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A non-profit organisation that advocates for open data.

A non-profit organisation that advocates for open data.

Reuters / Eric Thayer Internet giant Twitter is suing the Department of Justice in hopes that the United States government will let the web company publish more details about requests made for user data. The complaint, filed in federal court on Tuesday this week, asks the Justice Dept.

An interesting read. Freedom of speech is allowed as long it does not relate to the US government. One important thing to understand here is that the flow of information can never be stopped or banned (at least only temporarily.) There is no such thing as good or bad information - it all depends on who interprets the information and what point of views these people have.

A local group of the open knowledge foundation 1. Push for Open Science and Research practices in Indian research institutions. . 2. More involvement of citizens in the spirit of Open Knowledge Involvement of the masses in order to work towards making ourselves a better managed nation. Constitutional instruments like the Public Interest Litigation (PIL), the Right To Information (RTI), etc., lose their relevance without complete transparency in the dissemination of government as well as non-government data. Building a mass-based system of knowledge-banks can help us a lot in achieving our goal. We can assist the governments for making more information public, wherever necessary. 3. Push for education. Involving the masses can to a great extent result in a quicker transformation of the present scene (for example, we can have citizens making study material open and free and also involve them more in the dispersion of education). We aim to arrange for vocational profession-based education for the adult population.

The possibilities of open data have been enthralling us for 10 years. I came to it through wanting to make Government really usable, to build sites like TheyWorkForYou. But that excitement isn't what matters in the end. What matters is scale - which organisational structures will make this movement explode?

"Increased access to information and knowledge, underpinned by universal literacy, is an essential pillar of sustainable development. Greater availability of quality information and data and the involvement of communities in its creation will provide a fuller, more transparent allocation of resources."

"In this context, a right to information would be transformational. Access to information supports development by empowering people, especially marginalised people and those living in poverty, to: - Exercise their civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights. - Be economically active, productive and innovative. - Learn and apply new skills. - Enrich cultural identity and expression. - Take part in decision-making and participate in an active and engaged civil society. - Create community-based solutions to development challenges. - Ensure accountability, transparency, good governance, participation and empowerment. - Measure progress on public and private commitments on sustainable development. "

This ground-breaking text offers a fresh perspective on the governance of science from the standpoint of social and political theory. Science has often been seen as the only institution that embodies the elusive democratic ideal of the 'open society'.

This article is interesting in that it introduces (although repurposes an existing term) the concept of participatory surveillance in the digital age as something a little less sinister than what Manzerolle argues against in his paper for the OK MOOC's 3rd module. Instead of seeing the user as a victim of the commodification of social media as Manzerolle suggests, Albrechtslund instead focuses on the fact that people are offering this information freely. Although this was written in 2008, a couple years before Manzerolle, I think these articles really balance each other. Albrechtslund focuses on the complexities of having a digital identity in a physical world and light-heartedly refers to surveillance as something users are aware of as they participate. Are users also aware of the commodification of their participation? I think many are, and for now users are ok with it. I appreciated Manzerolle's mention of options like Diaspora, which I think as a concept could play an important part of negotiating the tension between data ownership and digital social participation.

I think these types of discussion of the implications of privacy and surveillance need a full module--in each module i keep thinking its something we need to consider. here is a more light hearted take from the humorous news website the Onion: http://www.theonion.com/video/cias-facebook-program-dramatically-cut-agencys-cos,19753/

This reminds me of a point made in Yevgeny Morozov's illustration video -- that dictatorial governments don't necessarily have to torture people to get information; they can simply follow Tweets and Facebook status updates. In the case of Rwanda, American religious social media is painting a picture of the Paul Kagame government that is at odds with what many dissidents in that country report. I agree with koobredaer -- a module on privacy and surveillance would be valuable.

Creative Commons began providing licenses for the open sharing of content only a decade ago. More than 400 million CC-licensed works are now available on the Internet, varying from music, photos, research findings to entire courseware. Creative Commons provides the legal and technical infrastructure that allows effective sharing of knowledge, art and data by individuals, organizations and governments. Millions of creators world over are taking advantage of that infrastructure to share work that enriches the global commons for all humanity. The book The Power of Open collects the stories of those creators, some such famous creators are like ProPublica, a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative news organization or the nomadic filmmaker Vincent Moon. The breadth of uses is as great as the creativity of the individuals and organizations choosing to open their content to the rest of the world.

Hasadna LeYeda Tziburi, the Public Knowledge Workshop in English, is a non-profit, non-partisan organisation that was founded in 2011. Its mission is to allow the public to engage more meaningfully with Israeli government and public interest data by making it more accessible to the public.

The name means something. I can only guess Le = the and Tziburi = the songs. I am probably wrong. Please translate for us.

The translation for Hasadna LeYeda Tziburi is Hebrew for Public Knowledge Workshop.

This is a long report (105 pages). It discusses the role of openness in science, mandate for change, and it gives recommendations to the roles that government, institutions and individuals can take on.