For more information on the Open Data Index, you may contact the team at: index@okfn.org

Each year, governments are making more data available in an open format. The Global Open Data Index tracks whether this data is actually released in a way that is accessible to citizens, media and civil society and is unique in crowd-sourcing its survey of open data releases around the world. Each year the open data community and Open Knowledge produces an annual ranking of countries, peer reviewed by our network of local open data experts.

Crowd-sourcing this data provides a tool for communities around the world to learn more about the open data available locally and by country, and ensures that the results reflect the experience of civil society in finding open information, rather than government claims. it also ensures that those who actually collect the information that builds the Index are the very people who use the data and are in a strong position to advocate for more and higher quality open data.

The Global Open Data Index measures and benchmarks the openness of data around the world, and then presents this information in a way that is easy to understand and use. This increases its usefulness as an advocacy tool and broadens its impact.

In 2014 we are expanding to more countries (from 70 in 2013) with an emphasis on countries of the Global South.

See the blog post launching the 2014 Index. For more information, please see the FAQ and the methodology section. Join the conversation with our Open Data Index discussion forum.