Proposal for Structuring Open Knowledge England Activities

Local Groups England
1

I want to suggest that we organize Open Knowledge England activities under a few defined headings and use these to structure our work, the group and the involvement of new members.

Policy and Advocacy

This group would focus on:

  • National and local government information policy including open data
  • Carry out research (e.g. National and Local Open Data Index)
  • Prepare policy papers and perform high-level advocacy

Events and Outreach

This group would focus on:

  • Organizing meetups and other events
  • Engaging and presenting at other events and groups (e.g. organizing and providing speakers)
  • Promotional and outreach activities (preparing materials, disseminating them etc)
  • Finding and engaging new members
  • Running websites and social media

Information to Insight (Storytelling)

This group would focus on using open information to generate insight on particular topics to demonstrate the value and use of open information and to engage others with our work.

  • Developing data and content skills and training others in that (individuals and organizations)
  • Doing deep dives on particular topics using open data and open content
  • Providing visualization and storytelling skills to support advocacy and other work
1 Like
2

@rufuspollock I like this structure! It makes a lot of sense and it looks to me like it can help us make good use of everyone’s diverse skills/talents/interests.

I think it could be worth adding something about coordinating with other groups and initiatives (in the spirit of making the whole landscape of open science/open knowledge etc. more “coherent”, possibly a little bit less scattered than it currently is). Would need to think a bit more about what we can actually do to this effect, but it’s worth keeping in mind as a general principle.

I’d be interested to work in the policy & advocacy area, and especially on the policy papers etc.; I did similar work last year on open access, and that’s probably where my background in political science would be most useful.

3

@MathPascal

great points re coordinating with other groups as that is a major priority and I think we can add that under “Outreach”. I’ll make the main topic “wiki-like” so editable by anyone and you can add it yourself and become a co-author :smile:

Wonderful. Would you like to start a topic in the England category where we could review recent policy issues and upcoming ones (e.g. next 6-12m)