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Welcome to the Open Knowledge International Newsletter.
February 2019 edition

After an exciting start to 2019, we are happy to share with you the latest updates on our projects, network activities and events.

First of all, we welcomed Catherine Stihler who joined Open Knowledge International as our new CEO this month. Informed by her 20 years as a member of the European Parliament, Catherine shared her vision of building a more open world and stressed the relevance of this at a time when openness is at risk - for example with the European Union’s chilling proposed copyright crackdown or the rise of disinformation on social media such as Facebook. The way forward, as Catherine wrote, is to resuscitate the three foundations of tolerance, facts and ideas, to prevent a drift to the extremes. “We need to help harness the power of open data and unleash its potential for the public good,” she added.

This month also saw the launch of the Frictionless Data Tool Fund, which offers grants of $5,000 USD to people or organisations interested in developing a tool for reproducible science built using the Frictionless Data tooling, specifications or software. We are looking for applications from individuals or organisations of scientists, researchers, developers or data wranglers to build upon our existing open source tools and code base to create novel tooling for reproducible research. The fund will be accepting submissions from now until the end of April 2019. Spread the word!

Finally, we are warming up for Open Data Day 2019 which will take place on Saturday 2 March. With more events being added each day to the map at opendataday.org, it looks like it will be a truly global celebration of the benefits open data can bring to society. We were happy to see so many applications for our mini-grant funding - congratulations to the successful grantees! - and we look forward to sharing your event reports with the community. Make sure to use the hashtag #OpenDataDay for spreading news on your events through social media and we will be live tweeting throughout during the day to share as much as possible.

Highlights from our projects
Following our announcement of the Frictionless Data Tool Fund, we are also excited about the upcoming csv,conf,v4 conference, the community conference for data makers taking place on 8-9 May in Portland, Oregon. Keynote speakers include Teon L. Brooks, Kirstie Whitaker and Alix Dunn - and OKI will host a community event where you can learn more about our Network and catch up with what the community has been doing. Read on or  book your ticket
To better understand the practices and challenges of open data governance, we convened a workshop together with The GovLab and the Web Foundation at the Open Data Research Symposium. Bringing together open data professionals, civil servants, and researchers, we focused on mapping the different layers that influence what government data is opened up, how and by whom.
Read more on our blog
From our network

  • At the beginning of a new year, two of our chapters took time to reflect back on the highlights of 2018, as well as their plans for 2019. Open Knowledge Brasil published an impressive annual report, which summarised their work around the Global Open Data Index, civic innovation, School of Data and more. They also wrote a summary for our blog.

  • Open Knowledge Nepal shared an overview of their work of last year on our blog, with 2018 being a year of collaboration and growth. They also have an exciting start into 2019, with the announcement of the Open Data Fellowship - Women edition, which aims to increase the number of women leaders in the field of open data in Nepal. The application deadline is 15 March - more information is available here

  • Open Knowledge Foundation Germany worked together with OpenCorporates to make information from the German company register accessible as open data on OffeneRegister.de. On the website, the data can be searched centrally, downloaded and reused via the programming interface (API). In addition, their Prototype Fund is now entering its sixth round of applications. Under the theme 'Commit: update system', software developers, hackers and creatives in Germany can apply for funding until 31 March to develop a prototype of their open source software.

  • MyData Global, the new organisation in which Open Knowledge Finland is involved, has launched the call for papers for the next MyData conference on personal data. The conference will take place in Helsinki, Finland on 25-27 September 2019, and its main programme is curated by the community. You can submit your proposals until 31 March.
2018 highlights of Open Knowledge Brasil, from their Annual Report
Upcoming events
Saturday 2 March is the ninth global Open Data Day! Groups from around the world will be celebrating open data through community events that show the benefits and encourage the use of open data in a variety of contexts. Find out more about all the events here and add yours to the map in time!
Open Belgium, a community driven conference on current trends around open knowledge and open data in Belgium and abroad, is happening on Monday 4 March in Brussels. Our CEO Catherine Stihler will be delivering the keynote address: you can find the full programme at 2019.openbelgium.be
Returning for a fifth year, TICTeC 2019 (19-20 March in Paris) will focus on the impact that civic technology and digital democracy are having upon citizens, decision makers and governments around the world. Our CEO Catherine Stihler will be joining the event, and our German chapter will present the OpenSchufa project.
The Personal Democracy Forum Central and Eastern Europe will take place on 4-5 April in Gdańsk, Poland. The third edition of Festival of Civic Tech for Democracy will follow on April 6. Under the theme In Whom We Trust, the event will explore the ways we can glue back broken circles of trust, build solid collaborations and change authentic individual and collective experience into meaningful solutions. The focus is on the topics of disinformation and government tech development.
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