Two weeks ago London was host to the Open Government Partnership Summit in which government representatives and civil society from over 60 countries convened over three days to discuss among other government transparency, accountability and issues relating to the release and reuse of open data.

From Global Open Data Initiative’s side we took part in several ways. Beyond being widely represented and engaging in conversations throughout the event, we also co-hosted the inaugural Open Data Working Group meeting, in which Global Open Data Initiative partners Jose Alonso (Web Foundation), Al Kags (Open Institute) and John Wonderlich (Sunlight Foundation) did presentations and facilitated discussions.

At the Open Government Partnership Festival, which was a side event that ran simultaneously in the same venue, the Queen Elisabeth II Conference Centre, Sander van der Waal and Christian Villum (Open Knowledge Foundation) did a presentation and Q & A to introduce the basic ideas of the Global Open Data Initiative as well as present the 7 principles that we have put together as part of the Declaration on Open Data. You’ll find the slides below.

Additionally, the Open Knowledge Foundation helped the Open Government Partnership Support Unit facilitate the pre-event for civil society, referred to as ”CSO Day” on October 30 by putting together an unconference, which ignited many great discussions among hundreds of participants – setting the stage nicely for the main event to kick off on October 31 and November 1.

Lastly, as part of the scoping exercise that we’re in the middle of — that intends to gauge the demand for open data in civil society across the world — we took the opportunity (with so many bright minds being gathered in the same place) to interview a series of key stakeholders in the open data space of civil society. Watch this space for the outcome of that.

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