For background on the Open Government Partnership (OGP) and Open Government Data (OGD) see

http://www.guardian.co.uk/public-leaders-network/2012/apr/03/brasilia-2012 -open-government-partnership?newsfeed=true

For a somewhat more skeptical/critical/community informatics based perspective on OGD see below (and other of my blogposts on OGD

http://gurstein.wordpress.com/2010/09/02/open-data-empowering-the-empowere d-or-effective-data-use-for-everyone/

http://gurstein.wordpress.com/2011/07/03/are-the-open-data-warriors-fighti ng-for-robin-hood-or-the-sheriff-some-reflections-on-okcon-2011-and-the-em erging-data-divide/

http://gurstein.wordpress.com/2011/07/11/a-data-divide-data-%E2%80%9Chaves %E2%80%9D-and-%E2%80%9Chave-nots%E2%80%9D-and-open-government-data/

The Journal of Community Informatics http://ci-journal.net will be publishing a special issue on Community Informatics and Open Government Data next week in anticipation of the OGP meeting in Brasilia...

M Michael Gurstein, Ph.D. Editor in Chief: Journal of Community Informatics web: http://ci-journal.net email: gurstein@gmail.com

-----Original Message----- From: civicaccess-discuss-bounces@civicaccess.ca [mailto:civicaccess-discuss-bounces@civicaccess.ca] On Behalf Of Harvey Low Sent: Thursday, April 05, 2012 10:59 PM To: CivicAccess-discuss@civicaccess.ca Subject: [CivicAccess-discuss] Open Government Partnership - Virtual Participation Opportunities

Hello everyone:

The first annual meeting of the Open Government Partnership www.opengovpartnership.org/ is taking place in Brasilia on April 17-18, 2012! Many people working on open government may not be able to attend in person, so the OGP has worked with a number of external partners to come up with numerous ways for you to participate virtually from wherever you may be. Here are some of the online activities that OGP will be hosting during the annual meeting in Brasilia. Please join us online on April 17-18!

Online Content. The program and materials provided to those in Brasilia will be available on the OGP website in advance of the meeting. Photos from the event will be posted each day of the event. OGP will also publish blog posts summarizing each day's events and outcomes. Want to view the OGP meeting materials?

Visit the meeting page!

Webcast & Interviews. From the speeches given by world leaders to the breakout panel discussions with open government practitioners, all of the activities in Brasilia will be broadcast live on the web. During breaks in the program, the webcast will feature live interviews with presenters, government representatives, and open government leaders in attendance. Online viewers will be able to pose questions to those being interviewed.

Live Chat. Alongside the webcast, OGP will host a live chat where visitors can post comments directly.

Tweets and

Facebook updates discussing the OGP meeting will also be viewable in the chat (be sure to use hashtag #OGPBrasilia2012 and #OGP2012 on Twitter). We will poll viewers in real-time to see who is watching, where they are, what their interests are, and what are their thoughts on the program. We will also provide analysis of the conversation happening via social media. Want to participate in the webcast and live chat?

Please register!Guardian Digital Hub.

Guardian Public Leaders Network, the digital media partner for the annual meeting in Brasilia, developed an

OGP digital hub supporting the online coverage of the upcoming OGP Brasilia 2012 Annual Meeting. The hub features articles from co-chairs Maria Otero and Jorge Hage, interviews and interactive content. During the event Guardian will be blogging live from Brasilia, posting exclusive videos and providing expert analysis on the key issues arising at the meeting. For more information please visit the

Guardian OGP Digital Hub.

Meetup Everywhere. We are also encouraging open government practitioners around the world to get together in person to watch the event and discuss ways to move open government forward at the local level.

These Meetups can help move the discussion in Brasilia, online and at home. If you live in Washington, DC (US), Capetown (South Africa), London (UK), or Nairobi (Kenya), you can join the local Meetups that have already been set up and you can find information on them here:

www.meetup.com/Open-Gov-Partnership.

Transparency Hack Day. Daniela Silva from Transparency Hacker, Brazil will be providing notes on the event throughout the two days of transparency hacking during the OGP Annual Meeting. The "Hack Day" will be covered via Webcast, Live Twitting and Blogging. For more information on the Hack Day, please see

a description here.

Innovation Village. Felipe Heusser, Director of

Ciudadano Inteligente will be covering the Innovation Village session with live interviews that will be broadcasted via our webcast, and Alex Howard, from

O'Reilly Media will be conducting interviews with the speakers and panelists. For more information on the innovation village, please see our

call for village participants.

Recognizing our Partners. None of this would be possible without the support of several key organizations that are contributing their time and energy to the OGP meeting at little or substantially reduced cost. The Open Government Partnership would like to express our gratitude to the following groups for their help with all of the interactive features described above:

* Global Voices/AmericaSpeaks - Live Blogging/Tweeting* One Counts - Web Cast* Global Integrity - Meet Ups* World Bank Institute - Twitter Cloud* Ciudadano Inteligente - Blogging* Transparency Hacker - Multimedia Wall, Blogging* Guardian Media - Digital Hub* O'Reilly Media - Live Online Coverage

Harvey Low on behalf of Paulina Ibarra of OGP