This document provides an overview of the state of open data and open knowledge in Belgium. It discusses Open Knowledge Belgium's mission to promote openness through advocacy, research and technology. It then outlines some of the progress made in open data policies and portals in Belgium, Flanders, Wallonia and Brussels. It also notes that while much low hanging fruit has been achieved, new challenges remain around issues like algorithm ethics, open science business models, real-time data and linked data.

1. The State of Open

2. Hello!
Inge Van Nieuwerburgh
@ivnieuwe (Board member Open Knowledge)
Toon Vanagt
@toon (Chairman Open Knowledge)

3. The Essentials
Guiding you through the conference day

4. Open Knowledge Belgium advocates “A world where
knowledge creates power for the many, not the few”
A grassroots organisation that consists of people, mainly volunteers, passionate about openness, using
advocacy, research and technology to unlock information, enabling people to use and share knowledge in
Belgium and beyond.
We are a non-profit promoting Open Knowledge (as part Open Knowledge International) and an umbrella
organisation for our 7 active working groups:
○ Creative Commons Belgium
○ OpenStreetMap Belgium
○ Open Tourism
○ Open Access Belgium
○ Open Transport (iRail)
○ Open Badges Belgium
○ Open Education (in the making)

5. Wifi & Tweets
● Where do I find my wifi code?
Check your lanyard
● Posting about the conference on social media?
#openbelgium
● Questions & feedback to the organisers on Twitter?
@openbelgium
● Where do I charge my electronic device(s)?
At the free charging station in the foyer

6. Feeling lost?
Check your lanyard
This lanyard

7. Feeling lost?
Reach out to a volunteer
This shirt

8. Off the menu..
Speed meeting for data owners and reusers
● 15h30-17h00
● “Data producer meets Data consumer”
● Organised by cirb / cibg in the Foyer

9. Wiki Loves Art
Check the side wall of the Atrium

10. Open Visualisations & Open Notes
Frederik Vyncke (fritsbits) will make visualisations.
Feel free to make and post your own visualisations:
We look forward to your visual summaries &
doodles
Feel free to help write our collaborative notes and
contact the transcribers (present in every
conference room)

11. The State of Open
Looking back and forward

12. NYTimes.com Trump’s Inauguration vs. Obama’s: Comparing the Crowds (20/01/2017)
Alternative facts

13. Let’s not take all things “open” for granted
If you can make people believe there is a
bigger crowd on the right than the left..
we risk to wave enlightenment goodbye
& enter dark times..

14. Washingtongpost.com (13/12/2016)

16. Open Science

18. Some policy support
Flanders: report VRWI on
open science including
OA, OD, skills
Wallonia: project for a
law on open access to
scholarly articles

19. Europe
Extended pilot open research data in H2020
Council conclusions on the transition towards an Open
Science system, May 2016: “…AGREES that the results of
publicly funded research should be made available in an
as open as possible manner …”
“as open as possible, as closed as necessary”.

20. FAIR data
Findable

21. FAIR data
Accessible

22. FAIR data
Interoperable

23. FAIR data
Re-usable

24. Skills
Data curator

25. Skills
Source: Ringlead: https://www.ringlead.com/salesforce-user-data-steward/#.WLxOi0e8pQM
Data Steward

26. Skills
Source: http://www.tibco.com/blog/2011/07/26/how-to-become-a-data-analyst/

27. Copyright

28. Reform European level
Proposition exception TDM
Idea should be:
Right to read is right to mine

29. Open Knowledge Lifetime Achievement Award

30. 1. Too expensive
2. There’s no business case
3. There’s no commercial value
4. It’s private
5. It’s secret
6. It's our data
7. We have invested a lot of money
in this
8. Link enough data and one will
arrive at sensitive private
information
9. It's not data, it's information
10. It will never work
Noël Van Herreweghe (@opendataforum_)
Open Data manager at Information Flanders
11. We don't know how to do this
12. We don't have the right people to
do this
13. We need the money
14. It’s not ours, and we don’t know
who’s data it is
15. No idea what the quality of the
data is
16. We don’t know where to find it
17. It’s not our job
18. It isn’t in the right format
19. I am not authorised
20. Who is going to use this anyway
21. ...
Receives our Open Knowledge Lifetime Achievement Award 2017
for overcoming early “Open Data” excuses such as:

31. 2. State of Open
Where are we today?

32. Open Knowledge was recognised as grassroot
umbrella organisation for open data legislation
Grassroot input from & feedback
by Open Knowledge Belgium
Discussed in
government
Discussed in
parliament
Voted in
parliament
Belgium V V V V
Flanders V V V V
Wallonia V V V V
Brussels V V V V

33. Annual effort tracking state of Open Data
Source: http://index.okfn.org/

34. Government Spending (ranking 8th)
Government Budget (ranking 25th)
Source: https://openspending.org/

35. Location Data portal availability URL
Europe V https://www.europeandataportal.eu/
Belgium V http://data.gov.be/
Flanders V http://opendata.vlaanderen.be/
Wallonia V http://opendata.digitalwallonia.be/
Brussels V http://opendatastore.brussels/en/
Data portals are the new black

36. Low hanging fruit is gone
Algorithm ethics
Feedback loops
Extra privacy constraints (GDPR)
New gatekeepers
Open Science Sustainable revenue models for “re-users”
Open spending
Copyright reform
Real time data
Linked data

37. Open Summer of code 2017
http://summerofcode.be

38. Thanks!
You can reach us at @toon & @ivnieuwe
Open Belgium 2017 - Slide template CC-BY 4.0 SlidesCarnival
#openbelgium