What Next In Open Development?

In October 2011 the Open Knowledge Foundation organised its big annual Open Government Data Conference in Warsaw, Poland. After the conference a small group of people interested in development cooperation and development gathered in a side event in Warsaw to discuss where we stood in “open development”. What a contrast to the Open Knowledge Festival in September 2012 in Helsinki! Development was one of the main streams of the conference and over seventy participants attended primarily the development stream. Also, in contrast to Warsaw, the organising team managed to invite over twenty participants from Africa, Asia and Latin America with travel bursaries provided by the Swedish Development Agency SIDA and by the Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Their presence constituted a shift from a “Northern” debate to a more inclusive discussion and also a shift from open data in development cooperation to open development.

So where are we now with Open Development? What are the next steps to make open development not only a conference topic but reality? In the following reflections I want to offer three responses to this question.