During this workshop attendees will learn about Insights for ArcGIS, a web based platform that offers a data analytics workbench where users can explore spatial and non-spatial data, answer questions users didn't know to ask, and quickly deliver powerful results. It is a fusion of geographic visualization and data analysis that creates a new workflow for doing iterative spatial analysis and knowledge discovery. This session will show how Insights unlocks the power of data with a modernized user experience.

This session will address these and other questions: How can I visualize my data better? How I can integrate my data with data from other sources? How can I save the workflow and create different scenarios?

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Many of the social, environmental, and economic challenges we face are downstream consequences of outmoded economic systems and organisational models whose roots date back to the industrial age. The scale, urgency, and complexity of these challenges demand a fundamental upgrade to business-as-usual.

Over the past few decades we have seen many for-profit companies broadening their purpose to pursue social and environmental aims, while many nonprofits and governmental organizations have adopted market-based approaches to advance their goals. At the same time, a rapidly growing movement of “for-benefit” enterprises around the world have been leveraging the power of business to solve social and environmental problems. These pioneering for-benefits are challenging the traditional boundaries that separate the public, private, and social sectors, giving rise to a new, fourth sector of the economy. 

Join us with the CEO of Fourth Sector Group, Heerad Sabeti, and Professor of Government and Politics at George Mason University, Alan J. Abramson, to hear more.

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While transparency around land transactions has been clearly established as a best practice for responsible investment, land transparency is rare, and lags far behind transparency in the extractive industries. This brownbag lunch will explore how to advance land transparency, focusing in particular on ways to design initiatives or interventions that support project-affected people. After a brief set of remarks from discussants, and a short overview of the experiences of OpenLandContracts.org--the world's first repository of publicly available investor-state land contracts--participants will engage in a lively discussion and brainstorming session.

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Will the U.S. Finally Tackle the Anonymous Shell Companies?

Anonymous shell companies make it extremely easy for corrupt and criminal actors both here and around the world, not to mention tax evaders, to hide and launder illicit wealth. From the Panama Papers to the Magnitsky scandal, the world is hearing more and more about this problem. As April marks the two-year anniversary of the release of the Panama Papers, it is important to reflect on what progress has been made to date in the United States to tackle anonymous ownership.

The event will include the launch of a new report by Transparency International, “G20 Leaders or Laggards”, which reviews G20 promises on tackling anonymous companies and will shed light on the status of beneficial ownership transparency in the United States compared to other jurisdictions.

The forum will bring together three speakers who will speak to why tackling anonymous companies is one of the key anti-corruption (and pro-democracy) challenges of our time, the limited progress made to-date in tackling the problem, and the outlook for potential reforms over the next several months.

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Open Gov Hub has been the meeting place for people and innovative ideas for 4 years now, and we'd love to celebrate this achievement with all of our friends!

Please join us for snacks, drinks, and networking (this *is* DC, afterall).

We've also got some fun games in store for all willing participants, so come ready to party and celebrate with all of us at Open Gov Hub.

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This event will feature a discussion between Matthew Murray and Anton Pominov, to discuss the current state of play for Russian anti-corruption activists in Russia. It will explore what opportunities for progress in the fight against corruption exist in Russia and what strategic choices Transparency International’s chapter in Russia makes to address current challenges to the field in Russia.

Ample time for discussion with the audience will be made in order to ensure open dialogue with attendees.

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The District of Columbia Mayor’s Open Government Advisory Group is consisted of 24 public and District of Columbia government members. 

At this meeting, the Group will focus on further defining and documenting priorities for the coming months and begin putting together work plans for each subcommittee. Several new members will also be introduced at April’s meeting.

Information that exposes serious abuses of public trust can catalyze accountability and reform. Whistleblowers—employees who discover and disclose significant wrongdoing—are some of the most valuable sources of such information, and as such can be critical to the work of public interest organizations across a wide range of issues. In a political climate hostile to truth and open government, whistleblowers provide transparency essential to a functional democracy.

Boxed lunches will be offered immediately following the training.

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The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set out an ambitious agenda for countries around the world, and data is essential to help fulfill that agenda. The data requirements for reporting on the SDGs present an unprecedented opportunity for governments to track and evaluate their progress. SDG reporting can also be a tool to help countries achieve their goals.

The SDG National Reporting Initiative, led by the Center for Open Data Enterprise, facilitates greater information-sharing on SDG reporting between international, regional, and local communities.

Join us for a happy hour on March 14th from 5-7pm EST at the OpenGov Hub to launch the SDG National Reporting Initiative's website and report. Drinks and light refreshments will be served.

