[open-government] OKFest - Call for Proposals

[Daniel Dietrich]

Hi all,

As many of you may have spotted, the Call for Proposals for OKFest was officially launched today! See blog post here:

http://blog.okfn.org/2012/03/28/okfestival-call-for-proposals-released-with-a-twist/

In short this year you can not only submit sessions but also thematic streams. The deadline for proposed streams is 20th April. You can see the format our proposal will need to take here:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dGY5bTNkT05wd2ZkUS1EZktJVFE4UGc6MQ

As discussed before here and there its most likely that there will be several streams surrounding Open Government Data - (surprise: It's the OGDCamp :)

There has been a very good proposal form Tim Davis for an academic stream on Open Government Data

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1kF-K9B5IwmBHx62PsqS2VHM1wZ5jJKfIArakgi4bsT4/edit

There have also be ideas to have stream on Open Transport Data and one on Parliamentary Informatics (e.g. Open Parliamentary data and open legislation, etc)

I suggest to start a pad or GDoc on both open transport and parliamentary informatics. Also I think it would be good if we would have a volunteer for each to help coordination a bit. Maybe Pieter for open transport and Benjamin for parliamentary informatics? Anyone? 

I have included the formal text for the Call for Proposals below this email.

All best
Daniel


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OPEN KNOWLEDGE FESTIVAL - CALL FOR PROPOSALS*

First Round Deadline: April 20th 2012
Second Round Deadline: June 1st 2012

*OPEN KNOWLEDGE FESTIVAL*

We are delighted to announce that this year’s Open Government Data Camp and Open Knowledge Conference are joining to form a week-long celebration: the *Open Knowledge Festival*!

This pioneering event will include an action-packed week of lectures, seminars, workshops, hackathons, coding jams, and interactive sessions that will bring together individuals and organizations from a wide variety of backgrounds to exchange ideas, make things and meet new people. OKFest will also highlight the diversity of Finland’s open knowledge communities to a new international audience, with a specific effort to encourage the participation of representatives from Nordic nations.

Join us in Helsinki, Finland on 17-22 of September 2012 for a week of open knowledge and global inspiration.

*THEME: OPEN KNOWLEDGE IN ACTION*

The 2012 theme of OKFestival is *Open Knowledge in Action*. We will focus on the /value/that can be generated by opening up knowledge, the ecosystems of organisations that benefit from and participate in sharing, and the impact that open knowledge can have in our societies. What kinds of new professions, ideas and community initiatives can emerge within our governments, markets, networks and neighbourhoods as a result of these engagements?

The exploration of this theme will not only be visible in the festival’s content, but also in its implementation as the first global event of its kind. At OKFestival, we will experiment with new forms of collaboration, new workshop formats and new forms of participation. We’ll bring together civil society representatives, programmers, data wranglers, designers, students, members of government and local communities for a week of building new things and sharing great ideas.

*CALL FOR PROPOSALS*

We have *two submission deadlines*this Spring based on our venue capacity at the *Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture*in Helsinki. We suggest applying as soon as possible in order to ensure adequate venue space, support and funding for your proposals.

First Round Deadline: April 20th 2012
Second Round Deadline: June 1st 2012

We are looking for proposals related to specific open knowledge and open data topics, but also new viewpoints and cross-cutting issues which may help us to understand how open knowledge is working in our society. Examples of such topics are the well-being of communities, civil society and citizen empowerment, democracy, entrepreneurship, smart cities, sustainability etc.

More information at http://www.okfestival.org