NSF POSE: Phase II: Strengthening an Open-Source Civic Data Ecosystem

The Comprehensive Knowledge Archive Network (CKAN) has been an important open-source data management software platform used in hundreds of open data, open government, and open science initiatives around the world. This includes the U.S. government's open data catalog at data.gov, which makes thousands of datasets available to everyone. This project invests in efforts that make it possible for more people to meaningfully contribute to the continued health, success, and growth of CKAN.

It also equips members of the community to measure the health of the ecosystem and update strategies to sustain a vital open-source civic data infrastructure.

This project creates pathways for collaboration that welcome and encourage people underrepresented in technology communities to make a meaningful contribution to the ecosystem. It also develops new processes that members of the ecosystem can use to design, organize, and manage products, activities, and events that both strengthen CKAN and help them build relationships with each other.

Members of the ecosystem are equipped to promote the adoption of CKAN through a speaker’s bureau and other activities. Technical assistance will be provided to help existing users minimize security vulnerabilities by upgrading to the latest version of the software. Support from this project also allows ecosystem leaders to measure the ecosystem’s performance, make business decisions, and update the funding strategy to respond to changing open data and open society landscapes.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.