Submissions/Lobbying for open data – the case of Wikimedia Sverige’s public works of art project

This is a Completed submission for Wikimania 2017 ready to be reviewed by a member of the Programme Committee.

Submission no. 5026, LE3

Title of the submission

Lobbying for open data – the case of Wikimedia Sverige’s public works of art project

Type of submission (lecture, panel, tutorial/workshop, roundtable discussion, lightning talk, poster, birds of a feather discussion)

Lecture

Author of the submission

Eric Luth

type of submission

Lecture

Language of presentation

English

E-mail address

eric.luthwikimedia.se

Username

User:Eric_Luth_(WMSE)

Country of origin

Sweden

Affiliation, if any (organisation, company etc.)

Wikimedia Sverige

Personal homepage or blog

Abstract (up to 300 words to describe your proposal)

Most comparisons show that Sweden is desperately lagging behind in open data. Through our project Offentligkonst.se and Wikidata, we have spent 2016 and 2017 trying to influence local decision makers to invest more in open data, and convince them of the public interest in getting access to information.

Wikimedia Sverige created the first national database of public works of art in 2013 and contacted municipalities country wide to request open datasets. During the collection phase for Offentligkonst.se we realized that the knowledge about open data was extremely limited in many of the politicians and public officials in Sweden’s municipalities. We wanted to change this and inform them about the value of open data.

As end users with a well known project we had a good possibility to get them interested. The project consisted in meeting politicians and public officials in 70 municipalities – from urban Stockholm with close to a million inhabitants, to rural Aneby with just a very few thousands. The goal has been to make an inventory of work on open data around in Sweden.

What will attendees take away from this session?

During the presentation we will present how we structured our work and what success and failures we had. The goal being that the listeners will be able to design their own national initiative.

Theme of presentation

• Legal & Free Culture

For workshops and discussions, what level is the intended audience?

Length of session (if other than 25 minutes, specify how long)

25 minutes

Will you attend Wikimania if your submission is not accepted?

Yes

Slides or further information (optional)

Special requests

This is a Completed submission for Wikimania 2017 ready to be reviewed by a member of the Programme Committee.

Interested attendees

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