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The Open Government Data Camp 2011, that will take place on 20-21st October in Warsaw, Poland, is the Europe biggest open data event. On this occasion, over 40 countries around the world will be represented at the camp, from city level projects in Manchester, Montreal or Munich to national initiatives like data.gov, as well as supranational institutions like the European Commission and the World Bank. Other initiatives, such as the DataCatalogs.org project, which was launched in July, will be also presented at the event. Neelie Kroes, Vice-President of the European Commission and Digital Agenda Commissioner will be one of the speakers at the opening ceremony. Ms Kroes has defended in many occasions the importance of the open data innovation in Europe. She considers that there is a tremendous potential in this area, from enabling next generation public services, to creating jobs in the digital single market.

Open Government Data Camp is run as collaborative partnership between key stakeholders in the open government data community around the world. This year the event is coordinated by the Open Knowledge Foundation and Centrum Cyfrowe. Ellen Miller, Co-Founder and Executive Director of the Sunlight Foundation, believes that this year’s Camp will convene the open data and transparency movement’s most creative thinkers, doers and advocates, whose conversations will help inspire many enduring solutions for using government data for the public good.

In addition, Chris Taggart, Founder of OpenCorporates.com, one of the Open Government Data Camp partners, stressed that the open data community faces considerable obstacles, from proprietary web services to governments who see open data as a threat, despite the successes of the past few years. According to Mr Taggart the Open Government Data Camp connect people who are serious about overcoming these issues and using open data to help to solve some of the world’s pressing problems. Nigel Shadboldt, who sits on the UK Government’s Public Sector Transparency Board, agrees with Mr Taggart on Open Government Data Camp seen as an event which creates social and economic value, improves public services, makes Governments more efficient, transparent and accountable.

Besides the two co-organisers, the Open Government Data Camp counts with 30 partners. Participants from more than 40 countries all over the world will meet for this event in Warsw (Poland) on 20-21st October.