Hello all,
Sorry to dig up this topic, but I was wondering whether there has been some
consensus on whether there will be an international festival organised by OKI
in 2016. Or is that still under discussion?
Kind regards,
Pieter-Jan
Pieter-Jan Pauwels
Community Coordinator, Open Knowledge Belgium
m: +32 476 66 27 77 <tel:+32 476 66 27 77> | e: [email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]> | w: okfn.be <http://okfn.be/>
> On 04 Feb 2015, at 14:06, Naomi Lillie <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> Hello all,
>
> I have bad news and good news to share:
>
> The bad news:
> Open Knowledge will not run a large international event in 2015 (OKFestival
> or OKConference) - boo! :-(
>
> The good news:
> Open Knowledge will be supporting our Local Groups in running events around
> the world in 2015 and looking to hold future large international events
> outside of Europe - yay! :-)
>
> Why isn’t Open Knowledge running an OKFestival in 2015?
> I’m very sorry for the disappointment I know this will cause - along with
> many of you, OKFest 2012 / OKCon 2013 / OKFestival 2014 were the highlights
> of my years since joining this organisation and network in 2011… But we’ve
> been thinking hard here at ‘OKI’ (meaning ‘Open Knowledge International’, the
> informal name for the organisation that supports Local Groups and Working
> Groups, and the rest of the network) and it really came down to asking
> ourselves ‘how can we best support our groups around the world?’
>
> Point 1: representing an international network <https://okfn.org/network/>
> Towards the end of last year, Rufus asked the question ‘where should the next
> OKFestival be held?’ and members of the community on the OKFN-Discuss mailing
> list <https://lists.okfn.org/mailman/listinfo/okfn-discuss> responded, as
> well as leaders of Working Groups and Local Groups who were specifically
> invited to share thoughts (see here for the original message
> <https://lists.okfn.org/pipermail/okfn-discuss/2014-October/010627.html> and
> search the archives <https://lists.okfn.org/pipermail/okfn-discuss/> for
> responses). A theme appeared in the answers: people don’t want another
> European event, unless other parts of the world are being seriously
> considered for future events. That means we can’t go ahead with ‘business as
> usual’, but need to rethink how we do things for our next event.
>
> It’s clear that, while the organisation seeks to support a global network of
> people passionate about open knowledge, historically we haven’t been very
> good at extending in-person support beyond Europe, despite the growing
> representation of areas of the globe through Local Groups, projects and staff
> hires. The School of Data <http://schoolofdata.org/> has been a brilliant
> flagship for reaching beyond Europe, with Partnership for Open Data
> <https://okfn.org/projects/partnership-for-open-data/> doing excellent work
> in broadening awareness and access of work already happening in the Global
> South, but generally the overall organisation’s efforts in running in-person
> events have been in Berlin, with the occasional foray into countries such as
> Switzerland, Finland and the UK (see our events page
> <https://okfn.org/get-involved/events/> for more information). We want that
> to change, and are committed to exploring how we can enable that to happen
> for future events.
>
> Point 2: supporting the international network <https://okfn.org/network/>
> Open Knowledge has arranged a fair few gatherings over the years, and enjoyed
> the partnerships with the Finnish and Swiss Chapters in running the 2012 and
> 2013 events respectively as well as liaising with the German Chapter over
> several years, but generally there hasn’t been much room for supporting
> events around the community network beyond some promotion (such as here
> <http://okfncommunity.tumblr.com/>, here
> <http://blog.okfn.org/2014/12/10/a-round-up-of-open-knowledge-community-events-around-the-world/>
> and here <https://twitter.com/okfn>). Here at “OKI” we do our best to
> empower others to lead, and it’s pretty hard to lead when someone else takes
> all the attention! So, rather than effectively asking our Local Groups and
> Working Groups to compete with us if they want their own events (going up
> against Open Knowledge the organisation for scheduling, attendees and
> sponsorship), we want to step aside and encourage others to facilitate
> significant events that attract people from around the world to attend where
> they are located.
>
> Furthermore, this organisation has its own agenda, goals, strategy and vision
> - it clearly won’t be exactly the same as groups in the Africa, the Americas,
> Antarctica, Asia, Australia and indeed the rest of Europe! Open Knowledge
> “International” doesn’t claim to represent the UK, we just happen to be
> (mostly) UK-based; however we recognise that being primarily in the UK brings
> bias and assumptions, and we need the network’s help to ensure other agendas
> and priorities are given centre-stage. Moving to the side-lines, to allow
> others to step in with their plans, is the right thing for this time - and,
> very excitingly, other groups are already starting to do just that.
>
> Summary:
> While the organisation bounces enthusiastically from one big international
> event in one year to the next, we haven’t stopped to address how better to
> reflect our growing global network. We’d like to do that - but that means
> putting other things to one side; that is why we’re not running a big
> flagship event this year. We’re stopping, breathing, surveying the scenery
> and thinking about what Open Knowledge should be representing through its
> events and in-person hands-on activities. We’re already in touch with some of
> our amazing Local Groups, thinking about how they want to convene the network
> in areas local to them, and looking to see how we can best support from afar
> rather than assuming control. At present we’re considering our options in
> terms of how to investigate support structures for the Local Groups and
> opportunities for outside Europe in 2016 - be assured we'll be asking you all
> for your input.
>
> We’re excited about what the year ahead will bring!
>
> What events can we look forward to instead?
> Open Knowledge continues to support events throughout the Open movement, both
> remote (such as Open Data Day <http://opendataday.org/>) and in person, and
> are excited to be looking into supporting events from around the Open
> Knowledge community network in 2015. Various projects have geographic focus -
> such as Partnership for Open Data
> <https://okfn.org/projects/partnership-for-open-data/>, and FCO Macedonia
> <http://blog.okfn.org/2014/09/18/launching-a-new-collaboration-in-macedonia-with-metamorphosis-and-the-uk-foreign-commonwealth-office/>
> - and of course the organisation will support events through the projects’
> endeavours in those areas, too. In the meantime, keep an eye on our blog
> <http://blog.okfn.org/> for announcements, twitter <https://twitter.com/okfn>
> for updates and the community stories tumblr
> <http://okfncommunity.tumblr.com/> for local news.
>
> Any questions?
> Please feel to reply on this thread (as I’m sure many will) or drop me a
> private message at this email address. I might not have all the answers, but
> I’ll do my best!
>
> Note on who I represent in this message: I am writing as
> Naomi-the-Open-Knowledge-[organisation]-staff-member, using ‘we’ and ‘our’ to
> mean the organisation rather than the network as a whole, and giving the
> ‘official line’ rather than reflecting individuals’ opinions (this can get
> confusing, so I hope that clarifies).
>
> With thanks for your kind attention over a long email,
> Naomi
>
>
> --
> Naomi Lillie
> Network Director
>
> skype: n.lillie | @naomilillie <https://twitter.com/NaomiLillie>
> Open Knowledge <http://okfn.org/> - See how data can change the world
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>
>
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>
>
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