Expanding the OilWiki network
Do you want to help build knowledge around your country’s extractive industries? Go to our 2-minute questionnaire at http://bit.ly/xsmFHg and tell us what you need to know!
Here at OpenOil, we are developing wiki-driven websites in English and local languages which will also be printed out in book form. These resources target local journalists, activists, government officials and members of the public seeking more context and background information to the extractive industries in their own countries, and are designed to work as up-to-date quick reference materials.
Working protoypes so far exist for Libya: http://libya.wiki.openoil.net and Iraq: http://iraq.wiki.openoil.net — a prototype also exists for Iraq in Arabic at http://ar.wiki.openoil.net.
How would you use these guides? Suppose, for example, a new contract has been announced by an international company. The guide would be the place to find all major existing contracts between your government and that company, or all other companies, plus background to the resources the contract covers. So you could then begin to formulate questions like: how does this contract compare to other contracts? Or… what are the standard environmental regulations applied in the industry? and look for answers. The guides are designed to help grow knowledge by helping journalists, civil society and others to ask more targeted questions.
As well as Libya and Iraq, OpenOil is currently working on prototypes for Iran and Colombia. We are looking for partners interested in developing wikis (which are also linked to a book publishing platform) in all countries anywhere in the world which have significant extractive industries. We currently have resources to develop prototypes for three other countries in English, which we would aim to do by April, and are looking for partners interested in localising the guides, and working together on building a wiki to serve as a resource base for their country.
All material developed is licensed under the Creative Commons license, meaning anyone can use all the material in whatever way they wish: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
If you are interested, please tell us what country and issues you would like to see covered by filling in our 2-minute survey at: http://bit.ly/xsmFHg.
