[open-government] Post on the Open Data Census

[Rufus Pollock]

Hi All,

Just wanted to let folks know that a big post today has gone up today
about the Open Data Census and work on it so far:

<http://blog.okfn.org/2013/02/20/open-data-census-tracking-the-state-of-open-data-around-the-world/>

It includes an update on all the contribution so far from members of
the working group, some plans for what we do next including work on
the Census this Saturday at Open Data Day
(<http://okfn.org/events/open-data-day-2013/census>).

Regards,

Rufus

## Intro to the Post

<http://blog.okfn.org/2013/02/20/open-data-census-tracking-the-state-of-open-data-around-the-world/>

Recent years have seen a huge expansion in open data activity around
the world. This is very welcome, but at the same time it is now
increasingly difficult to assess if, and where, progress is being
made.

To address this, we started the [Open Data Census][census] in order to
track the state of open data globally. The results so far, covering
more than 35 countries and 200 datasets, are now available online at
<http://census.okfn.org/>. We'll be building this up even more during
Open Data Day this weekend.

This post explains why we started the census and why this matters now.
This includes the importance of quality (not just quantity) of data,
the state of the census so far, and some immediate next steps - such
as expanding the census to the city level and developing an “open data
index” to give a single measure of open data progress.