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OpenSpending: Building a Global Database of Public Finances. Washington, DC - Wolfram Data Summit 2013. PRESENTED BY. Anders Pedersen @openspending / @anpe. CC-By v3 Licensed (all jurisdictions). Knowledge is. Power. Open Knowledge is. EmPowerment.
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OpenSpending: Building a Global Database of Public Finances • Washington, DC - Wolfram Data Summit 2013 PRESENTED BY Anders Pedersen @openspending / @anpe CC-By v3 Licensed (all jurisdictions)
Knowledge is Power
Open Knowledge is EmPowerment
We work to open up information & see it transformed into open knowledge that empowers citizens and organizations to better understand their world and effect positive change.
Advocacy and Evangelism to Open up Data & Content
Create tools, skills and communities Data => Knowledge Knowledge => Action
OpenSpending A global community Creating an openmap of the money From streetlights to international aid
We might hope to see the finances of the Union as clear and intelligible as a merchant's books so that every member of congress and every man of any mind ... should be able to comprehend them, to investigate abuses, and consequently control them. President Thomas Jefferson to Treasury Secretary Albert Gallatin, 1802
Case: Working Links (UK) 72 contracts or 7,400 transactions (2010-2012) “The private sector shareholders are Capgemini, a consultancy with extensive public sector contracts, and Manpower, a recruitment firm. The charitable owner is Mission Australia, which works with troubled families and children. The British Government holds a stake, managed by the Shareholder Executive.” Source: The Daily Telegraph,
Help citizens map spending in their community • Charter school spending in Washington DC
Access in more countries • USASpending (federal): 2007 • Brazil (federal): 2009 • United Kingdom: 2010 • Slovenia: 2011 • Greece: 2012 • Not exactly a ripple effect...
Data is messy • United Kingdom: • 3327 data sets released without any standard • No unique identifiers
More types of data Revenues from extractive industries (following Section 1504 of Dodd-Frank) Procurement data Taxation data Company data
Broaden the community • Nepal: Building connections between developers, journalists and aid specialists
Build initiatives bottom-up • Japan: Budget sites in 45 cities
Demonstrate relevance • Deploy tools to dig into spending data patterns
Exploding Info Complexity In 1820s all UK bank clearing done in a single room in London once a day. Today, billions of transactions a minute.
Data is a Platform Not a Commodity We Build on It Not Sell It
Becoming the Open Knowledge Society
http://okfn.org/ http://okfn.org/get-involved/ http://openspending.org/