The Australian Open Knowledge Foundation (OKFN) Ambassadors and working group are hosting five public lectures by Dr. Rufus Pollock about open knowledge and open data.

The “Open Knowledge Down Under” tour will tour Sydney, Canberra, Brisbane, Adelaide, and Melbourne, with tickets for the free events available through Eventbrite (sponsored by the Mark Shuttleworth Foundation, OKFN Australia local chapter & GovHack via NiCTA).

Dr. Rufus Pollock graduated from Cambridge University as a Mead fellow in Economics (after graduating with a distinction in mathematics).  Rufus is a well-regarded economist because of his scholarly and advisory work on open data and open knowledge economies.  Rufus co-founded the Open Knowledge Foundation in 2004 and personally wrote the first lines of code for the CKAN data system (Rufus is also an accomplished programmer).

Rufus has sat on several government advisory panels including the British Prime Minister’s appointed Public Sector Transparency Board. This involved working with Sir Tim Berners-Lee, who credited Rufus with starting the ‘Raw Data Now’ meme.  Currently, Rufus is a Shuttleworth fellow and is helping to expand the Open Knowledge Foundation expand worldwide, of which over 50+ chapters have formed including our Asia-Pacific neighbors: India, Nepal, Taiwan, China, along with many other OKFN local groups worldwide.

The objectives of this open knowledge tour include:

• Talk to government representatives about the idea of ‘open knowledge’ especially ‘open data’, ‘data journalism’ & other ‘open’ events and efforts.
• Launch the official OKFN Australian chapter.  GovHack+OKFN = #Community!
• Appoint local OKFN volunteer ambassadors in cities across Australia, including an OKFN-au workplan and volunteer drive. #Leadership
• Establish a senior advisory committee for an ‘OKCon Asia Pacific’ (NB – OKCon in the Northern Hemisphere is in its 3rd year and will have over 1500+ people in attendance at the Geneva conference this year). #OKCon #AsiaPacific

Open Knowledge: empowers people to participate in their society; it empowers citizens to understand research; it empowers people to explore their culture; it empowers communities to be inspired by one another; and it empowers people to connect.  Empower your open knowledge community today!

You can learn more about the OKFN and the Open Knowedge Down Under tour at: http://au.okfn.org/2013/06/27/rufus-pollock-australia-tour/