As a response to the restrictive policies of the Apartheid government, the right to access to information was enshrined in the South African Bill of Rights. The Promotion of Access to Information Act of 2000 outlines the process through which citizens can request information held by public and private bodies. While important, the act is challenging and often creates an adversarial relationship between requestor and requestee. The Open Data movement, worldwide, and in South Africa seeks to change the relationship between government and society with regards to data.

Interested stakeholders, together with a select group of thought leaders and innovators, are invited by Code for South Africa, and Creative Commons South Africa to the first South African Open Data Unconference on 30 June and 1 July in Cape Town. Representatives from government, civil society, academia, funding organisations, the media, and the private sector will collaboratively set an agenda for action. Goals for the UnConference include:

• Identify a set of prioritised and shared results that can be achieved together over the next 2 years
• Map out the current contributions and innovations that organisations are making in this area, to identify potential ways to scale these up and coordinate efforts
• Engage other organisations and individuals who share a common interest in working together to plan, codevelop, resource and implement the environment required for open data in South Africa
• Explore how the partnership initiative can become an envoy for the larger community of policymakers; practitioners; civil society; media; academia; funders and information hackers who love to liberate data for good causes
• Establish a representative Open Data reference group that will take custodianship of this initiative

Creative Commons South Africa is based at the IP Unit. Please register for the event at http://opendatanow.code4sa.org/