OK Festival: What Is Open Development?

On the third day of the Open Development and Open Knowledge Festival, I spent the entire day in the Open Development track (on Twitter #OpenDev). The first session was an open discussion and debate about what ‘openness’ can add to traditional development approaches, trying to explore different visions.

The six invited contributors (Tariq Kokhar, Data Evangelist, World Bank Institute, USA; Philip Thigo, The Social Development Network, Kenya; Linda Raftree, Senior Advisor ICT4D, Plan USA; Blane Harvey, Institute of Development Studies, UK; Karina Banfi, Secretaria Ejecutiva at Alianza Regional por la Libertad de Expresión e Información; Dr. Jyrki Pulkkinen, Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Finland) started the discussion with short five-minute talks about their understanding of and visions for open development. During the rest of the session, different members of the audience were invited up to the stage to join the conversation, ask questions and answer questions from the floor.