Open Steps: A journey around the world discovering and showcasing open knowledge projects

Do you know the actual status of Open Government in Kosovo? Are you aware that in Albania the only existing Open Data platform was created by a non-governmental group? That is what, among other issues, we are exploring along our one-year journey.

Since beginning of July 2013, Open Steps is on the road, traveling around the world discovering and documenting Open Knowledge related projects. The first two months in Europe have been very productive, meeting hard-working activists and organisations supporting open cultures. Besides showcasing relevant Open Knowledge initiatives, we are conducting research about the level of openness in the countries visited. The results show a very heterogeneous picture when it comes to how far the public administrations are willing to release data to the public domain, encourage the active participation of their citizens or promote transparencyAccording to OGP’s Articles of Governance, transparency occurs when “government-held information (including on activities and decisions) is open, comprehensive, timely, freely available to the pub... More.

We invite you to visit our website and get more details.

Such issues were intensively discussed within the open debate of our workshop “Visualising open data to bring out global issues” which we are running together with the support of host organisations. In this event, the benefits and impact of Open DataBy opening up data and making it sharable and reusable, governments can enable informed debate, better decision making, and the development of innovative new services. Technical specifications: Polici... and its visualisation are pointed out and illustrated through different examples.

Also, remarkable initiatives like the Open Government Partnership and the activities of the World Bank are being exposed as part of the contents. Have you heard about similar projects or organisations in India? Open Steps will arrive there mid September. We are looking forward to meeting individuals and collectives working in the fields of Open Knowledge, Open Data and Open Government.

Stay tuned for new updates, feel free to point us interesting projects and share your thoughts with us! You can follow our project under the addresses below:

• Website: http://www.open-steps.org
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/openstepsorg
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/OpenSteps