 Good morning. Good evening. Good afternoon wherever you may be in the world My name is Christina Ishmael. I am one of the team members of open-end global the director of primary and secondary education I'm thrilled to be joined by Jan and Jenrin this morning for their workshop, and I have nothing else to say So I'm gonna let them take it away Lovely, thank you for the introduction and good morning slash afternoon slash evening slash night Yeah, folks from all around the world Last week we had a session where there is there folks from from Alberta to Zambia and Zimbabwe, you know from A to Z. So This is awesome about these about these conferences folks from all over the world can show up and it's absolutely awesome we're thrilled to be here with Jenrin and we have been having discussions about about open open education and open government for a long time and this is become like a special year for for Open government partnership and some of you may be maybe aware of what what what OGP is but before we before we go there, we see someone hi greeting from Chile and and Takoma Washington and Would you say hello in the chat box and just and just Say hello so that so that we know where you're from We'll have like a round of of of introductions and we'll be able to to share a little more Today will this this workshop will be will be Kind of like cutting two parts. The first one is is kind of like a general introduction and what's open government? Partnership is and and kind of like an introduction to what we'll be doing here and the second one will be will be interaction just just talking about about various ways to to get involved what resources are available and How to how to get involved in this work? The first part is being recorded. So so just just these Just the introduction of the topic will be will be on the record if someone someone isn't able to to attend right now But would like to but would like to jump in a little later and the second part where we where we discuss that will that will be That will be off the record. There will be the Las Vegas rule What's what is what is shared here stays here? So So yeah for the first part there's been a lot of discussions about about what what COVID has done this year and Right now I'm in Slovakia that's where I live and schools are currently shut down in many countries including here and Plus today's national holiday by the overall, you know, schools are schools are shut down and it's super useful to have quality open digital resources and You know, my my colleague's daughter. She's studying for final exams in her high school and she suddenly lost access to the library because you know, there were limitations, it's not like a full lockdown, but You know, it's it's it's a lot harder to to get these things and so she lost access to the library she lost access to the books and You know having having meaningful access to to to the resources is really cool and Also, there's a local specialty here a lot of the resources that that are available to to the students like textbooks and Work with some work with some all kinds of digital resources They were created with with public funds with public money. So Basically the government procured like the creation of you know, third-grade history textbook that sort of thing so the creation itself was was was paid for by By the by the government or government agencies But still those a lot of those resources that were created with public money are just just aren't available and It's that's because of the way that That the contracts with the publishers have been set up historically Didn't have that much sense in the pre-internet era but but but now there's a lot of sense, but there's still this inertia I know like the old way to to do the contracts is still here and So it's kind of like a legacy that we're carrying and we need to change the default so when someone pays for For for things like that with with public money Or or it's being co-financed by by public money. Those resources resources should be should be openly available And there's a lot of ways to to achieve changing the default to a lot of different ways to change the policy and One of them is through the open government partnership Channels Generally will will explain in much more detail how open government partnership works But what we wanted to to share is that? OTP has been traditionally working on these policies on the government level like national government level and There are a lot of a lot of things are happening on On that level like in the u.s. It would be it would be like the federal Federal level, but there's a lot a lot of things are happening below the federal level in the u.s. Like state level municipalities. There's a lot of policies being adopted on all kinds of you know in all kinds of areas and So so open kind partnership the organization has been expanding to to not only function on the not a level of national governments but also also on the levels of cities and regions and That's been a very exciting development And this year OTP has has included 56 new new members new cities. So there's a very major expansion and and this is a really good time to to introduce open education to To these areas and I've been talking for way too long. So so general will will will introduce will will introduce those things now and Yeah, would you would you jump in generally and and explain what what OTP is all about and and how it works and things like that Sure sure and feel free to jump in if there's anything I'm missing Also, I see Jonathan porous just joined us. So hey Jonathan feel free to also jump in if there's anything that Missing here as well, I know he was in the last session. Hey So for those of you who are unfamiliar with OTP, here's a really quick kind of 101 and this is this is our perspective as to kind of ex-government officials that used to work in On OTP commitments and our respective governments. So We're particularly biased toward the OTP and I will just say that right here and right now So the open government partnership It's a really interesting pact among civil society members and government counterparts around the world It was started under the obama administration in the u.s um president obama at the time worked with