Press Call: Vice President of the European Commission meets with Open activists at OKFestival

June 25, 2014

Vice President of the European Commission meets with Open activists at OKFestival

Neelie Kroes, Vice-President of the European Commission, has been confirmed as one of four keynotes at the Open Knowledge Festival, 15th - 17th July.

The Festival is the world’s biggest convergence of the fast-growing Open movement, and this year takes place in Berlin. Over 1000 people from around the world are expected, from government officials to computer programmers, citizen activists and journalists.

Members of the press are invited to apply for press accreditation, and to join the Press Breakfast on Thursday 17th July at 8 am.

The other keynote speakers at the Festival will be Patrick Alley, founder of Global Witness; Eric Hysen, Head of Politics and Elections at Google; and Beatriz Busaniche, founder of Wikimedia Argentina [1].

This diverse cross-section of key figures in the Open movement reflects the participatory and inclusive ethos of the event. The theme [2] for OKFestival 2014 is Open Minds to Open Action, focusing on translating skills and inspiration into real change in the world.

The crowd-sourced programme [3] is arranged into three streams - Knowledge, Tools and Society - covering topics from climate change to online privacy, government spending to cultural archives.

This year’s event builds on the success of OKFest 2012 in Helsinki, the first global event of its kind which attracted over 1000 in-person participants and 12,500 more online. Other Open Knowledge events include OKCon, running since 2007, and the Open Government Data Camp which took place in London (2010) and Warsaw (2011) and was a key catalyst in putting open data at the heart of the twenty-first century movement for government transparency. [3]

What people said about previous Open Knowledge events:

OKCon never disappoints. It's a community of genuine open data innovators who are pushing their governments to do what no one thought they could. I always leave this annual event stimulated, renewed and full of new ideas. – Ellen Miller, Sunlight Foundation

It was really a life changing experience for me. I wish it would have lasted longer as I was learning so much and having so much fun. – Janet Maranga, lecturer and speaker, Kenya

ENDS

Press accreditation applications are being accepted now: http://2014.okfestival.org/press

For all enquiries, contact: Press Line: +44 (0) 1223 422159 or press@okfestival.org

Notes to the Editor

[1] http://2014.okfestival.org/programme/keynote-speakers/ [2] http://2014.okfestival.org/about-okfestival-2014s-vision-mission/ [3] http://2014.okfestival.org/festival-programme/ [4] https://okfn.org/get-involved/events/

· The Open Knowledge Festival takes place from 15th-17th July 2014, at the Kulturbrauerei, Schönhauser Allee 36, 10435 Berlin. Full info is at http://2014.okfestival.org/

· A Press Breakfast will take place on Thursday 17th July at 8am, at the Kulturbrauerei, including the keynote speakers and senior Open Knowledge figures. Please contact press@okfn.org if you would like to come along.

· Press accreditation information is at http://2014.okfestival.org/press and interviews can be arranged upon request.

· The Open Knowledge Festival is organised by Open Knowledge, a worldwide non-profit network of people passionate about openness. Open Knowledge uses advocacy, technology and training to unlock information and enable people to work with it to create and share knowledge. https://okfn.org/

· A promotional video for OKFestival 2014 is available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-fzhjtDEAg

· Images from OKFestival 2012 are available on flickr here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/okfn/sets/72157628319216831/. Logos and banners for this year’s event are downloadable here: http://2014.okfestival.org/press