[open-development] Open Development Fellowship

Claudia Schwegmann claudia.schwegmann at okfn.org
Fri Oct 4 15:52:15 UTC 2013 

Dear all
Thanks Katelyn for getting us moving again! And thanks a lot, Cobi for
challenging us. Your comments are highly welcome.

Cobi, you are 100% right about the geographical quirkiness of "global
south". I guess this term was born out of a wide-spread unease with the
term "developing country"  - after all, all societies are developing. I
agree that wording is important - but I cannot think of terms that I
personally would be totally happy with. Maybe as a group we can find better
terms.

On the bursary question: I don't think the list of bursary is online. Maybe
a bit of background info on this is helpful - apologies if all this is
known to everybody. Before the Helsinki OKfest Tim Davies, who used to
facilited this group, invited people to help with the organisation of the
OKFest development stream. Following this invitation a self-selected group
on this people got together to prepare the OKfest, to look for funding for
travel bursaries and to organise events at the okfest. So in this case we
are just talking about travel bursaries - for people from developing
countries / the global south / .... There was a call for applications was
made on this list, people from all over the world sent in applications. The
preparation group defined criteria for selection (such as gender, regional
representation, involvement in activities on the ground, ..) and selected
applicants accordingly. There were about twelve recipients of travel
bursaries from Argentina, Uruguay, El Salvador, Kenya, Nigeria, Uganda,
India (?), Nepal, Cambodia ...

I wholeheartedly agree that the process for a fellowship scheme should be
as transparent as possible. The choice of fellows should be based on
transparent principles and not on personal contacts. The joint decision on
selection principles and on fellowship modalities should be part of the
process.

Looking forward to hear what other people think ....
Claudia





Claudia Schwegmann
*Open Knowledge Foundation Germany* <http://okfn.de>

Tel/Fax +49 (0) 5130 609691
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*Die Open Knowledge Foundation setzt sich für offenes Wissen ein! Sie auch?
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2013/10/4 Cobi <cobi at aippnet.org>

> Hi Katelyn,
>
> thanks for sharing this - here are my thoughts on reading the proposal
> document and your update, based on what struck me most.
>
> I think referring to "southern" ownership reflects European ownership of
> this project currently, and perpetuates assumptions about where is
> developed and where is developing.
> The latest maps of development indicators help illustrate this:
> http://hdr.undp.org/en/data/map/
> Brazil, for example, is north relative to Chile, likewise Indonesia to
> Australia. I would recommend removing language about north/south divide and
> replacing subjective directional language with language about the issues
> being addressed. An example would be changing  "building southern
> ownership of open development agenda" to something like "empowering
> people in developing places to lead open development".
>
> To see an example of the same agenda without geographical emphasis (with
> the exception of reference to the East-West Institute, further highlighting
> the quirks of geography-based agendas), you could check out:
> http://www.opendevelopmentcambodia.net/about/
>
> Replacing "Cambodia" with 'global' or 'as the world develops' gives a
> sense of how open development can be presented in a way that doesn't
> perpetuate the idea that Europe has the answers to the rest of the world's
> problems, which can alienate people from other continents.
>
> Perceptions that most poor people live in French-speaking Africa reflects
> European priorities. A visualization of data on the world's bottom billion
> shines light on this:
> http://www.ids.ac.uk/project/the-new-bottom-billion
> (re European aid priorities, see p3
> http://www.bond.org.uk/data/files/EU_aid_facts.pdf)
>
> It might be that there is less engagement with open ideas in Africa,
> justifying two fellows there. However it would be good to use the working
> groups' impressions as research questions to find out. Perhaps an aspect of
> research could be building an evidence base about where civil society and
> governments are engaging with open development philosophies, then deciding
> where fellows should be recruited based on gaps.
>
> I couldn't find info online about who received the bursaries to attend
> OKfest 2012 - perhaps making existing information open is a step that will
> help inform new proposals (or more accessible, if it's online but I
> couldn't find it).
>
> Given that OKFN is based in Europe and has established partnerships in
> certain countries, it's fair enough if these are the factors are used to
> make decisions. But it's important to be aware and transparent about
> whether decision-making is based on data or on personal networks and
> cultural assumptions. Self-awareness about this will ensure the group
> reflects the principles of open development we're aiming for.
>
> I hope no-one finds this too confronting and takes my thoughts in the
> constructive spirit intended :)
>
> cheers, Cobi
>
>
>
>
> On Oct 3, 2556 BE, at 6:38 PM, Katelyn Rogers wrote:
>
> Dear Colleagues,
>
> As many of you are already aware, the Open Development group began
> drafting a proposal to develop an Open Development Fellowship Scheme, based
> loosely on the Open Science Panton Fellows, early this year.
>
> At OKcon, I had the opportunity to meet with people interested in taking
> this idea forward. You can find the original proposal and the meeting recap
> here<https://docs.google.com/a/okfn.org/document/d/1fVewD7Ui6fnULg1e3r2Y6m5n3yjQH3oBbOiPKZ6IwBE/edit#heading=h.zdg3c9gyd2an>
> .
>
> New Developments (please provide feedback!)
>
>    - *Local Group Project Administration: *While the Open Knowledge
>    Foundation has been suggested as a suitable host organisation of the house
>    for the fellowship scheme, ultimately we would like to see the project to
>    be managed by one of our local groups. The Brazil local initiative is
>    likely to be the best fit. What do others think about the project
>    administration being carried by a local group? Would the Brazil local group
>    be a suitable choice?
>    - *Research Questions:* As Open Development is a emerging field of
>    study, we discussed developing a few broad research questions to help
>    define the scope of the fellowship. Is this a good idea? Would people be
>    interested in participating in developing these questions.
>    - *Themes:* I also thought that we could organise the fellowship
>    around the themes that were developed by the group in Geneva. Would it make
>    sense to organise the fellowship around one, or two, or all of these
>    themes?
>    - *Open Development OKcon hosted by local group.* Going forward, the
>    OKcon conference model is one that we would like to see taken up and used
>    by our local groups. The original proposal mentioned organising an event in
>    the "south",where, presumably, the fellows could present their work as well
>    as connect with the larger open development research community. Would an
>    OKcon like event organised by an OKF local group be an a good option for
>    such an event?
>
> Next Steps:
>
>    - *Gauging Interest:* We were hoping to reach out to bursary
>    recipients from OKfest 2012 to begin to gauge interest and get feedback
>    from potential fellows. How else would you suggest gauging interest?
>    - *Proposal *- In order to draft the proposal we need to determine how
>    we are going to select the fellows, how we are going to recruit the
>    fellows, where the fellows should come from (more information in
>    document<https://docs.google.com/a/okfn.org/document/d/1fVewD7Ui6fnULg1e3r2Y6m5n3yjQH3oBbOiPKZ6IwBE/edit#>).
>    The input of the group on these points is warming welcomed!
>
> Please get in touch if you are interested in helping to take this
> fellowship scheme proposal forward and I look forward to all of your
> comments!
>
> All the best,
> Katelyn
>
>
> --
> Katelyn Rogers
> Working Groups Community Manager  | katelyn.rogers at okfn.org <https://twitter.com/joebloggs> |
> Skype: katelynjrogers
> The Open Knowledge Foundation <http://okfn.org/>
> Empowering through Open Knowledge
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