[open-government] Web Foundation Announces New Project to Assess Potential of Creating Open Government Data Initiatives in Chile, Ghana and Turkey

[Craig Heintzman]

Jonathan Gray wrote:
> Many thanks Craig! You *just* beat me to it. Had link queued up in a
> tab to post to the list! ;-)
>
> Very much look forward to following progress on this. Would be most
> grateful for any status updates from your end -- and if you could
> invite relevant folks to this list/group?
>   
Will keep you posted but sounds like you're pretty quick on the draw. 
The mailing list is a great idea I'll be sure to send it around.
Best,
Craig
> All the best,
>
> Jonathan
>
> 2010/8/11 Craig Heintzman <craig at webfoundation.org>:
>   
>> FYI - Steve Bratt, CEO of the World Wide Web Foundation (founded in 2009 by
>> Tim Berners-Lee) just announced moving forward with a project to assess the
>> potential of creating open government data initiatives in Chile, Ghana, and
>> Turkey -- the first step of what we hope to be a global initiative focusing
>> on low- and middle-income countries. Link and text copied below.
>> Craig
>>
>> -------------------------
>> http://www.webfoundation.org/2010/08/potential-of-open-government-data-in-chile-ghana-and-turkey/
>>
>> Within less than a year, the United Kingdom and United States have put
>> hundreds of thousands of rich datasets on the Web in machine readable
>> formats. Thousands of applications have been built — the vast majority
>> without taxpayers’ money — by civic hackers to analyze, mash-up, and map
>> these data. Potential benefits of an Open Government Data (OGD) practice
>> include new services, new insights, increased citizen participation, new
>> businesses and better governance. Though other countries, provinces and
>> cities are exploring OGD, there has been little activity in low and middle
>> income countries (see map at left). Given the potential benefits and
>> reasonable costs, it is importance to assess how relevant an OGD initiative
>> might be in these countries as well.
>>
>> The World Wide Web Foundation, with the our partner Fundacion (CTIC), is
>> taking the first steps in this direction.   We are starting a new project to
>> conduct an assessment of the feasibility and potential of an OGD program in
>> three diverse countries — Chile, Ghana and Turkey.  The bottom line
>> questions are:  Is the country ready to engage in an OGD initiative?  If so,
>> what support might they need?  If not, why not, and what lesson can we take
>> away from this assessment?
>>
>> The project originated in response to a call for proposals from the
>> Transparency and Accountability Initiative:  a donor collaborative that
>> includes the Ford Foundation, Hivos, theInternational Budget Partnership,
>> the Omidyar Network, the Open Society Institute, the Revenue Watch
>> Institute, and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. The funding for
>> this project originates from the Omidyar Network and the Open Society
>> Institute.  The project runs in parallel to a similar feasibility study
>> focusing on India, also support by the Transparency and Accountability
>> Initiative, and run by the Centre for Internet and Society.
>>
>> Our work is starting with the development a new methodology for assessing
>> OGD readiness, based on our experience and an excellent paper commissioned
>> by the Transparency and Accountability Initiative and written by Becky
>> Hogge from earlier this year. We will then conduct research through visits
>> to each country, Web studies, and phone and email interviews to complete the
>> assessment by the end of October. As Tim Berners-Lee said in his interview
>> with Becky, “It has to start at the top, it has to start in the middle and
>> it has to start at the bottom.” In other words, we must talk with people
>> from the highest levels of government, the public administration officials
>> who collect and care for data, and the people who will leverage the data to
>> create new applications. And we will do so during this study. The results
>> should be available before the end of this year.
>>
>> The Web Foundation is committed to supporting efforts around OGD in
>> individual countries, and as a emerging movement around the world. This is
>> evidenced by the work of Web Foundation Directors Tim Berners-Lee and Nigel
>> Shadbolt in the UK and US, the W3C Brazil Office in their country, and W3C’s
>> eGovernment Interest Group, as well as work to built capacity in the
>> Caribbean. If you want to learn more, please contact me or Stephane Boyera.
>>
>> About World Wide Web Foundation
>>
>> World Wide Web Foundation leads transformative programs to advance the Web
>> as a medium that empowers people to bring about positive change. Created
>> under a seed grant from the John S and James L Knight Foundation, the Web
>> Foundation brings together business leaders, technology innovators,
>> academia, government, NGOs, experts, developers and end users to tackle
>> challenges that, like the Web, are global in scale. By funding education,
>> outreach, research and the next generation of Web technologies, Web
>> Foundation strives to enable all people to share knowledge, access services,
>> conduct commerce, participate in good governance and communicate in creative
>> ways. Web Foundation is a registered tax exempt, public charity in
>> Switzerland and the United States.
>>
>> --
>> Craig Heintzman
>> World Wide Web Foundation
>> M: +1.857.756.8008
>> O: +1.617.391.0251
>> W: webfoundation.org
>>
>> _______________________________________________
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>> open-government at lists.okfn.org
>> http://lists.okfn.org/mailman/listinfo/open-government
>>
>>
>>     
>
>
>
>   

-- 
Craig Heintzman
World Wide Web Foundation
M: +1.857.756.8008
O: +1.617.391.0251
W: webfoundation.org

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