[open-development] Where next for the Open Development working group?

Sat Feb 2 19:22:38 UTC 2013

Hi all,

I'm excited to see what this emerging Open Development group gets up to this upcoming year. Given our interest in Open Development at the IDRC (Canada's International Development Research Centre), I'm trying to see if I might be able to drum up some funds to potentially support a group activity that would advance the field and grow the community. So, I wanted to throw this out to the group for brainstorming - how could some funds be put to productive use over the next year or so to advance open development?

There are a few constraints, of course. First, the funds would have to flow through an institution, so there would have to be someone willing to host and manage it. Second, the activity would have to have a focus on/include - and preferably be based out of - the 'global south'. Third, is the amount of funds -- we aren't talking a large amount here, but it also isn't fixed - it would of course depend upon the nature of the activity. I'm imagining that it could go as high as 25k, with which I'm sure we could accomplish a lot. Of course, if the group came up with an amazing idea, I could try to argue for more. ;-)

Perhaps when Tim comes back from the OKFN meeting of working groups - he can give us an update and then we could do a little brainstorming. There is certainly no obligation, of course, I just thought it might be a good opportunity given the group is currently pondering what to do for the upcoming year. If a good idea emerges, great. If not, perhaps next year!

I'd love any feedback.

Warm regards,
Matthew

Matthew L. Smith, Ph.D.
+1 613 696 2303
@openict4d

From: open-development-bounces at lists.okfn.org [mailto:open-development-bounces at lists.okfn.org] On Behalf Of Tim Davies
Sent: January 25, 2013 1:49 AM
To: open-development at lists.okfn.org
Subject: [open-development] Where next for the Open Development working group?

Hello all,

I'll be heading along to a meeting of the Open Knowledge Foundation Working Groups next weekend (2nd/3rd Feb) to catch up with how OKF is evolving, to learn from other working groups, and to think about how the Open Development group might develop over the coming year...

So - what should we be doing as a group?  [Jump straight to the etherpad for discussion at http://okfnpad.org/opendevwg ]

Right now we are described as "Central point of reference and support for people who are interested in open knowledge in development" and over the last year we have been involved in organising OKFest streams, sharing ideas and knowledge, supporting hack events on development data, and I'm sure lots of other things I've forgotten.

We run through this mailing list, and ad-hoc smaller groups. I'm nominally mailing list moderator, but we have no formal leaderships or committee.

So - if you can spare 3 minutes, then there's an etherpad here: http://okfnpad.org/opendevwg that you can edit to add your thoughts on:

  *   How the group should work
  *   What we should focus on in 2013
  *   Partnerships to develop
  *   And how to spend the small budget OKF make available to working groups
Suggestions to the list also welcome...

All the best

Tim
--
http://www.timdavies.org.uk
07834 856 303.
@timdavies
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