44 (0) 7794 147 644| ( Skype: simon.parrish73

Independent research on aid, development policy, NGOs and government
relations

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