Open Knowledge Brasil (OKBR)
Open Knowledge Brasil (OKBR) is the Brazilian chapter of the Open Knowledge network, operating as an independent organisation that promotes transparency, open data, and civic technology. Its work spans advocacy and research, civic innovation (using automation and AI with public data), data literacy (the Escola de Dados programme), and partnerships with government and civil society.
Flagship projects give a sense of the scale: Querido Diário, a crowdsourcing platform to digitise and open the official gazettes of Brazil's 5,570 municipalities — the kind of unglamorous data infrastructure that makes all subsequent transparency work possible. Parlametria tracks and translates the massive volume of congressional activity into accessible information for civil society. Perfil Político lets citizens compare election candidates' histories before voting. The Open Data Index (Índice de Dados Abertos) rates government agencies on data openness against international standards. Operação Serenata de Amor, an early and influential project, used AI to audit public spending — one of the first high-profile applications of machine learning to government accountability globally.
OKBR is not a deliberative democracy organisation in the citizens'-assembly sense. It works one layer down: building the data infrastructure without which citizens cannot hold power to account, and governments can avoid being held to account. In a country of continental scale with complex multi-level governance, that infrastructure layer is a precondition for any meaningful participatory governance.
Links
- Website: ok.org.br
See also
History
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2013-01-01
Founded as the Brazilian chapter of Open Knowledge, promoting open data and civic technologyFounding of the organisation
Sourcing: High
sociedade civil (OSC) sem fins lucrativos e apartidária, fundada em assembleia em 4 de setembro de 2013
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2018-01-01
Took over managing Operação Serenata de Amor, launching the Data Science for Civic Innovation programmeAbsorbed an early, influential civic-tech project
Sourcing: High
Em 2018, a Serenata passou a ser gerida e monitorada pela Open Knowledge Brasil, momento em que se criou o Programa Ciência de Dados para Inovação Cívica.
Translation: "In 2018, Serenata came to be managed and monitored by Open Knowledge Brasil, the moment at which the Data Science for Civic Innovation Programme was created." Operação Serenata de Amor (an AI system auditing federal deputies' public spending reimbursements) itself launched 7 September 2016, before OKBR took it over; this retrospective article (published on its 5th anniversary) is the source for both dates.
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