The Open Knowledge Foundation (OKF) Belgium is assisting the Government of the Flemish Region in the organisation of an Open Data Hackathon in Brussels on 15 June 2012. In this context, Pieter Colpaert, Board Member of the newly founded Belgian OKF declared that using open source software to build open data application is pragmatic and logical.

The Belgian OKF, at its turn, is organising a series of similar events, entitled Apps for Flanders, with the first one already having taken place on 14 May 2012, in Ghent, where attendees discussed ways to commercially reuse data available on businesses in Belgium.

A second such event, using Government data, took place the weekend of 2-3 June 2012 in the city of Kontich, organised in collaboration with 'Random Hacks of Kindness', a community of open technology enthusiasts.

The third Open Data Hackathon is organised on 15 June 2012 in collaboration with Corve (Coördinatiecel Vlaams eGovernment, in Flemish), a coordination body for eGovernment services developed by the Flanders Regional Government.

OKF Belgium is planning its fourth meeting in September 2012, aiming to get computer science students involved in its cause.

Colpaert explains that the Open Knowledge Foundation supports such communities, and that it cherishes projects involving open source, open hardware, free culture and creative commons.

He says that open source tools are among the core parts of the open data movement: "Open source is not seen as a statement, many simply consider it pragmatic and logical. How else are you going to get everyone involved in eParticipation policies? How else will you make sure that everybody can use the software. How else can you guarantee that projects will benefit from serendipity?" he concludes.

Further Information:

• Original news article – Joinup
• Open Data Day (in Dutch)
• OKFN Local Belgium
• Apps for Flanders
• Random Hacks of Kindness