seven other countries to um to create this this kind of This partnership with civil society to promote transparency and governance so um We wanted to look at how to How to foster more accountability how to foster more responsiveness and increased services for citizens and so on and since its origins With those eight countries total including the u.s The OTP has really grown and changed. It's it's pretty amazing to see over time how How much more it's expanded and included under its purview so Now there are 79 national governments involved in this pact or this partnership around the world Which represent about two billion people which is pretty substantial Together OTP governments and civil society members create these two year national action plans. So this is A set of commitments that the government officials are responsible for implementing that are then overseen by a third party as civil society Kind of third party that make sure the governments are sort of held accountable to the commitments that they made And these commitments can range And take a number of different forms. So we've seen commitments range from Open governance issues around fiscal transparency and accountability to To access to data to education and so on they're really a number of different commitments that emerge from this dialogue between civil society members and organizations and their government counterparts and What's really important to note is that there are Government counterparts that you can access yourself. You can find their contact information on the OTP website Which is not just true for the national level OTP plan, but now also for the local plan as well So this has been a really important avenue for us to To work with in open education. We've found that The OTP has been a really tremendous vehicle for enacting some of the policies That we need to support all of the really wonderful grassroots efforts that are going on around the world already So we know obviously at you know the open education global conference at other conferences and There are other our other engagements that There are so many Really powerful advocates and so many local efforts that need Support that may be doing incredible things on their own, but that might be even That might reach even more audiences or have even more impact With a little bit more sort of buttressing or support from top-down policy. So the way I think of it is we need obviously the will and the local efforts for substantial change, but We also need policies. We need the kind of extra support that Validates a lot of this work That happens at the policy level. So I think of it as kind of like two two parts That are ideally working together for lasting change and open education in particular And I'm happy to hear otherwise, but this this seems to be a a really A good avenue for for work in this space So the reason as yan mentioned the reason that we are looking at The open government partnership again now is because we are at a really pivotal moment in Our our kind of arc of work with the ogp and also open education So initially as yan mentioned ogp was only open to national government counterparts and civil society counterparts as well But it worked at a national level and now as we're seeing the locus of Of accountability and of engagement with civil society in some places shifting to a more local level In the u.s. And for example, that is Arguably the case We see an increased opportunity for that work at the local level that we want to accomplish Additionally, the ogp has after a very recent pilot program has just launched that ogp local program With 56 new cities joining the partnership, which is incredible. So these cities are all over the world. I know there are Um, we have a link that we can share later about the the new cities and regions joining us But this is this is a really wonderful way to get more localized experts connected to those local government representatives and able to Consider what the local needs are and make commitments around them the ogp local programs also pretty interesting because it affords potentially a little bit more flexibility than the ogp national level Program, so I'll explain what I mean A little bit more. Um, and some of this some of this was debated last last week. So feel free to To chime in if you think otherwise, but here's why I think this is a wonderful opportunity right now First of all, as I mentioned a lot of a lot of decision-making, especially in education gets made at the local Levels of governance. So I know that's that's true in the u.s. I know that's true in a number of other countries around the world not all countries, but we have a particular area of Of influence more at the local level than at the at the national level second I I argue that it is easier to make the case that is it is easier to make a persuadable argument to politicians that education meets their needs whatever their needs may be so education is arguably an issue that appeals to Both parties or multiple parties depending on where you're from You just have to find the right angle to to make that case education can be a great kind of avenue for additional diplomatic discussions on other topics that are often more More challenging or more partisan Open education efforts also They can help us achieve some of the other ogp goals that are so important to our government counterparts. So Implementing and improving public services working on issues of inclusion focusing on open procurement looking at open data financial responsibility and most recently The ogp response to coven. These are all Really important goals to ogp that open education Can can further support so The the final thing that i'll mention I I expect that ogp local will offer us a little bit more flexibility than the ogp national plan with the commitment cycle and modes of engagement and so on and what we're seeing so far is That yes, there are There is a slack channel that's open to anyone so you can have a direct contact with the director of ogp local you can You can engage in these commitment cycles that are rather than two year national action plans with a kind of strict timeline You can engage in these local action plans that are anywhere between one and four years depending