The OKFest in Berlin has just been announced http://2014.okfestival.org/blog/. It will be fantastic.
How do I know? Because it’s being created by fantastic people and because OKFest in Helsinki was fantastic.
And I love the theme. It echoes my own thoughts. So here…
A Theory of Change
The programme for the 2014 edition of the festival is fuelled by a theory of change. Using this theory as our outline, the event provides an ideal opportunity for the open movement to come together to co-create the roadmap that will guide its next steps.
Our Theory: we believe that Knowledge, Tools and Society are the levers of Change. As such, Knowledge, Tools and Society will be the three streams that form the architecture of the programme.
Knowledge: Knowledge informs change. At OKFestival we’re keen to discuss ways of unlocking, expanding and sharing knowledge through open access, open research data, open educational resources, open science, data journalism and campaigning, data visualisation and literacy.
Tools: Tools enable change. We’ll be discussing facilitating the flow of knowledge through non profit technology, open source software, open hardware, design, architecture and urban planning.
Society: The group(s) who effect change. Topics may include designing institutions, building communities and protecting environments. Additionally, powering economies through open government, transparency, open tech businesses, open development, open education, open culture, open sustainability and open economy will feature on the programme. Security and privacy-related topics also fit into this stream.
The festival will weave together these three streams of open knowledge innovation and impact. Each session will go deep within its realm as well as identifying interdisciplinary features that span different domains or disciplines.
This is exactly what the innovation in this century is about. It’s inclusive.
- Everyone has a right to all public knowledge at zero access cost and without barriers. Anyone can use it for any purpose
- Tools are becoming universal. We are creating the gift economy where everyone wishes to make tools available to everyone for free. And where the cost of tool production is dropping rapidly, whether it be software or material manufacturing.
- We are creating communities in easy that have never happened before. We can find our partners in an email or social network interchange anywhere and any when in the world. We move in and between communities.
And traditional organisations like cities and funders and voluntary groups and governments are understanding the power of the community. You’ll meet them all at OKFest.
It is a great time to be alive and to be part of it.