Although only a few years ago it was nearly impossible to find information and examples of Open Government Data initiatives and their components, there are currently a growing and varied number of Open Data resources all over the Web.

Given the increasing number of Open Data-related activities all around the world, and the social, economic or cultural diversity within the different countries, no single person or organization could grasp the whole scope of such a huge amount of information.

Any Government or organization interested in Open Data would greatly benefit from the existing and growing knowledge base and resources, so this scenario represents an invaluable opportunity to construct a neutral and trustable central directory that can help us to structure references, share best practices, and, generally speaking, mobilize the global Open Data community around it.

The Web Foundation has been built on this idea a definition of the functional and architectural requirements for the Open Data Directory platform (ODD) to support such a global directory of Open Data references and related information resources, that can range from scientific papers and studies to blog posts and to applications developed on top of Open Data.

The mission of the ODD would be to:

• Provide leadership in the domain

• Federate existing resources and act as a clearinghouse for them

• Facilitate replication of successful examples

• Help understand the challenges and benefits associated to Open Data

• Provide a best practice itself

For that, this reference directory will not initially compile a vast number of references but will give priority to high-quality references endorsed by the Open Data community. The directory will be open to everybody’s contributions, but a group of content curators will be in charge of updates, evaluating any proposed reference before its incorporation.

Although this approach may raise some disadvantages with regards to flexibility it will also lead to great benefits, mainly higher quality and better organisation in the compilation of resources. An intermediate approach where frequent contributors can also act as content curators is also possible.

The expected final result would be a curated directory of valuable organized references that are considered a must know for any Open Data stakeholder, including public administration, academia, civil society, private sector, non-governmental institutions, professional consultants, media and publishing industries or topic specialists among others.

The directory will serve as guidance on issues such as:

• Existing Open Data initiatives and reference institutions.

• General questions and doubts about Open Data.

• Technical questions on associated standards and technologies, such as formats, metadata, linked data, etc.

• Guidelines and best practices for data publication and reuse.

• Open Data policies and methodologies.

• Impact studies and thematic reports: Economic, Social, Legal, Accountability, etc.

• Implementation of Open Data in strategic areas such as: Health, Science, Transportation, Energy, Education, etc.

• Educational and dissemination materials.

• Examples of services, applications and products.

As a first step towards the ODD, we are making public today the Use Cases and Requirements Draft in order to get comments from the wide community on the content of the document itself but also on the overall idea of the ODD. We’ve published it as a Google Document with comments turned on. Suggestions, feedback and comments are very welcome.

The deadline for submitting comments is: April 19th, 2013.

As part of our Ghana Open Data Initiative (GODI) efforts, the Web Foundation and the National Information Technology Agency (NITA) have partnered with several organizations, including the World Bank, the Africa Media Initative (AMI) and Google to host the 1st ever data literacy bootcamp in Accra on Oct 24-26. Free seats are available to 30 journalists, 30 developers / coders and 30 digital creatives.

The bootcamp will be held at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research-Institute for Scientific and Technological Information (CSIR-INSTI) in Accra, and will be led by an international team of experts. Participants will learn how to find, extract, and analyse public data, using powerful forensic tools, to tell better informed stories. Working in teams, they’ll build news-driven mobile apps and civic engagement websites to augment traditional news reportage.

Prizes will be awarded for the best projects. Winners will receive $2,000, as seed grants, to transform prototypes into real newsroom products.

In addition, the first beta version of the GODI portal will be unvelied at the beginning of the event.

As part of one of the sub-indexes, called institutional framework, we looked at data related to press freedom and overall censorship, education, gender, and government openness in sharing data. We added a specific set of 14 indicators directly targeted at measuring open data worldwide ranging from whether the government has an open data initiative in place to broad existence of applications atop that data to wide use of open licenses.