on The local context and needs And then there's no population threshold for applications. So a lot of smaller localities are welcome to join um, and finally, I know ogp will be launching a A collaborative hub for learning and supporting this kind of community of practice, which is yet another avenue for open education So I think this is a particularly relevant time for us to get involved or Reinvolved with the ogp and I'm excited to see what we can develop today in our discussion so We're we're going to share some links with you. We're going to share some ways that you can get involved and And drum up ideas for engagement with your local government representatives, but first I want to actually pause as I know a few more people have come in and just see if folks want to put their videos on and unmute themselves and Maybe share any questions that they might have before we kind of transition to some examples and some Some more of the interactive parts of this session And if you don't want to unmute your your camera or microphone, that's okay to Feel free to post any questions or thoughts that you might have in the chat space We're just delighted to have folks joining from all over small crowd, but Yeah, we're We've got good representation Hey, Jonathan I know it's it's pretty early in Depending on your time zone Here's a story. I'd love to share if I may please This has been a really really rough year for uh for a lot of a lot of municipalities In terms of, you know, having to manage a lot of the fallout from from the covid crisis and My hometown Bratislava, for example did not apply to formally join the ogp because of what's been going on But I spoke with with some of the leaders of Of the city and They said, you know what at this time we are not applying to to join ogp local but We are definitely putting the ogp principles into what we are already doing And this is something that that you can do like out of those 56 countries. Uh, I mean, sorry 56 sub-national governments that that Will be joining joining the ogp local program Only one of them is the u.s. That's the city of los angeles okay, and But it doesn't mean that you you should lose heart like uh, yeah, I mean it's it's it's not for me You know, there's there's so many thousands and thousands of cities and and only A few dozen are currently part of ogp and maybe a few hundred will be over over time But it's not my municipality. Uh, that's not for me You know, so let me find something else You can be kind of like a a secret member or or not really remember you can just go ahead and apply those principles Of participation of of opening things up through through policies Of transparency of effective governance, you know of visibility into what what what is going on in the city government Of partnership between between The the government and the civil society members all of those can happen even without formal formal participation so Those things can can happen first you can you can formally join ogp later or maybe or maybe not You know, maybe you can you can do it do it without so this is an opportunity for everyone who wants to Bring those principles of of openness of participation You know both both in terms of open content like open educational resources open data Opening things up in terms of what what is being produced as the digital resources and in terms of participation like Open educational, I mean open educational practices and also things like participatory participatory budgeting And other ways of of of of getting involved, you know So all of these principles can be can be happening Even if you are not part of part of the ogp, even if you're your local city government is not part of ogp and also Yeah There's a lot that that is happening just just like jamie mentioned when While we were still looking for the national national governments in the u.s and slovakia respectively we're being approached by by Governments from all over the world we spoke with with canada germany and the number of others Some of whom were part of ogp at national level some of some who were not And they said If there's something happening with an education, it's almost almost never at the at the national level in in Our country. It's at the level of provinces is at the level of like local local governments It's you know, they do not like, you know, the federal government to to to say what's addicted what the what the Local policy should be or educational policy should be they want it as decentralized as as possible So there's many ways to get involved So just to make clear what we'll be discussing is Yes, how the how the ogp works formally and how you can get involved formally Yes, what resources you can use if your city is already part of of ogp or if your country is part of ogp But even if if it is not or not yet You know, there's still a lot to to take away from here and and a lot of these principles applying nevertheless I think that's that's such a good point. I think the yeah the spirit of this kind of collaborative partnership Is something that we can all implement at a local level In in our various capacities and I think beat has a question about this I'm a k12 educator Or i'm in the k12 education sector in uganda How would ogp be useful to me and how could I go about doing implementation with the local city? So that that ties into yeah, what what yon saying? I just checked and uganda is not on the ogp local List of 56 new countries, but I I need to double check and see if uganda is part of the ogp national level we we can definitely in the second part of this the session talk a little bit more or brainstorm with you a little bit more about What we might be able to do and how we might be able to connect you to other ogp representatives or Community members that have done work in neighboring countries If uganda is not a part of the ogp. I just um before we before we move on. I also wanted to just Echo what yon was saying that it Even if you're not a part of the ogp at the national or local level Your work is still so essential. I was thinking back about when I was working at the state department and very clueless about open education in general and just learning about it as as someone who was like, huh, this sounds interesting but With no