The Open Data Research network

On 15th July 2014 the Open Data in Developing Countries project will be hosted a research sharing event at the Wikimedia Centre in Berlin, just ahead of the Open Knowledge Festival.

As well as sharing our latest synthesis report (PDF), the event included three in-depth panel discussions on research and capacity building, taking data nearer to citizes, and taking a sectoral approach to open data.

Back in early 2013 the Society for Democratic Initiatives, Sierra Leone began a groundbreaking new research project as part of the Open Data in Developing Countries (ODDC) research network. The project aims to assess the practicality of open data initiatives in post-conflict Sierra Leone and is one of 17 case studies in developing countries commissioned by the World Wide Web Foundation through a research grant from Canada’s International Development and Research Centre. The focus of the overall ODDC project has been on building a compendium of evidence on emerging open data impacts in developing countries. But in Sierra Leone it has also provided the opportunity for a major breakthrough in recognition of open data and its related issues in a country that which only knows Freedom Of Information as a tool of government openness.

The opening plenary of the second day (7 May) of the first OGP Asia Pacific Regional Conference held in Bali, Indonesia was probably the most inspiring session in the whole conference.

The Seventh International Conference on Theory and Practice of Electronic Governance (ICEGOV) was organised in Seoul, Republic of Korea, last October. The Conference, organised by the Center for Electronic Governance of United Nations University along with various national and international partners, is an unique annual summit for technologists, policy-makers, government officials and academics working on topics related to electronic governance.