The Future of Open Data, Online Conference – Open Knowledge Foundation

To celebrate Open Data Day 2026, the Open Knowledge Foundation (OKFN) is hosting an online conference to bring the open data community together for a celebration of two decades of CKAN, the tool that was born from OKFN work and today powers data portals all over the World. We will also discuss what is the role of open data and data infrastructures today, vis-à-vis the current technical and political landscape.

We invite anyone working with open data in government, civil society organisations, newsrooms, activist collectives, and all practitioners interested in discussing the future of open data in this rapidly changing tech landscape.

As AI tools are rapidly taking a central role in how people search for and use information, we are gathering to reflect on what we have learned and share what we are currently working on, and our collective vision of a future. Join us!

10:00–11:00 UTC

[Panel] Navigating Open Data Regulation for the Public Interest

This panel will focus on the policy and governance dimension of open data in the age of AI — from data access and licensing to accountability, procurement, and digital public infrastructure.

Speakers in alphabetical order:

	Deshni Govender – Country Lead of GIZ project: FAIR Forward ‘AI for all’; advisory board member of the South African AI Association; co-founder of the GIZ Diverse Women in Tech network.
	Jonathan Gray – Author of 'Public Data Cultures' (Polity, 2025), Reader in Critical Infrastructure Studies and Co-Director of the Centre for Digital Culture at King’s College London.
	Renata Ávila – CEO, Open Knowledge Foundation (moderator)
	Renato Berrino Malaccorto – Research Manager at Open Data Charter
	Ruth Del Campo – General Director for Data at the Ministry for Digital Transformation and the Civil Service, Government of Spain

11:00–12:00 UTC

[Lightning Talks] Community Voices: Open Data & AI

Short presentations from projects working on open data and AI. These may include new tools, pilots, and experiments from across the ecosystem.

Speakers in alphabetical order:

AI-Powered Analysis of Judicial Practice Using Open Court Data
by Ihor Samokhodskyi
Policy Genome (Ukraine)
Enhancing CKAN Interoperability with data.europa.eu through High-Quality Metadata
by Javier Conde, Andrés Muñoz-Arcentales and Álvaro Alonso
Polytechnic University of Madrid (Spain)
Climate Open Data and #semanticClimate
by Renu Kumari
#semanticClimate and Frictionless Data (India)
Uhai/Life: Building a Comprehensive Citizen Science Open Data Dashboard for People & Planet
by Richard Muraya
The Demography Project (Kenya)
From Open Dataset to Insight in Minutes: An Autonomous Analytics Assistant
by Sayantika Banik
DataJourney (India)

12:00 UTC

Break

13:00–15:00 UTC

[Roundtable] CKAN at 20: The Future of Open Data in the Era of AI

This session will reflect on two decades of CKAN: how it has evolved, how the community has grown, and what priorities are emerging now. It will explore how open data initiatives are responding to the trend of AI and the ethical, societal and technical challenges that lie ahead.

The roundtable will combine forward-looking reflections with live demonstrations of tools, integrations, and experiments that illustrate how open data initiatives are adapting in practice.

Speakers in alphabetical order:

	Andrea Borruso – Expert in Geographic Information Systems and Open Data, President of onData.
	Antonin Garrone – Product Manager, data.gouv.fr (the French open data platform)
	Jamaica Jones – CKAN/POSE Community Manager, University of Pittsburgh (moderator)
	Joel Natividad – Co-CEO and co-founder of datHere
	Mohsin Yousufi – Research engineer at Public AI and a PhD candidate in Digital Media at Georgia Tech.
	Patricio Del Boca – Tech Lead and Open Activist, Open Knowledge Foundation (OKFN)
	Rufus Pollock – Author of 'The Open Revolution: Rewriting the Rules of the Information Age' (2018). Founder of the Open Knowledge Foundation (OKFN) and Datopian, and co-founder of Life Itself.
	Steven De Costa – Executive Director of Link Digital and a Co-Steward of the CKAN project

This is an open online event free of charge. We welcome registrations from everyone who is interested in taking a critical look at current technologies.

Registration is now closed.

For questions and queries regarding the programme or any aspect of registration process, please contact info@okfn.org.

The Future of Open Data is organised by:

The Open Knowledge Foundation (OKFN) is the world’s ultimate reference in open digital infrastructures and the hub of the open movement. As a global not-for-profit, we have been establishing and advocating for open standards for the last 20 years. OKFN is the organisation behind the Open Definition, Open Data Commons, School of Data, and tools like CKAN, Frictionless Data and the Open Data Editor. We provide services, tools and training for institutions to adopt openness as a design principle.

Open Data Day (ODD) is an annual celebration of open data all over the world. Groups from many countries create local events on the day where they will use open data in their communities. ODD is led by the Open Knowledge Foundation (OKFN) and the Open Knowledge Network.

As a way to increase the representation of different cultures, we offer the opportunity for organisations to host an Open Data Day event on the best date over one week. In 2026, it is happening from March 7-13. All outputs are open for everyone to use and re-use.

We are celebrating 20 years of CKAN with various activities throughout 2026.