All About Open Data: CKAN Hackathon for Open Data to Take Place in Dublin

"A CKAN hackathon takes place tomorrow (Saturday, 28th September) at TCube in Dublin bringing together IT specialists, political representatives and members of the public with an interest in making data open.    Developers, designers, journalists, academics, policy makers, creative thinkers, civil servants, entrepreneurs and interested parties are invited to the event which aims to provide the people of Ireland with a single access point to the information collected by their government by deploying a Central Open Data Portal.  Open, usable and available knowledge will lead to greater transparency for Irish citizens and accountability from Irish representatives.  Hackathon organizer and Ambassador for Ireland of the Open Knowledge Foundation, Denis Parfenov, commented: 'We strongly believe that comprehensive and meaningful information has the potential to empower better evidence based decision-making for all of us: about the food we buy and eat, services we undertake, the choices about healthcare we make, the education we choose, pension plans we decide to invest in, and the public representatives we elect. Better information empowers us to be better consumers, clients, patients, students, investors and active citizens.' The event is co-organised by the ‘Open Data Ireland’ community and the Open Knowledge Foundation with the support of Fingal County Council, ESRI Ireland and The Irish Organisation for Geographic Information (IRLOGI).   The hackathon will review information that is already publicly available and launch a local Open Knowledge Foundation Network chapter which will encourage the development of open knowledge in Ireland."