[open-economics] Anyone interested? Creating an "Open Knowledge Index"

[Anders Pedersen]

Hi all,

The idea of an index is a great one. Would be glad to follow and
contribute to such a thing.

Anders

On Sun, Jul 3, 2011 at 11:08 PM, Guo Xu <digitalepourpre at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi Jesús,
>
> First, thanks a lot for joining the list - it's great to see some
> senior researchers here. We can certainly need expert advice :)
>
> I will have a look at the paper you wrote. It is quite compelling to
> see that you are focusing on the determinants of voluntary disclosure.
> Anders - who has joined the list very recently and is an enthusiastic
> data journalist - has been looking at a database of EU lobbyists. We
> have been brainstorming over the possibilities of using the dataset
> for analysis but the main problem here was that registration to the
> database was voluntary - maybe you have some suggestions.
>
> The preliminary idea for the index was to create it on the country
> level, even though a disaggregation by municipalities would obviously
> be incredibly valuable (but hard to operationalized). Let's wait for
> more feedback - we will also discuss this in our next Skype meeting
> end of July (where you are warmly invited to join in). It would be
> great to have some suggestions on which dimensions to measure.
> Currently, the idea was to capture both the governmental side and the
> citizen side in the index. But this is of course still not fixed -
> what is clear, however, is that there is no such index yet and it
> would be a great tool for future research.
>
> I'll go back read your paper for now - and again, welcome to the list!
>
> Guo
>
>
>
>
> On 3 July 2011 19:46, JESUS GARCIA GARCIA <jesgar at uniovi.es> wrote:
>> Hi everybody!
>>
>> Since this is my first post on the list, let me introduce myself shortly.  I
>> work as senior lecturer at University of Oviedo (Spain). Main topics of
>> research recently have been financial reporting on open source software and
>> e-gov/o-gov on municipalities.
>>
>> I have been working in the idea exposed by Guo focused on disclosure of
>> financial and budgetary information by Spanish municipalities and their
>> determinants
>> (http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03003930.2010.506980). An Open
>> Data Index would be a great idea, especially if offering a simple
>> measurement of transparency and accountability. You can count me on if any
>> help is needed!
>>
>> Regards,
>>
>> --
>> *************************************************************
>> Jesús García García
>> Departamento de Contabilidad.
>> Edificio Departamental de Ciencias Jurídicas y Sociales
>> Avda. del Cristo, s/n
>> 33071 Oviedo (España)
>>
>> jesgar at uniovi.es
>> www.unioviedo.es/jesgar
>>
>> Tfno: +34 985 10 3904
>> Fax: +34 985 10 2812
>> ************************************************************
>>
>> El 03/07/11, Guo Xu <digitalepourpre at gmail.com> escribió:
>>
>> 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
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> open-economics mailing list
>> open-economics at lists.okfn.org
>> http://lists.okfn.org/mailman/listinfo/open-economics
>>
>> --
>> *************************************************************
>> Jesús García García
>> Departamento de Contabilidad.
>> Edificio Departamental de Ciencias Jurídicas y Sociales
>> Avda. del Cristo, s/n
>> 33071 Oviedo (España)
>>
>> jesgar at uniovi.es
>> www.uniovi.es/jesgar
>>
>> Tfno: +34 985 10 3904
>> Fax: +34 985 10 2812
>> ************************************************************
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> open-economics mailing list
>> open-economics at lists.okfn.org
>> http://lists.okfn.org/mailman/listinfo/open-economics
>>
>>
>
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