Open Knowledge Foundation

This article covers the international organization based in Cambridge. For the German-speaking organization based in Berlin, see Open Knowledge Foundation Germany

Open Knowledge Foundation (OKF)
legal form	company limited by guarantee
founding	May 20, 2004
founder	Rufus Pollock , Martin Keegan , Jo Walsh
Seat	Cambridge, UK
motto	Promotion of open knowledge
Chair	Vanessa Barnett
Managing directors	Catherine Stihler
Website	okfn.org

Open Knowledge Foundation ( OKF ; German  foundation for open knowledge ) is a non-profit organization that advocates free content.

The organization was founded on May 20, 2004 in Cambridge , Great Britain as the Open Knowledge Foundation. Between May 2016 and May 2019 the organization called itself Open Knowledge International , but decided in May 2019 to call itself the Open Knowledge Foundation again.

Open Knowledge has published the open definition and leads several projects, such as CKAN , a registration software that many governments use for their open data projects, and Where Does My Money Go , a service for the transparent presentation of household expenses in Great Britain. In addition to the development of technical tools, the organization advises on licensing issues and advocates free content . For example, she supported the development of the Open Database License (ODbL).

In Germany the association Open Knowledge Foundation Germany ( OKFDE ) is present as a German branch ( English chapter ) of Open Knowledge International. In Austria the association is run under the name Open Knowledge Forum Austria and in Switzerland under the name Opendata.ch .

aims

Open Knowledge states the following goals:

• Generate open knowledge and disseminate it as a standard
• Helping others spread open knowledge
• To create a sustainable and active community
• Create tools to assist with the above goals
• Strengthen user freedom in terms of knowledge and data

subjects

Open knowledge sees itself as an active part of civil society . Citizens' rights are promoted and strengthened, as they are anchored in the Basic Law and in the European Convention on Human Rights . The organization is particularly committed to the following topics in the digital society:

• Civic Technology
• Freedom of information
• Open data
• Open cultural goods
• Open science
• Open Government

Open Knowledge projects

OpenSpending

Open Knowledge operates the OpenSpending.org site. The aim of the project is to collect and provide financial data from the public sector. In addition, the page offers the possibility to visualize the data sets with different methods.

Web links

• Homepage of the Open Knowledge Foundation
• Open definition (English)
• Jennifer C. Molloy : The Open Knowledge Foundation: Open Data Means Better Science, in: PLoS Biology , Volume 9, Issue 12, e1001195 (December 2011) (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Center for Science and Policy: Dr Rufus Pollock - Networks of evidence and expertise for public policy. University of Cambridge, accessed August 14, 2017 . 
2. ↑ Open Knowledge International - our new name! Retrieved July 28, 2019 . 
3. ^ For a fair, free and open future: celebrating 15 years of the Open Knowledge Foundation. Retrieved July 28, 2019 . 
4. ↑ Open Definition
5. ↑ Open Knowledge Foundation Germany e. V.
6. ↑ Open Knowledge Forum Austria
7. ↑ Opendata.ch - Swiss Chapter of the Open Knowledge Foundation
8. ↑ openspending.org