We are introducing today that subset as the Open Data Index, and its results for the first year are as follows:

Open Data Index - Top 20 Countries 2012 (click to see all)

The highest ranking country is United States, in contrast to its overall Web Index performance where Sweden led the ranking. Interestingly, Sweden ranks #30 on the Open Data Index. There are other interesting examples, such as Mexico, escalating 20 positions from #22 to #2 here or Singapore, from #11 to #3.

The methodology behind the Web Index (and the Open Data Index) is available in full detail on the Web Index report (PDF), including all the questions related to Open Data, how they are integrated in the overall Web Index and the weight we gave them. All the data behind the Web Index is also available (including as Linked Data) under a CC0 license. The Open Data Index data is also available separately for download.

While constructing the Web Index, we learned that Open Data means different things to different people, and that views within the Open Data community are not always known, understood or shared outside of it. We plan to involve more experts on the next Index publication in 2013. Please, contact the Web Index team if you have comments, if you are interested in being involved or if you have conducted any research using the data and found any interesting things worth mentioning so we can learn from and amplify your findings.

(Download the data)

Awareness Raising, Community Building, Open Data Directory Foundations

The Web Foundation will continue to build global awareness about the benefits and challenges of Open Data and promote the idea of “doing open Data well.”   Using our six dimensional approach and thinking well beyond portals and data sets, we are committed to designing initiatives that last.  We will continue participating and speaking at events and convening meetings with the relevant stakeholders within and beyond government.  We will increase our community building efforts and, finally, we will build the foundation for a directory/toolkit of freely and openly available resources for the community at large to reuse.

Indonesia Open Data Feasibility Study

The Web Foundation will also conduct an Open Data feasibility study in Indonesia in coordination with the Ford Foundation regional office. The study will build on the methodology and experience of two prior studies conducted by the Web Foundation in Ghana and Chile and the Web Foundation’s general Open Data expertise. Four stages of actions are planned:

• Definition of a baseline to determine the country’s Open Government Data (OGD) readiness, based on a checklist developed in the aforementioned studies
• Independent research to develop a theoretical approach for the country’s OGD readiness
• Field visit to identify groups of actors and local champions who might be involved in an OGD initiative locally, and to identify potential threats and opportunities not identified during the advance research
• In particular, attention will be placed on existing capacities, and on identifying capacity building initiatives that may be required
• Completion of a final, consolidated report that summarizes the results of the study:
• Results of the assessment
• Potential challenges and threats
• Groups of actors that will be key in the implementation of an OGD project and their role
• Strategy, if the OGD readiness allows it, for bootstrapping the project and leading it to success

In recent years, a diverse coalition of actors has pushed the creation and diffusion of open data programmes around the world. Governments, international organizations, businesses, academics, media, civil society  organizations, and web developers have embraced and sponsored open data programs, creating large expectations for open data as a suitable remedy for challenges of good governance, economic growth, social inclusion, innovation, and participation.

Though in many cases this potential may be realised, there is a need for a critical perspective on whether the outcomes indeed occur and under what circumstances.

The Web Foundation and International Development Research Centre are inviting research proposals that address current gaps in the evidence base underlying the implementation of open data initiatives, and to inform policy and practice in a range of different settings. Research partners will be invited to form part of an international research network over the course of 2013.

The project will fund a series of detailed case studies that examine the emerging impacts of specific on-going open data initiatives that address key development themes. Cases could look at:

• Open data in local and national budgeting processes
• Open data for legislation processes and elections
• Open data in judicial systems
• Open data for smarter cities
• Open data for the delivery of  privately provided public services
• Open data for the regulation of markets (e.g. extractive industries)
• Open data for the welfare and empowerment of marginalized groups and communities (e.g. data for small farmers)
• Open data and international development

The call for proposals sets out full details of what we are looking for in the case studies, and the process for application.

As a result of this call, we expect to issue a series of grants ranging from USD$25,000 to USD$75,000. It is expected that smaller grants will focus on small, single-country or local initiative cases, and larger grants can include a wider range of activities such as  multi-country comparisons of open data about a particular governance domain (e.g. budget, cities, extractive industries), technical assistance to on-going initiatives and/or significant engagement with relevant policy dialogues.  The duration of each project will not exceed 12 months, with projects expected to start in early 2012.

