[open-government] Global Campaign for Opening Up Contract Data

Fri Jun 20 08:59:44 UTC 2014

Hi Daniela,

Some years ago national libraries in Europe started signing digitisation
contracts with Google, after which there were also some requests for making
these contracts publicly available. The British Library did so for example
(see
https://www.openrightsgroup.org/blog/2011/access-to-the-agreement-between-google-books-and-the-british-library),
and there has been a request in Holland for opening up the contract between
the National Library (KB) and Google, which was done in 2011. See
http://www.kb.nl/en/news/news-archive-2011/kb-makes-contract-with-google-public-following-dutch-access-to-public-sector-information-act-wob
for
the full contract.

Of course it is always good if more contracts are made available, but I'
don't think a campaign from OpenGLAM would be suitable, as the debate
around this already happened in 2010-2011, and some contracts are there.
Also, I know from some other libraries that their Google contracts were
similar to that of the BL and KB.

Best, Lieke

On 19 June 2014 23:17, Daniela Mattern <daniela.mattern at okfn.org> wrote:

> Hey Gary,
>
> thank you very much for your e-mail.
>
> Have you tried to open up the contract between the libraries and google? I
> have read quite a lot about the google books project and implications. How
> have you tried to get access to these contracts?
> Did you do a Freedom of Information Request? Could you share with us?
>
> I have seen, that you are from Austria. Which are the most urgent problems
> related to open contracts in Austria? If you run a campaign in Austria to
> opening up contracts what would be a topic that you would focus on? What
> makes people angry about it?
>
> We are currently planning to work together on this and run local campaigns
> in different countries on issues that are important to people. Would you be
> interested in joining our group? We are very curious in having this
> exchange and try to find out how to effectively open up contract data.
>
> I wondered whether we could not ask the Open Glam group whether they can
> help with the campaign against Google/Libraries ... Would you like to help
> with this?
>
> I am copying Lieke and Sam who are also quite into this topic. @Sam,
> Lieke: what ideas do you have for us?
>
> Best
>
> Daniela
>
>
> On 19 June 2014 22:00, innovationnavigato <innovation-navigator at chello.at>
> wrote:
>
>>  Dear Daniela,
>>
>> in the EU even even the contracts between the public national libraries
>> and google are secret.
>> no change to access them.
>> contract data is the very LAST line of defense. sorry,
>>
>> gary, Vienna
>>
>>
>> Daniela Mattern schrieb:
>>
>>     Hey,
>>
>>  my name is Daniela - I joined Open Knowledge Central in February and
>> before this I have been working for 11 years in Brazil.
>>
>>  Open Knowledge wants to run a Global Campaign for opening up contract
>> data? I think this topic very exciting:
>>
>> While I was in Brazil I encountered a lot of problems to opening up
>> contract data - for instance I was working with community leaders in a slum
>> in São Paulo and they were receiving funds from the City of São Paulo, the
>> Federal government and the World Bank to install water sanitation. The
>> community leaders reported that the work was to be done in the whole slum
>> but the construction company didn't do it ... They also reported that the
>> government send a person to evaluate and supervise the work but that the
>> supervision had not been done properly - on the day of the evaluation the
>> company showed the work in some parts of the slum where it had been
>> delivered. They got the approval that the work had been finalized although
>> the work wasn't finished.
>>  Then I made Freedom of Information requests to get access to the
>> contract - the problem was, that the tender had been handled by a Ministry
>> and then the contract was administered by a state bank. The Ministry was
>> not in possession of the contract and the bank informed that the whole
>> process was bank secret.
>>
>>  I wanted to know, whether any of you has also tried to open up contract
>> data so far and which process you followed. Has it been successful?
>>
>>  I also wondered how we could organize a Global Campaign that forces a
>> lot of political leaders to open up the contract data. This would be so
>> important, to my mind: If people had the terms of reference and the
>> contracts they could effectively monitor the work that is being delivered
>> by the companies.
>>
>>  I have currently only found a data base of Open Contracts for Slovakia
>> <http://www.opengovguide.com/country-examples/in-slovakia-government-contracts-are-published-online/>
>> - do you know any other examples?
>>
>>  Thanks for your ideas!
>>
>> Daniela
>>
>>     --
>>
>> Daniela Mattern
>>
>> Open Data Project Manager | skype: e1aste2000
>>
>> * Open Knowledge Foundation <http://okfn.org> *
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>>
>
>
> --
>
> Daniela Mattern
>
> Open Data Project Manager | skype: e1aste2000
>
> *Open Knowledge Foundation <http://okfn.org> *
>
> http://okfn.org/  |  @okfn <http://twitter.com/OKFN>  |  OKF on Facebook
> <https://www.facebook.com/OKFNetwork>  |  Blog <http://blog.okfn.org/>  |
>  Newsletter <http://okfn.org/about/newsletter>
>
>
> <http://okfn.org/about/newsletter>
>
> *Have you bought your tickets <http://2014.okfestival.org/tickets/> to
> OKFestival yet? Join us in Berlin in July (15-17)!*
>
>
>
> *Open Minds to Open Action*
>
>

-- 
Lieke Ploeger

Community Manager  | skype: laploeger  |  @liekeploeger
<https://twitter.com/liekeploeger>

The Open Knowledge Foundation <http://okfn.org/>

Empowering through Open Knowledge
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