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Join us to meet with the visiting founder and head of Transparency International's chapter in Ireland John Devitt, to learn about an innovative initiative in Ireland to help support people to report any kind of wrongdoing or violations of integrity in the workplace. Integrity at Work is a multi-stakeholder not-for-profit initiative for employers, employees, trade unions, and regulators. It aims to create cultural change by promoting supportive environments for whistleblowers through training, best practice exchange, online resources and specialist advice and guidance.

He will also share their experience establishing a Speak Up Helpline that has been in existence since 2011 (Ireland's only free help line to anyone who wants to raise any concerns of wrongdoing), and their efforts to connect whistleblowers and other citizens speaking out again wrongdoing to legal support.

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Tax season is here, so now is a great time to reflect on the state of your personal finances and gain tools and tips to help you set goals for your personal financial future. This workshop is specifically geared towards those who work in non-profits.

Join for this pro bono workshop (which typically costs $300) with Alvin Carlos of District Capital Management to:

Learn how to budget smartly, be debt-free, and increase your credit score. 

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Join the Sunlight Foundation's Open Cities team on Open Data Day 2018 to help assess open data in American cities. We'll give you an easy tutorial on how to search for open datasets and how to add that information to the Census. Then you'll pick a city to focus on and complete its entry on the Census. Once you’re done, stick around for food and drinks and to talk with some of DC’s open data experts.

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Come gather at the meeting place for all things open gov to hear from some of our members about their latest work and to engage with our community. Drinks and snacks will also be provided.

Ignite Nights are fast-paced presentations that quickly convey a topic in 5 minutes. They're fun and informative to watch! We'll be hearing from:

Jean Scrimgeour, Accountability Lab

Cynthia Mellon, Climate Justice Alliance

Jennifer Lentfer, Thousand Currents

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This panel event will explore how Supreme Audit Institutions (SAIs) and other independent oversight bodies in the United States and around the world play a critical role in helping curtail corruption.

Speakers will share case studies from efforts in Albania, Afghanistan, and the United States for comparative, cross-country learning. In focusing on an exchanges of effective models for improved legal frameworks, tools, practices, and lessons learned (including through resources from the International Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions), this event seeks to strengthen the efforts of all participating bodies, and create a platform for ongoing peer-to-peer learning and collaboration globally to combat domestic and international corruption.

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Working in energy and climate-related policy can be a hard and isolating job in DC, so come build fellowship and collaboration with others who work in this field. Join Climate Justice Alliance, as we share conversation, updates on important work, plus a few surprises. This is an excellent opportunity to share climate and energy policy work with each other and deepen our networks as we tackle difficult and complex issues.

Activists, researchers, policy experts, and lawmakers who are working to create a more just and sustainable world are all welcome. Feel free to share with your colleagues.

Drinks and snacks will be provided.

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After a populist vote not too dissimilar to Trump's, Britain is soon to be leaving the European Union, on a promise to relaunch a new era of free trade. 

Javier Ruiz from the UK-based Open Rights Group (ORG) is visiting DC and will give an update on the situation. This will be with a view to start building stronger relations between civil society groups in the US and the UK, in order to better deal with any issues raised by this renewed strategic convergence.

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Join us as we hear from Innovation Network, an evaluation and research consulting firm that specializes in advocacy and public policy evaluation and maintains a diverse client portfolio in the areas of health and health equity, social justice, and theory of change and evaluation planning. Using cases from their work, they will share an overview of how advocacy evaluation is used within the nonprofit sector, introduce some key tools—along with their strengths and limitations—and open a discussion about how these tools and strategies may be used in different contexts.

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Join the Web Foundation and EveryoneOn for a screening of the documentary film, ForEveryone.net, followed by an interactive discussion about the future of the web and what we can do to defend the web we want — both in the US and abroad.

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In the last decade, there have been significant numbers of civil society organizations working on ensuring the government becomes more transparent and accountable in Nigeria, while promoting a culture of citizen participation and engagement. This presentation will look at the metamorphosis of these organizations and how they have challenged the status quo using online and offline technologies. It will also look at challenges in the near future, and how international organizations can support their work.

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The second installment in the “Democracy Dialogues” series presented by the Open Gov Hub, Global Integrity, Sunlight Foundation, and Transparency International.

This event seeks to explore why populism has emerged both in the United States and in Europe, and the relationship of populism to to various forms of corruption (including kleptocracy). It will also address the international linkages between populist sentiments spreading and between international money flows facilitating corruption across boundaries, and the ways in which Western governments or other actors may enable corrupt actors in other countries. We will explore ideas for how to counter populist narratives that enable corruption, both in Europe and at home here in the United States.