context and I needed I needed needed all of the the insight and momentum that had already been built by Not just folks in the u.s. But in other countries as well I needed to draw from that and learn as much as I could and also be able to rely on civil society members from spark from creative commons and from a number of other organizations so that the the input that They provided could be best used in the ultimately in the Commemments that we made to the open government partnership and then we're able to enact so Without that that initial kind of momentum and work at the local level We would have never been effective at the policy level and it's I mean I can't um I can't thank Folks like nicole allen and others enough for that kind of direct support that was provided that was Because of years of work prior to our engagement so the policy to Comment on that too and share an experience as well um, I worked at the u.s. Department of Education leading go open, um, which was all about supporting k-12 oer And we could not do it without those civil societies and local organizations. Um, you know, it was we relied heavily on them and Even when so back to yon's point about like implementing all the things without being official When we brought on go open states, which were states Departments of education at the state level That were committed to you know making inroads for open education in their respective states They committed to joining a community of practice letting people know kind of building awareness of oer Creating a repository to be able to find the resources And we started with 14 states in my like when I first joined in my year fellowship by the end We had 20 which was great considering We had grown. Um, but there were at least, uh, I would say seven Eight to ten states that were doing all of the things but couldn't officially join because they might have been States that had representatives that were different than the political party that was in charge at the time You know, so it was very political where they couldn't you know, put out the press release and say we're joining this national initiative Because of politics and so they were doing the work and I think that it is it's very um, it's very doable to do the work without being like the official and um, I've seen it in action and so Some of my colleagues at new america afterwards Came from the u.s digital services, which were folks technologists that they brought into the u.s government to work at different agencies to help solve large technical issues and they worked on Crime data and things like that and they had to rely on the local municipalities to share their open data And so again, it's back to that local connection But it it starts with trust and building up that trust and really building up the background as far as what jennrin is saying around Understanding the context of everything and then developing that relationship And we know that relationships matter in so much of the work that we do Um, and so it really starts with the relationships getting that trust and then being able to move things forward Yeah, thank you so much. I'm so glad that you are our moderator for this You know, I think your expertise in this brainstorming session way more than you anticipated All right Yep, there's there's one one more thing that uh, that just reiterates what would you would you just said Right now. Yes, there are 56 new new members of ogp local Uh, but there are several times more applicants as far as I uh, as I know And when when someone is is about to join the ogp You know, they are being evaluated Ogp is not supposed to be a formal organizational as someone puts it on their cv or their city cv Yes, we are members of this exclusive club and look how cool we are What they actually look at is is what's really happening on the ground, you know Is there is there is there alive? Is there something really uh going on already? Uh ogp already had members who uh formally joined but uh, we're not really active There was one member who was part of ogp and That is not the case any longer We can talk about Even, you know complicated situations like that in the discussion when the recording is over. There's a reason why that is happening Where we will turn it off so that we have a safe space to discuss things and So yeah, there's activity. They're supposed to be activity Happening and it's not just you apply and you are automatically in first of all, there's there's criteria for For for for joining the ogp. They look at things like does this country Have a freedom of information act? What is the position and situation with civil societies are Do they have a voice can they function? You know in in a reasonable manner things like that So there's a checklist of things that the country or the or that need to be met at the national level Before the application is even considered And for ogp local If you want to apply your country already needs to be member of As a national government They already need to be a member of ogp before they even consider the application of of the local country and they and they've been also doing some some pretty heavy vetting of Who's about to join so this is not just like an exclusive club But just like you said, you know things need to be happening already so even again, uh, even if if you are not Or city is not part of ogp. It's There's no reason why not to do things the ogp way already Uh, which I think, you know, we can we can slowly transition to to to the part where we interact a little more But before we do, uh Let me let me just point out that uh, if if there's someone Watching this who is who was not able to attend live? There is uh, just like for every Or we global session. There is a page on on the on the og global connect forum Connect that or we global.org. So if you go there and look at look up the session, you will see all the resources related to the session we will post it when During this workshop and also some content when the workshop is over if there's question He would like to ask If you would like to get in touch with with jan mary nor I That's a good way to to to go to the forum and and and stay in touch So I think this could be a good time to to Turn up the recording now And move on to