The closing date for the call is 10th September 2012.

Download the call:
- Call for proposals (HTML)
- Call for proposals (Word, Docx)
- Call for proposals (Open Office Document)
- Call for proposals (PDF)

Attendees worked to develop a research agenda to ensure that Open Government Data programs in the Global South meet several key outcomes, namely: that they foster greater openness, support citizens’ rights, and remain inclusive of the citizenry. Key issues of exploration included Open Data’s potential to challenge democratic deficits, create economic value and foster greater inclusion, particularly in the developing world. Full details of each day’s agenda and outcomes can be found in the full report. This is part of an ongoing process; a blog to take forward ideas from the workshop has been also opened.

View or download the report “Fostering a Critical Development Perspective on Open Government Data.“

The Workshop will review recent advances in the Web’s evolution and explore new and better ways to use it in delivering sustainable services.

Attendees will be introduced to three hot Web topics:

• Mobile Web and HTML5
• Open Data
• Cloud Computing

Web Foundation Program Manager Jose M. Alonso will chair the workshop and deliver a talk on Open Data.

Register here and join us next Saturday for a full day of Web related tutorials and discussion.

In the first place, I arrived a couple days in advance of the meeting to have some one-to-one meetings and to organize what was the first meeting of our  “Open Data Research (South)” project that took place on Monday right before the OGP event. For me, it was a big success; a very nice and interesting discussion on the impact of Open Data in general and the developing world in particular, that I could share with 20 really smart peers. A summary report and compilation of proceedings is in the works and will be published soon. Stay tuned.

On the OGP event itself, I have to recognize I attended few sessions as I had several more one-to-one meetings scheduled and many more that were arranged on the fly. I spoke at a session on “Challenges of Open Data Portals” delivering again our vision on seeing well beyond the portals. and attended two more on Open Data and OGP action plans in Africa, very interesting ones and certainly well chaired, plus the opening plenary panel.

So if you want more thoughtful reports of what happened there, David Eaves and Tim Davies (who also participated in meeting on Monday) wrote interesting pieces, Alex Howard liveblogged and interviewed quite a few interesting people and you could add many more out there. I agree with some of their highlights but I would also like to tell you a bit about my very personal take aways.

The Conference Model, Organization, Logistics

• The conference model was way better than at the previous event in New York. Open registration this time meant that 1000+ people were in attendance and the governments did not run a separate event. The African action plans session, as an example, had three ministers representing governments of Kenya, Tanzania and South Africa plus three representatives of Civil Society Organizations, one per each of the countries just mention. This led to a very interesting back and forth interaction between demand and supply sides and fostered interesting questions from the audience in that packed room.
• This model also improved the level of the attendants in terms of interest and expertise. I found last time too many diplomats with no knowledge of #opengov or anything like that and with little interest in learning more. This time, I found many known faces, and met even more interesting people over the two main days of conference.
• But there are things to be fixed. The opening plenary with the Presidents, etc. had no CSO representative at the table and neither the audience nor the media were allowed to make any questions.
• The late start of the opening plenary (90+ mins) and no announcements on how the schedule for the rest of the day was going to be affected (despite who you asked in the organization) made it quite difficult to plan for the rest fo the day.
• There were probably too many side events going on in parallel. At a given time slot you could choose from around eight and some were very similar. We cancelled our independent side event on the fly to join an official one on #opendata with a wrong title but very similar content. I personally tried to connect with the organizers of that panel (through the support unit) in advance to coordinate both efforts but didn’t hear back. Probably too many things going on. I recommend next time for the panels to be clustered by topic, e.g. in thematic tracks.
• Once again, one-to-one meetings and talking to people in the corridors were the most useful bit for me.
• No Internet connectivity on the first day of conference made impossible to have online interactions that usually enrich these events.