A reception will follow the event.

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The Open Gov Hub, Global Integrity, Sunlight Foundation, and Transparency International are pleased to present this launch event for the new Defending Democracy: Lessons from Around the World program. Join us to learn from powerful efforts to uncover and counter the international linkages between corruption and kleptocracy across boundaries/ borders, as we hear from visiting civil society leaders from Russia and Tunisia and leaders from the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, which was heavily involved in the recent Paradise Papers leak.

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This event is being organized by Transparency and Accountability Initiative, a Hub Member.

DISTRACT, DIVIDE, DETACH

Transparency and Accountability Amid the Closing Civic Space Debate

Many democracies are experiencing a resurgence of authoritarianism, to various degrees. One particular aspect of this is governments invoking transparency demands of CSOs to close down civic space. How can the transparency community respond? Join Transparency and Accountability Initiative in a conversation on the highlights of its latest report "Distract, Divide, Detach: Using Transparency and Accountability to Justify Regulation of CSOs".

Please RSVP by December 6 at http://bit.ly/2BddiAq.
You can also watch us live on Facebook. Like our page- @TAInitiative.

Recently the promotion of transparency, citizen participation and accountability has placed greater emphasis on the subnational level. This shift is based on the idea that local governments are closer to the citizens they serve, which means a better understanding of and greater potential for responsiveness to citizen needs.

At this event we will share reflections and lessons from two ongoing projects in open fiscal governance: Follow the Money in Mexico, implemented by Global Integrity, and Somos Chiantla in Guatemala, implemented by Development Alternatives Inc. (DAI). 

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Join your fellow global travelers at the Hub for drinks and a presentation from Justice Travel, a young startup social enterprise which bridges tourism and human rights that is seeking feedback on their new venture.

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Please join us to help map undermapped areas in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, and Côte d'Ivoire in support of World AIDS Day. For the first time in modern history, we have the opportunity to change the very course of a pandemic by controlling it without a vaccine or a cure.

Many organizations are partnering for this year’s World AIDs Day Mapathon, including the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team, the U.S. Department of State (MapGive), USAID (YouthMappers), the Millennium Challenge Corporation, andMissing Maps. Thank you to Open Gov Hub and ActioNet for being our sponsors.

Join us for mapping for a cause, food, and fun! All experience levels welcome. 

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Design Thinking DC Meetup: Practice Lab - Improving Your Observational Skills

DT:DC Meetup is being hosted at Open Gov Hub. 

Jim Gilmore, author of Look - A Practical Guide for Improving Your Observational Skills, believes that How you LOOK at the world informs what you THINK of the world which informs how you ACT in the world. In other words, innovation begins with observation.

Join us for a fun night to slow down and practice your observational skills. We will start with a few quick exercises to prime our eyes and then head out for a self-led field trip to make observations and document our findings. We will regroup at the end of the evening to share our experiences and reflections.

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During this brown bag, Hub Fellow (through Atlas Corps) Edison will first highlight successful projects, accomplishments and lessons from his 10+ years working in the nonprofit and public sectors in Albania and across the Balkans. Then, he will share some key skills he has developed, examples of previous work, and his priorities for the coming year throughout his fellowship. After his fellowship, he is excited to advocate open government across his home region and learn from each of you throughout the year!

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This is a webinar hosted by Hub Member Forum One.

In this webinar, we will explore how the Atlassian suite of tools can be integrated into your organization's digital ecosystem to improve collaboration and help you work smarter. More specifically, we'll take a look a today's collaboration application landscape and provide you with an overview of:

• How Jira is used for project and process management by teams of all shapes and sizes
• How Confluence is integrated to facilitate knowledge sharing and collaborative documentation 
• How Jira Service Desk can help you provide exceptional support and approval management

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Members and friends of the Open Gov Hub are invited to join a panel
and report launch event for Priceless? A New Framework for Estimating the Cost of Open Government Reforms, which presents a brand new way to understand
and evaluate open government efforts. This event will outline the critical
components needed to conduct cost analyses of open government programs.

The methodology represents an important step towards understanding the true value of open government reforms intended to increase citizen engagement, promote transparency, and combat corruption. These insights have been lacking in the open government community to date - until now.

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The world is facing an alarming education and learning crisis, due in part to data systems unable to keep up the pace. The Education Commission’s costing and projection model uses the best data available today and employs advanced statistical methods to fill in data gaps and project into the future, creating the most complete base of data and analytical estimates for decision-making and advocacy around education.

This brownbag will unpack what this innovative model does, as well as goals to make it a global public good for achieving SDG 4 on education.

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