The World Wide Web Foundation and the World Bank are pleased to announce the launch of an Open Government Data Community of Practice (CoP). The Open Data CoP will connect Web Foundation and World Bank staff, external experts, and government clients. It will focus on experiences in building sustainable Open Data ecosystems in developing countries, and what it means for countries’ national transformations. Discussion will address both the supply (policy and implementation perspectives) and demand (community and citizen perspectives) sides. You can join the OGD Community of Practice on LinkedIn.

Open Government Data in Developing Countries event, Washington, DC (USA), Oct 3rd, 2011

To mark this launch, there will be a “brown bag lunch” on the role of Open Government Data (OGD) in developing countries. This event will take place on Monday, October 3rd, at the World Bank offices in Washington, DC (USA) and it will be webcasted live.

We will also discuss examples from Kenya and Moldova. These examples will illustrate different approaches to the successful incorporation of Open Government Data initiatives. Discussion may include:

• What makes Open Data initiatives successful? What lessons have we learned so far?
• What should Web Foundation and World Bank and our partners do to mainstream Open Data in developing countries?
• What kind of funding is required and for what purpose?
• How does the Kenya model differ from the Moldova experience? What are the pros and cons of each? What are the priorities for the next stage? How these differ from Open Data initiatives in developed countries?

We are looking forward to helping more governments to start Open Data initiatives and we expect this CoP will facilitate this goal.