Open Knowledge Festival Takes Over Helsinki

The Finnish Institute in London co-produces a major international open knowledge event in Helsinki 17–22 September 2012.

Open Knowledge Festival brings together open knowledge experts and actors to build a more open and a more innovative knowledge society. The festival brings two annual open knowledge events to Helsinki: Open Government Data Camp and Open Knowledge Conference.

"Getting the festival to Helsinki is a unique opportunity for the Finns to join the pioneers of an international transformative movement. The last year has been significant in the field of open knowledge, as e.g. government data and research results are being opened in Finland, in Britain and in Europe at large. Now is the time to focus on taking advantage of open knowledge in various sectors, and an international festival provides a valuable platform for this", says Jussi Nissilä, Programme Director of Society at the Finnish Institute.

Open Knowledge Festival highlights the fundamental benefits and uses of open knowledge and it groups the pioneers on the field together to form the open knowledge ecosystem. The festival's programme involves for example seminars, workshops, hackathon programming sessions and online events.

The programme plunges into particular questions of the specific fields but it also searches the common features to bring the different strands together. For example following topics are addressed: open democracy and citizen participation, open governance, open cities, open design, open heritage, openness in development, open science and education, open geo-data, open source software and business and data-journalism and data-visualisation. The full programme and keynote speakers will be announced in June.

Open knowledge is a comprehensive concept that involves all the knowledge from genes to geo-data and from literature to programming code, regardless of who originally produced it. The openness of knowledge means that it can be freely used, edited and shared by anyone. Benefits are gained in all the sectors of society by opening up the knowledge: in science, in culture, in governance and in economy.

The main organisers of the event are Open Knowledge Foundation, The Finnish Institute in London, Aalto University, Forum Virium Helsinki and EIT ICT Labs.

More information:
Open Knowledge Festival
Open Knowledge Festival coordinator Juha Huuskonen:
juha.huuskonen(a)finnish-institute.org.uk, +358 40 570 9617

Programme Director Jussi Nissilä:
jussi.nissila(a)finnish-institute.org.uk