What we do

OKFI facilitates projects, communities, and working groups focused on open knowledge, science, and culture. We engage in discussions shaping the future digital society to ensure it is fair, sustainable, and open.

Communities

OKFI acts as a host organization for mission-aligned, unincorporated communities. Currently, three communities function under the auspices of Open Knowledge Finland. They contribute to the overall program of OKFI.

  • AvoinGLAM advocates for open culture in Finland and internationally, and functions in the cross-section of the networks of Wikimedia, Creative Commons and Open Knowledge. To highlight the scope of the work, AvoinGLAM interprets the well-known abbreviation GLAM (Galleries, Libraries, Archives, and Museums) as Global Languages, Art, and Memory to divert from institutions and to focus more on culture itself.
  • The Finnish Committee for Research Data represents the Finnish scientific community in the International Science Council (ICS) Committee on Data, CODATA. The Committee also closely follows other key international forums for discussion on research data issues, such as the Research Data Alliance (RDA) and the ICS World Data System (WDS).
  • Creative Commons Finland, a chapter of the Creative Commons Global Network, operates under the auspices OKFI.

Working groups

New initiatives are set up as they are needed, and the ones who have reached their goals are disbanded.

Currently OKFI is starting to gather a Finnish Advocacy Network on the core issues of open knowledge. The issues on Open Access have become more nuanced in the last years with AI posing new challenges to advocating for open knowledge. We need to complement opening with responsible approaches, such as respect for privacy and sensitive information. We must keep our focus on public benefit and digital rights.

Projects

Projects are run by OKFI, communities, working groups, or OKFI can provide a project home for projects that wish to benefit from the administrative infrastructure.

Our currently running (2024) projects are:

  • OKFI 2024
  • AvoinGLAM 2024
  • Finnish Research Committee on Data 2024
  • AI Sauna (AvoinGLAM)
  • Media Art History on Wikimedia projects (AvoinGLAM)