ANDREW STOTT

 Andrew Stott was the UK’s first Director for Transparency and Digital Engagement.  He led the work to open government data and create “data.gov.uk”; and after the 2010 Election he led the policy development and implementation of the new Government’s commitments on Transparency of central and local government.  His role also included responsibility for increasing the UK Government’s capability to use the internet to communicate and collaborate with the public, including the crowd-sourcing of ideas for spending reductions and legal & regulatory reform, and the greater use of social media platforms including Facebook and Twitter.

Between 2004 and 2009 Andrew Stott was UK Government’s Deputy Chief Information Officer and Chair of its Chief Technology Officers’ Council.  In this strategic cross-government role he personally led the work on the UK’s e-government, open source, cloud computing and procurement strategies and on supplier performance improvement. He previously worked in Director-level IT roles in both strategy and large-scale implementation, as well as in other senior civil service roles in public policy, finance and programme management.  He is a graduate of the University of Cambridge where he studied both Mathematics and Law.

Following his formal retirement in December 2010 he was appointed to the UK Transparency Board to continue to advise UK Ministers on open data and e-government policy.  He also advises other governments both bilaterally and as a consultant to the World Bank.  He is an expert adviser on Open Data strategy to the EU Citadel On The Move programme.  Through social media and public speaking he continues to contribute to the international development of the Open Data and Open Government agendas.

WAYNE BURKE

Wayne Moses Burke is the Executive Director of the Open Forum Foundation, a DC based non-profit that he founded to improve citizen involvement in government. Growing up with the US Open Government movement as a backdrop, the organization works at the intersection of technology and government culture, with the goal of building trusting relationships between government entities and civil society. Most recently, Wayne has been working with OpenTheGovernment.org to support and evaluate the US Administration’s implementation of their Open Government Partnership National Action Plan. Wayne grew up in rural Michigan and his past is littered with entrepreneurial experience in technology, citizen advocacy, and manufacturing, along with a BS Engineering from the University of Michigan and an MS International Relations from NYU. Find him on open4m.org and Twitter or Linked in as wmburke.

JAY BHALLA

Jay Bhalla is CEO of The Open Institute.  He is a technologist, digital development strategist, and open data specialist.  He has been at the forefront of Kenya’s ICT development strategy for more than five  years, having participated in the design of the Kenya ICT policy of 2006. Most recently, Jay played an integral role in the development and implementation of the Kenya Open Data Initiative. He continues to advise both the Kenyan government and the World Bank on tech strategies for citizen engagement, including development of the World Bank’s grassroots Mapping for Results initiative, and various community tools. Jay also spearheaded Pivot25.com, East Africa’s largest web conference and innovation competition.

Friedrich Lindenberg

Friedrich Lindenberg is a media scientist turned coder working on open government and transparency initiatives. As a developer at the Open Knowledge Foundation, he is part of OpenSpending, an international effort to make financial data accessible, as well as CKAN, a community-driven data catalogue project. He is the author of Adhocracy, a collaborative drafting software used by the Internet commission of the German Bundestag and several political parties to enable citizens to contribute to policy documents.

 DMITRY KACHAEV

Dmitry Kachaev is former Director of Research and Development (OCTO Labs) at Government of the District of Columbia where he helped launch first Open Data Catalog (now containing 400+ datasets), run first open government innovation contest Apps for Democracy, as well as collaborated with a number of largest US cities like San Francisco in launching Open 311 API a new standard that provides open communication with public services and local government. Currently Dmitry is a faculty at University of Maryland, Human-Computer Interaction Lab. He also is a founder of Open Muni Labs where he works on civic technology projects focused on Arlington, VA and Greater Washington area. Dmitry holds an MBA degree from University of Maryland, College Park and MS in Applied Math and Computer Science degree from Krasnoyarsk State University, Russia.