Hi all,
A quick note that the Open Knowledge Festival has just released its official Call for Proposals.
Happening in Helsinki, Finland in September 2012, this year's festival (the
first week-long of its kind) is focused the actions behind open data, specifically the *value* that can be generated by opening up knowledge, the ecosystems of
organisations that can benefit from such sharing, and the impact transparency can have within local and international communities. You can find the Call for Proposals (submission deadlines April 20th and
June 1st) here [1] and a blog posting with the details and ethos of the event here [2].
This year, the event will combine Open Government Data Camp [3] and the Open
Knowledge Conference [4], annual events that I know several of you have spoken
at/attended in London, Warsaw and Berlin. It would be great
to see an even stronger representation of Canadian initiatives this year
as the event becomes increasingly global in scope, and we've applied for
several grants to make such travel possible.
An important part of this year's ethos also involves the fact that we've chosen to open up more than 2/3 of the week's programme to
Guest
Organisers. This
move (inspired, in part, by the many amazing unconferences in my hometown of Vancouver!) is based on our belief that when an event is
crowdsourced through a co-operative combination of civil society
representatives, programmers, data wranglers, students and members of
government, the most interesting results (and relationships) are
facilitated.
It would be great to engage with many different Canadian perspectives during the week of OKFestival, so please let me know if there's anything I can help with in this regard. Looking forward to seeing many of you [whether as Guest Organisers, speakers or participants] in Helsinki.
Kat
[1]
http://okfestival.org
[2]
http://blog.okfn.org/2012/03/28/okfestival-call-for-proposals-released-with-a-twist/
[3]
http://ogdcamp.org[4]
http://okcon.org| Kat Braybrooke | Community Coordinator
| Global Chapters, OKFestival, Open Design
| Open Knowledge Foundation | London