Kat Braybrooke reports that the Czech Republic has joined the Open Knowledge Foundation’s global open data community. Braybrooke writes, “The year 2011 has seen a sustained growth of interest in open data and open knowledge in the Czech Republic. There’s been a lot of discussions about the openness of the public sector, an uptake of open data principles, and an increasing investment in open data projects by NGOs, citizen activists, and other informal groups. Many successful open data events have taken place, such as the e-Democracy Day, Big Clean and Průhledná politika online offline (Transparent Politics Online Offline). Interesting applications have appeared, such as SmogAlarm, an Android app for tracking current levels of air pollution, or VášMajetek.cz (YourProperty.cz), which collects and publishes information about auctions of public property coming from different sources.”

She continues, “To match this progress, we have just entered the incubation phase for the Czech Chapter of the Open Knowledge Foundation. This step is intended to support, coordinate, and spur the potential that we have recognized in this promising turn of the affairs towards a greater transparency and wider use of open data practices. Open Society Fund Prague, the organiser of the meetup, will introduce the concept of an umbrella website serving as a dispatcher for various projects working with open data.”

Read more here.

Image: Courtesy OKF