Content, Actors

• As more countries are joining the OGP, the participation of Civil Society Organizations is also steadily increasing. At the CSOs meeting in NYC after the conference there were some 40 people in attendance while at this one, easily some 200 could be in the room. This means they also need to increase their efforts in coordinating their actions across countries not to replicate them but to build on successes. I was too tired at the end of the second conference day when sitting in the room at the CSOs meeting but my impression is that this was a core part of their agenda.
• Many OGP action plans are still very loose. I guess this is ok as OGP is just starting but this means that those CSOs will have to keep up with their watchdog role consistently, first for the governments to improve the plans themselves, then to monitor the commitments in there are implemented.
• We discussed at our meeting on Monday about benefits and impacts of #opendata at length. I had many more discussion about this and Monitoring and Evaluation of #opendata and #opengov initiatives at the conference itself. We’re still building on the promises but it’s difficult to demonstrate the impacts. We really need to do more serious work in this area and challenge ourselves as advocates of the #open approach about its real outcomes.
• There seems to be still much confusion about the differences between #opendata and #opengov. Even when I’m a strong #opendata advocate, I don’t think that the discussions on #opengov have to be 90% driven by #opendata.

All in all, this was a great event. It’s becoming (if it’s not already) the one to go to annually in the #opengov space. I hope exciting progress will happen before the next annual event (I for one will do my part) and I hope to meet even more interesting people there, likely in London in March 2013.

As part of our Open Data research agenda, the Web Foundation engaged in discussions with the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) last year and we are launching today, in partnership with IDRC and the Berkman Center at Harvard University, the Open Data Research (South).

The aim of this effort is to convene a community of researchers and practitioners to think about how to assess whether and how OGD initiatives and projects are realizing their promises. This network is tasked with developing the appropriate research questions, and designing and developing a research plan to uncover whether OGD is achieving the positive results that justify its activities.

Join the Discussion at the OGP Event in April and at Our Next Project Event

We are organizing a private meeting with experts alongside the Open Government Partnership annual event, in Brasilia in April, that will serve to set forth the initial shaping of the research agenda. The results of this meeting and initial public discussions will begin as an OGP side panel event on April, 18th at 10:00am. If you plan to attend the event, registration is required.

If you cannot attend the event in Brazil, there is additional opportunity for the public to participate. We intend to hold a public workshop at the Berkman Center at Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA. We are currently planning for a June/July 2012 timeframe. More information and a Call for Papers will be posted later in time and with as much advance notice as possible.

We Are Also Investigating Open Data Usage

In addition to this new project launching today and, as part of our research efforts, I have recently joined the program committee for a workshop jointly organized by the W3C and the European Commission titled “Using Open Data: policy modeling, citizen empowerment, data journalism.” The workshop takes place on 19-20 June 2012, in Brussels, Belgium.

The objective of the workshop is to provide a joint discussion forum for developers of applications that make use of open data, and the end users of those applications such as policy makers, journalists and citizens.

The Call for Papers is open until May 19, so you are still well in time to submit a (required) position paper and participate in the workshop.

NITA GODI Sign for Stakeholders Meeting

It’s been an exciting week in Accra. My colleague Stephane Boyera and myself have spent the last week there in meetings to kick-start a new project. It is our pleasure to announce that the Web Foundation will be supporting the National Information Technology Agency (NITA), to spearhead the Ghana Open Data Initiative (GODI).

Background

The Web Foundation published Open Data feasibility studies for Ghana and Chile in May last year. The Ghana feasibility study showed that Ghana was ready to start an Open Data Initiative, some recommendations on where to start, and that there was government and civil society support and willingness to do so.

The Ministry of Communications through NITA has engaged the Web Foundation over the last few months in discussions over the feasibility report and how Ghana can take advantage of the conductive environment with the roll-out of the eGovernment Network Infrastructure (GovNET) across the 10 regions in Ghana. With the GovNET in place, date collection and dissemination by Ministries, Departments and Agencies will now be easier and will spark of innovation and development with reuse of data so disseminated.

