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Event | July 16, 2014

The Open Knowledge Festival 2014 is set to be the biggest open data and open knowledge event to date. It will be global, inclusive and participatory.

Making All Voices Count is supporting session, Power, Politics, Inclusion and Voice at 14.00 July 16, 2014.

This session will explore issues related to the intersection of the open movement with people, power and politics.

Data, information, knowledge is created in a political environment where power dynamics dictate who is/is not included in the creation process. Unless we consider who is involved in knowledge construction we run the risk of simply entrenching existing power structures. If open data is dominated by data produced in the Global North what chance do we have in redressing the balance of power for an equitable world?

At the same time, the political arena also offers opportunities to use data and information to deliver change, and challenges to doing so effectively. How can we use open data to positively influence politics and governance? And how can we avoid the pitfalls?

The session will unpack these issues, focussing on the following: What do we mean by inclusion and diversity? How are different sources of knowledge valued? Are we empowering the powerful? What are the political threats to open initiatives, and how can we address them? What are the political levers we can use to deliver change?

Session hashtag: #OKFestPower

Facilitators:

Duncan Edwards is the Programme Manager of the Research and Evidence Component of the Making All Voices Count programme. Making All Voices Count aims to find new ways to make it easier and less costly for citizens to engage with those that govern and for governments to become more responsive to citizens’ voices.
Ben Taylor is an analyst and activist who works on open government and open data with Twaweza in East Africa. Twaweza, which means “we can make it happen” in Swahili, is a ten year citizen-centered initiative, focusing on large-scale change in East Africa.
Kersti Wissenbach is external PhD candidate at the University of Amsterdam, researching new technologies and transnational activism with specific focus -not on tech- but on transcending identities and forms of community building.
Rebecca Latourell

For more information on conversations supported by Making All Voices Count at #OKFest see here.

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