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The intersection of the web and the World Bank.

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Inside the Web is a blog exploring the intersection of the web, international development, and the World Bank, written by Bank staff that work on online strategy, editorial, content, governance, and technology.

July 2009

A quick look back at OpenDevCamp.

Submitted by Sameer Vasta on Mon, 07/20/2009 - 09:19

Open Development Camp - Photo by Development Seed

The Open Development Camp that took place just a little over a week ago here at the World Bank was a success in many ways:

  • About 100 people interested in development data and collaboration showed up.
  • About 20 sessions on a variety of topics were proposed and facilitated by experts and interested participants during the unconference.
  • Notes from the sessions and follow-up discussions continue to take place at the Ning group.
  • There is lots of interest in replicating the event in other parts of the world, or even for different thematic sectors in development.
     

The folks at Global Development Commons have a roundup of some of the sessions, and of course, the Ning group has some great recaps of the sessions, so I'd recommend checking those spaces out for more details on what exactly went on at OpenDevCamp itself.

Joe Pringle of Forum One livestreamed the opening keynote by Owen Barder as well. You can watch the archived video below:
 

Open Development Camp also featured a few good sessions on hwo developers can interact with open development data, and where that data can be found and how organizations can make it easier for people to use the data.

From those sessions, we got some really great ideas on how to make the World Bank API even better than it already is, and we'll be working on some improvements in the weeks and months ahead.

We're looking forward to your continued discussion and interaction about the event over on the Ning group, and if you think there's value in us looking at holding more events to bring the development data community together in person, let me know.

(Photo of OpenDevCamp from Development Seed.)

Open Development Camp this Friday at the World Bank

Submitted by Sameer Vasta on Tue, 07/07/2009 - 15:55

This coming Friday, July 10th, we'll be hosting the first Open Development Camp (OpenDevCamp) here at the World Bank, along with our friends from AidInfo, Development Gateway, Forum One Communications, and USAID's Global Development Commons.

What is OpenDevCamp, you ask? Here's the description, straight from the event page:

There are a number of emerging activities focusing on improving the transparency of aid and allowing organizations, projects, researchers, practitioners, and clients in developing countries to have improved access to aid information, data on outcomes, knowledge, and tools.  We are getting closer to the day when anyone can easily determine who is doing what, where they are doing it, what they have learned, and who is funding them. Come join a group of interested organizations to brainstorm about how to advance the conversation about making aid more transparent, improving access to data, and making knowledge and tools related to development easier to find on the internet.

The event is already sold out and registration is closed, but I'll be posting a wrap-up of some of the things I took away from the unconference next week. Quite a few of the OpenDevCamp attendees will also be tweeting from the event, so check out the #OpenDevCamp hashtag on Twitter for live updates as well.

If you have any ideas and issues you'd like me to bring up during OpenDevCamp, let me know here in the comments or join the Ning group and get involved in the discussion. For those of you that are coming, see you on Friday!