Hi Gustavo
I coordinate the open science working group, who are less focused on datasets and more on discussion around open science in all its forms, although we have working group members who work with data and on projects involving making use of open data.
I agree that bringing together researchers is a great use of the Open Knowledge network and its something we’re trying in Open Science in 2015 although we don’t have any projects of the type you describe. However, I can suggest some organisational points for working group projects:
Documentation: I see you’ve updated the wiki, which is great! I’m still working on the best way to lay out information so it’s clear how people can get involved with the open science working group and what we’re prioritising. I would say make it really clear what the main focus project is and jump onto making that happen (it’s really easy to overstretch when the group is quiet).
Regular Activity: Small bits of regular activity are a good way to get new people involved and maintain regular contact e.g. monthly calls or IRC hangouts, but don’t be disappointed if they start small, persistence and time help a lot! Especially if there are specific projects to discuss.
Sprints: Everyone is a volunteer so sprints can work really well as they allow people to block off a half-day or a day to focus on the project. They can be virtual or tagged onto a real life economics or Open Knowledge conferences.
Perhaps we could have a coordination category in the forum for discussing community coordination and getting people on-board and engaged? I made a start on a community coordination strategy for the open science group (very much a work in progress) and posted some resources which Heather Leson put together during her time at Open Knowledge, which might be useful:
http://wiki.okfn.org/Open_Science/WGCoordination#Building_the_open_science_community_-_community_coordination_strategy
On an economics specific note, on a hackday with Guo Xu once we were talking about transcription of regression tables from papers as an excercise in crowd-sourced transcription, ‘data liberation’ from the closed access literature and re-analysis/reproducibility. I’m not sure this ever made it as an official project but may be worth reconsidering. I also work with a project called ContentMine that has strong links to the open science working group and is all about extracting data from the scientific literature (which could include economic papers if you can see scope for that). http://contentmine.org/
I definitely think the Failed Bank Tracker sounds like an ideal project to increase activity as it incorporates small through the very large tasks. It might be worth listing possible ways to get involved in this kind of framework e.g. Got 30 mins? Find and add a new failed bank to the list. 1-2 hours? Fill in some additional info on a bank. 1-2 days? Think about making a new visualisation etc. There is a page on the Open Science Working Group site under construction with a similar aim: http://wiki.okfn.org/Open_Science/GetInvolved
Thanks for your energy (I know it takes a lot!) and I hope some of the above is helpful!
Jenny