July 2, 2015
In recent years, the federal government has taken strides towards making its public data available in standardized, machine-readable formats. In the future, we will look back at the nation’s first open data mandate, the DATA Act of 2014, and see it was critical not just in its transformation of federal spending...
June 23, 2015
The article originally featured in the Huffington Post tells the story of how one ambitious programmer is helping to overhaul the way one food bank in the U.S. Capital is identifying and feeding the hungry. Michael Hollister, the programmer in question, is helping the Capital Area Food Bank more accurately...
September 11, 2014
"We call this effort 'Markets For Good' but let’s face it: markets are not perfect. 'Market failures' are part of the reason why the important work of the people and organizations in the social sector is so critical to a thriving society. But that doesn’t mean that there aren’t market…
July 10, 2014
A revolution in technology is happening and it’s changing everything we do; never before has so much data been collected and analysed and at the Open Knowledge Festival, we will bring together over 1,000 people from more than 60 countries to share their skills and experiences to ensure that the...
March 12, 2014
Whether you consider yourself or your organization to be storytellers, the fact is, your story is being told. And, you’ll kinda want to know that story (what people say about your organization). Further, you should tell the story it yourself to and test it to ensure it reflects what you...
January 22, 2014
The “cause-related” silo is a common phenomenon in many companies: the social impact activities are less integrated into the business and each business unit goes about its own way of doing “good.” This isolation can be effective for specific projects, but won’t match the weight of the business impact of...
January 14, 2014
We continue our theme this month as an attempt to deconstruct (and reconstruct) the concept of silos – discretely managed stores of data. The standard sentiment is to tear them down, but is it possible that we actually need them in a certain form, the real “problem” being the determination...
October 30, 2013
Sunand Menon, previous Markets For Good guest author of one our most highly visited posts, has offered a recent thought piece (Stop Assuming Your Data Will Bring You Riches) that deserves a deeper examination. I’d like to use it to raise more questions (not give answers) about the pathways to...
October 29, 2013
There is an excitement and focus on the potential of open data; but, that doesn’t mean that there aren’t a good number of people in the trenches developing sharper thought and faster iterations – trying to build an infrastructure (business models, components, skills, etc.) that can help sustain the good...
October 23, 2013
Frieda Werner, Wheelmap's product and community manager, writes about the conscious choice to make open data the center of their business model.
