Open Data Institute Signs Up Five More International Partners

The Open Data Institute (ODI), the UK non-profit organisation co-founded by Sir Tim Berners-Lee and Sir Nigel Shadbolt to make better use of the huge amounts of information collected by the public sector, has signed up another five organisations to serve as its international ‘Nodes’.

The Tech City-based ODI was established in December 2012 as the culmination of plans to transform access to government data and has since expanded to a number of different countries. The new nodes are located in Osaka, Seoul, Sheffield, Philadelphia and Hawaii, marking the first time the ODI has expanded to Asia.

“We look forward to working alongside these new Nodes to explore how open data can drive innovation, boost transparency and bring about social, economic, and environmental benefits to their communities,” said Richard Stirling, international director at the ODI.

The network

Saltlux, machine translation and Semantic web specialists, will use the ODI network to help build ‘Government 3.0’ in South Korea, while in Sheffield, The Better With Data Society will run projects which “help realise civic, cultural and economic value through open data for the local, regional and global communities.”

The other new nodes are Azavea, which will work to increase the amount of open data available in the Philadelphia region, Innovate! Osaka and Hawaii Open Data.

“Innovate Osaka! drives and stimulates innovation in Osaka through workshops, lectures, hackathons and seminars,” commented Machi Takahashi from Innovate! Osaka, which will now also be known as ODI Osaka. “For us, becoming a city Node of the Open Data Institute is an immense opportunity to create and share our work with the leading innovators of the world. We look forward to a fruitful and innovative collaboration.”

“Open data policy in Hawaii accomplished major strides in 2013, including the passage of two bills through state and city government,” added Burt Lum, executive director at Hawaii Open Data. “Like the Internet itself, open data is a platform on which to build applications, drive innovation and foster civic engagement. Our establishment as an ODI regional Node is quite an honour and marks the next phase in the development of easily accessible, machine readable data with integrity.”

These organisations join the 13 Nodes announced at the first ODI Summit in October 2013 and will maintain independence from the London headquarters even after signing the Charter. The Node programme differs from the ODI’s existing corporate membership programme, which includes supporters such as Deloitte, Arup, Telefonica Digital and NTT Data.

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