In quite a stark contrast to csv,conf (which was very developer oriented), I attended OKFestival the next two days. With over 1000 attendees from all areas of it really is a huge gathering of open proponents.
Open is the new default
While not necessarily true in all the fields yet, it looks like we’re at the point where a lot of government contracts around the world require the work to be licenses under one of the standardised open licenses (either compatible for code or Creative Commons for creative works).
Rebuild everything
It seems that we’re still very much in the early days of platform and network building. While there are a few standardised solutions in each field, it seems that there is still hard to collaborate on complex pieces of software. I think I saw quite a few different indexes, CKAN alternatives as well as proprietary solutions that are in process of being opened up. I think we could do better as community within each field to figure out how to collaborate.
Standing on shoulders of giants
A few years ago, we were complaining that governments don’t release data and that it’s hard to get attention from policy makers. Today a lot of these things are given, partially also because of education and activism efforts from different hack days, seminars and events. A lot of colleagues from such event went on to consult or to work for governments making it easier for other side to understand the issues and to find internal (technical) support for it.