[open-development] [open-government] [okfn-discuss] Anyone interested? Creating an "Open Knowledge Index"

[Ton Zijlstra]

Hi all,

Yes as Daniel says we are building a scoreboard for EU Member States on the
progress being made with regard to opening up data for re-use. In a previous
incarnation that was already part of the epsiplatform.eu but it's going to
be revamped. Currently we are in discussion with the EC on which indicators
to use, both to make top-down efforts (policies, legal framworks) as
bottom-up efforts (open data movement, local activities, court cases)
visible.

As this is a developing field we don't want to lock the indicators in, but
are adding a 'collector' for a narrative database to be able to spot
emerging factors that can serve as indicators. That means we will be
collecting stories/experiences from data users, data holders, and all the
other stakeholders on what they actually do/go through when trying to deal
with open data. The patterns over a body of those stories are of interest to
us. It may show new themes (like data journalism popped up at some point),
new obstacles, opportunities, or enduring barriers.

best,

Ton
ePSIplatform community steward
-------------------------------------------
Interdependent Thoughts
Ton Zijlstra

ton at tonzijlstra.eu
+31-6-34489360

http://zylstra.org/blog
-------------------------------------------


On Mon, Jul 4, 2011 at 1:21 PM, Daniel Dietrich <daniel.dietrich at okfn.org>wrote:

> Dear Guo
>
> This is an interesting proposal. epsiplatform has done something similar
> for EU countries in 2009: http://www.epsiplatform.eu/examples/scorecardand is about to carry the research out again soon.
>
> So apart from defining the criteria for the index the real challenge would
> be to carry it out in as many countries as possible. Any idesas on this?
>
>
> Daniel
>
>
>
> On 03.07.2011, at 03:21, Guo Xu wrote:
>
> > Dear list(s),
> >
> > The OKCon has passed and generated many ideas for exciting future
> projects.
> >
> > One of the promising ideas I discussed with several participants was
> > to compile an index to track progress in opening data - both over time
> > and across countries. This would serve several purposes:
> >
> > 1) Enable the public to make cross-country comparisons (i.e. which
> > country performs well?) and track longitudinal developments (i.e.
> > which country has improved on opening data?)
> > 2) Serve as a useful tool for conducting open knowledge research (e.g.
> > correlating the index with socio-economic variables - does open
> > knowledge really foster innovation and growth?)
> > 3) Ideally, increase impact of OKF in public - making the "Open
> > Knowledge Index" a citable measure of open government
> >
> > There are many indices out there - for tracking democracy, corruption,
> > innovation and human development - so why not a measure to track
> > progress in opening government? Such an index (leaving aside
> > methodological problems for now) could greatly increase visibility of
> > OKF's work: A success case here is Transparency International - before
> > Ti published its corruption index, journalists had a hard time reading
> > and understanding all the reports - with the creation of the
> > Corruption Perception Index, Ti has become one of the most known NGOs
> > in fighting corruption.
> >
> > So why not have an Open Knowledge Index, released annually in a report
> > and during the OKCon? This would greatly increase media attention!
> >
> > I have some professional experience in creating indices (my research
> > institute has been compiling the German innovation index for a while
> > and we are currently drafting the funding proposal for an index of IT
> > infrastructure resilience). The Open Economics WG itself has developed
> > some experience with creating composite indices with the Yourtopia app
> > we submitted previously at the Apps4Development competition. I would
> > therefore volunteer to coordinate such an index within the Open
> > Economics group, mainly as an open academic project. The first step
> > would be to construct a prototype; in the longer run, we might also
> > consider applying for research grants in order to create the index
> > annually.
> >
> > Just wanted to start a discussion and see who would be interested - we
> > are planning to discuss this in greater detail during our regular
> > Skype meetups.
> >
> > Guo
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > okfn-discuss mailing list
> > okfn-discuss at lists.okfn.org
> > http://lists.okfn.org/mailman/listinfo/okfn-discuss
>
>
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