Eve Little and Yoann Tsika from the UK Data Service spoke with members of the Open Knowledge Foundation to explore how many perspectives come together around a shared commitment to open knowledge.
The Open Knowledge Foundation (OKFN) is a global, non-profit organisation working to advance open knowledge as a public good. Founded in 2004, it operates through a decentralised global network, developing open technologies, supporting data literacy, and advocating for openness in how knowledge systems are designed, governed and used.
This first blog post in a two-part series brings together voices from across the OKFN network to explore the pressures shaping open knowledge today.
In conversation with
Renata Ávila |
Lucas Pretti |
Patricio Del Boca |
|
Haydée Svab |
Nikesh Balami |
The contributors to this conversation bring together expertise spanning technology, governance, civic advocacy and open knowledge practice.
On the Open Knowledge Foundation side, Renata Ávila is the CEO, Lucas Pretti is the Director of Communications, Institutional Relations and Advocacy, and Patricio Del Boca is the Technical lead.
Representing OKFN’s wider network, Haydée Svab is Governance Board Member of Open Knowledge Brasil and Nikesh Balami is co-founder and CEO of Open Knowledge Nepal.
The pressures on open knowledge systems – and why they matter now
Open data – data that anyone can access, use, reuse and share, without restriction – underpins efforts to address some of today’s most pressing civic, social and infrastructural challenges.
“If you want to fight corruption, you need to find data on that. If you want to do a citizen initiative, you need data. If you want to improve infrastructure, you need data. So a lot of the challenges that we face in our lives and try to solve, we need access to open data.” – Patricio Del Boca
Yet despite its importance, open data is becoming harder to access, interpret and trust. Knowledge is often privatised, restricted behind paywalls or secrecy laws, or rendered unusable through neglect and austerity.
The OKFN team described a landscape where these pressures are intensifying rather than easing, with the rapid advance of Artificial Intelligence (AI) adding further friction.
“AI creates a lot of noise in open source projects.[…] It doesn’t always provide value in terms of facts, truth or access to information.” – Patricio Del Boca
At the same time, restrictions on access cannot be reduced to technology alone. Haydée Svab, Governance Board Member of Open Knowledge Brasil, pointed to deeper institutional dynamics that shape whether data is released at all:
“Open Data is getting more complicated to access but I don’t think AI is the only point. Here (in Brazil), it is also due to misunderstandings of general data protection law.[…] When a lot of open data is mistakenly classified as ‘personal data’, public officials end up finding it easier to not release complete datasets, preventing us from properly overseeing public policies.” – Haydée Svab
These perspectives show how pressure on open knowledge systems emerge from overlapping technological, institutional and political factors – and why responding to them requires working across all three.
“The world is getting more complicated from the rise of AI to data privacy laws.[…] The open knowledge momentum is something that will balance this rise.” – Nikesh Balami
This is the space that OKFN positions itself in: responding to closure not with a single solution, but by building alternative models, tools and practices rooted in openness as a shared public good.
Openness as a design principle, not a feature
Against this backdrop, OKFN’s response is not to ‘add’ openness to existing systems, but to embed it as a design principle – one that shapes how systems, policies and tools are created from the outset.
This way of thinking underpins OKFN’s work – from the development of open-source infrastructure such as CKAN, the world’s leading open source data management system also used by the UK Data Service, to skills development, community-led learning and advocacy for open, ethical and sustainable data ecosystems.
Crucially, this approach also involves being open about limits and uncertainty. OKFN is explicit that openness is not a finished state but an ongoing process of experimentation and learning.
“From our experience in the last 20 years, I think what we have discovered is that learning, failing and making these failures transparent in processes is far more appreciated in the communities that we belong to.” – Renata Ávila
A decentralised, global network way of working
A defining feature of how OKFN puts these principles into practice is its global and deeply decentralised structure. Rather than operating as a single central authority, OKFN functions as a network of organisations joined by shared values and direction, while retaining autonomy at local and regional levels.
“We are not only international, but also super decentralised. We have more than a dozen of active chapters and, in this conversation alone, you have representatives of three different organisations.[…] We are aligned in vision.” – Patricio Del Boca
Patricio also discusses how working across this global network continually challenges assumptions:
“Sometimes you have a problem and people from different places of the world look at that problem from completely different positions, and for some people, it is not even seen as a problem.[…] Being able to tackle the solution from different angles enriches our work a lot.” – Patricio Del Boca
Nikesh Balami, CEO of Open Knowledge Nepal, emphasised the strength this diversity brings to the network:
“We are a very diverse network of people doing work on all different regional levels.[…] This is one of the powerful parts because that brings us the rich and diverse perspectives from all over the world” – Nikesh Balami
This decentralised model allows openness to be translated into practice in ways that are responsive to local political, legal and social realities, rather than being enforced through a single global template.
“We enable people to deliver discourse locally.[…] We do things in the Foundation that could and should be activated and localised everywhere.” – Lucas Pretti
The impact of this approach is visible in practice through initiatives developed within the network:
“A great example of how we tackle data closure is ‘Querido Diário’, Brazil’s first Digital Public Good. We scrape and structure data from municipal official gazettes that are usually inaccessible, creating an open tool that now impacts a third of the Brazilian population.” – Haydée Svab
The next post in this series moves from context to practice, focusing on the School of Data and how OKFN is translating these open principles into work on AI, digital literacy and organisational capacity through initiatives such as the AI Learning Labs.
We were in conversation with
Renata Ávila is the CEO of OKFN, an international human rights and technology lawyer and openness advocate, helping individuals and organisations use data to address pressing social problems and preserve human rights through open standards and advocacy.
A former fellow of the Stanford Institute for Human-Centred Artificial Intelligence, she is associated with the Center for Internet and Society at CNRS, France. Renata co-founded the <A+> Alliance for Inclusive Algorithms and the Progressive International, and has co-authored two books and contributed to several others.
Lucas Pretti is the Director of Communications, Institutional Relations & Advocacy at OKFN, a journalist, researcher and openness advocate passionate about building open infrastructure for communities and establishing broad coalitions to drive systemic change.
Over the past 20 years, Lucas has been involved in a variety of commons-based initiatives fighting for power distribution and people’s participation in decision-making. He is currently a PhD candidate in Arts, Literature and Cultural Studies at the Autonomous University of Madrid.
Patricio Del Boca is Technical Leader and Open Advocate at the Open Knowledge Foundation.
Information Systems Engineering with over 10 years experience in technology, open data and artificial intelligence, both in the private sector and in civil society. Member of the technical team of CKAN, the world’s leading open source data management system. Speaker and presenter at international events promoting the use of free software, open data, and technological sovereignty.
Haydée Svab is a Governance Board Member of Open Knowledge Brazil and a specialist in the intersection of technology, data, and public policy.
With over ten years of experience, she leads projects focused on open data, civic technology, urban mobility, and health. Co-founder of ASK-AR Consultancy and RLadies São Paulo Chapter, she advocates for open knowledge as a fundamental tool for building more democratic societies.
Nikesh Balami is the Co-founder and CEO of Open Knowledge Nepal, a civic entrepreneur, open data advocate and tech researcher.
A passionate supporter of open source software, Nikesh believes in the power of open knowledge to empower citizens through technology and open data. Outside of work, Nikesh enjoys coffee chats, hackathons, blogging, travelling, and all things related to open data.
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