Ghana is also one of the countries that have committed to be part of the Open Government Partnership (OGP) joining the pledge of participating countries in the OGP to deliver country action plans that elaborate concrete commitments on open government.  In each country, these commitments are developed through a multi-stakeholder process, with the active engagement of citizens and civil society.

NITA invited the Web Foundation to visit Ghana to discuss what Ghana can do to create an Open Data Initiative (ODI). I personally went with two other things in mind that I have highlighted a few times already:

1. You can do Open Data without transparency and transparency without Open Data but if you really want to do Open Data well, you want to put transparency and accountability at the core.
2. “Build it and they will come” is an approach that doesn’t work well for ODIs; you have to “outreach and engage from the start”

The Week of Meetings in Accra

Stakeholders Meeting

We spent two days with NITA brainstorming about the establishment of the Ghana Open Data Initiative, the actors to be involved, the actions to be taken, and the timeline. We then participated at a stakeholders meeting and round table with several government agencies, civil society organizations and academia. This meeting, that took place on Thursday, 26 Jan 2012, at Novotel Hotel in Accra, can be considered the kick-start of the Ghana Open Data Initiative (GODI). You can read a press report of the meeting.

The meeting was opened by Mr. William Tevie, Director General, NITA, and followed by remarks by Dr. Nii Quaynor, Chairman of the Board of Directors, NITA; Dr. Tony Aidoo, Head of Policy, Monitoring and Evaluation at the Presidency and OGP point of contact; and my colleague Stephane Boyera, Lead Program Manager at the Web Foundation.

I then had the chance to introduce the audience to the topics of Open Government and Open Data and the first outcomes of the brainstorming meetings. We then engaged in a great discussion about the next steps and their participation, wonderfully chaired by Dr. Quaynor, who greatly encouraged people to participate.

As I repeated to the audience several times during the meeting (I’m sure I sounded repetitive): this is YOUR initiative. This very important. The Web Foundation is supporting NITA, and NITA is spearheading the initiative but all stakeholders are welcome and should collaboratively own the GODI. One of the things we discussed is the establishment of a Secretariat or Steering Committee that will be chaired by NITA where all the interested parties from government and outside government will be represented.

It is still to early to say how many datasets will be released, how, in what formats… but as Dr. Quaynor summarized at the end of the meeting (while calling again for multi- stakeholder ownership of the initiative), the main goals of the projects are to enhance transparency and accountability in government institutions, improve government efficiency, and spark off innovation from the demand side for applications and services to be developed to better serve the citizenry. I cannot agree more.

Our week of meetings finished with a brief meeting with H.E. Vice President, John Dramani Mahama, where NITA and the Web Foundation staff had the chance to debrief him about the previous event. Vice President Mahama showed great interest, asked for more information and mentioned he will champion the project within the Cabinet.

Next Steps

View from NITA Office in Accra

As I said at the beginning, it took us all several months to reach this stage since the publication of the feasibility report but it’s our feeling that things are now speeding up and gaining momentum and we all are trying to build on it. The project is scheduled for a 2-year period but we will steadily increase the pace over the next few weeks with the goal to produce deliverables and “quick wins” so all could see signs of progress and could continuously evaluate it.

Development of a strategy is just starting. Phone meetings and further visits to Ghana will follow. There will be increased room for public input, and many many other things are being lined up. Yes, there will be a portal (I’m sure you guessed the web address already) but we will work across the six dimensions of Open Data I usually refer to: political, legal, organizational, technical, social and economic.

I’d like to thank all the people and organizations that participated in the feasibility study, all that attended the stakeholders meeting and I hope we’ll keep on working together and add more and keep growing the community.

I’m sure that the Web Foundation, NITA and all the stakeholders will work hard on reaching the main goal of this project: create a locally long-term sustainable Open Data ecosystem in Ghana that will serve as a shinning example for others to replicate. Stay tuned.