The first University of Edinburgh Open Knowledge Network event took place at the Informatics Forum on Tuesday 31st January.  The aim of the event was to enable colleagues to share practice and to highlight some of the diverse range open knowledge activities going on around the University.  Open Knowledge is about creating an inclusive, international community and sharing knowledge both within and outwith the bounds of the institution.

A storify of tweets and pictures from the event is available here: UoE Open Knowledge Network 1 

Free For All

The University of Edinburgh recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the National Library of Scotland encouraging collaboration and partnerships between the two organisations and we were delighted to welcome Gill Hamilton, Digital Access Manager at the NLS, to open the UoE Open Knowledge Network.  Gill gave an inspiring keynote that provided a unique historical over view of openness and also highlighted some of the National Library’s open initiatives including sharing image collections on flickr, hosting Wikimedians in Residence, and making data available through the NLS Data Foundry.  Gill also spoke about some of her own personal open knowledge activities:

“I like to edit lochs and dead women and remove hyperbole on Wikipedia“

Ultimately Gill reminded us that open knowledge and open data are more important than ever in this era of “alternative truths”.

Following Gill’s keynote we had a series of lightning talks from colleagues around the University, some of which are included here.

OER Policy at the University of Edinburgh

– Stuart Nicol, Education Development and Enhancement

We are not in a post facts world

– Ewan McAndrew, Wikimedian in Residence

Open Content / Open Collections

– Claire Knowles, Library and University Collections

Open Data in the Global South

– Dan van der Horst, Geosciences

MESH – Mapping Edinburgh’s Social History

– Richard Rodger
[PDF Download]

Edinburgh Cityscope Data and Features

– Richard Good

Open Data: who decides?

– Dave Berry, Enterprise Architecture

Building student capital through student led outreach engagement and learning development

– Colin Graham, Geosciences