Civic Lab Brussels

Civic Lab Brussels are biweekly meetings open to anyone working on or interested in open activities and projects.

Purpose

Presentation during Civic Lab Brussels

BeCentral: location of Civic Labs Brussels

BeCentral: location of Civic Labs Brussels

Civic Lab Brussels is an action-oriented group for those interested in creating solutions for local communities, mainly through technology. During our biweekly open gatherings (all backgrounds welcome) we work on civic projects, get feedback from tech and gov experts and learn about civic innovation and related concepts like open data, civic hacking and open government. Feel free to join!

When spoken about open, it is open as defined on http://opendefinition.org/   (Wikipedia article)

Meetings start at about 18:15 and have as program 30 minutes for short presentations, 2 hours for actions on the subjects of the presentations.

Civic Lab Brussels is an action-oriented group for those interested in creating solutions for local communities, mainly through technology. During our biweekly open gatherings (all backgrounds welcome) we work on civic projects, get feedback from tech and gov experts and learn about civic innovation and related concepts like open data, civic hacking and open government. — Tweet from Dries Van Ransbeeck, 21 Jun 2017

History and background

With the start of Civic Lab Brussels in 2017, already 27 similar labs (open knowledge labs in Germany) existed around the world.

Since October 2017 also Civic Lab Ghent is organised, a spin-off of Civic Lab Brussels. Since March 2018 Civic Lab Leuven is organised, a second spin-off of Civic Lab Brussels.

Since October 2018 the Wiki Club Brussels meetings take place during the Civic Lab Brussels meetings.

Contacts

• Dries for OpenKnowledgeBE

Partners

Co-organisers of Civic Lab Brussels are:

• Open Knowledge Belgium
• Wikimedia Belgium
• OpenStreetMap Belgium

Location

Since the start Civic Lab Brussels has been organised at BeCentral at Cantersteen 10 in Brussels. This is the building of Brussels Central train station.

Timeline

• 25 April 2017 - Civic Lab Brussels (1st) in BeCentral   (Meetup (archived) | photos)
• 9 May 2017 - Civic Lab Brussels (2nd) in BeCentral   (Meetup (archived) | photos) (note: evening of Eurovision Song Contest)
• 23 May 2017 - Civic Lab Brussels (3rd) in BeCentral   (Meetup (archived) | photos)
• 6 June 2017 - Civic Lab Brussels (4th) in BeCentral   (Meetup (archived) | photos)
  • Presentation: Wiki Loves Public Space 2017
• 20 June 2017 - Civic Lab Brussels (5th) in BeCentral   (Meetup (archived) | photos) (note: hot day + attack in train station)
  • Presentation: OpenScore: Join the sheet music revolution!
  • Start collaboration with MuseScore
• 4 July 2017 - Civic Lab Brussels (6th) in BeCentral   (Meetup (archived) | photos)
• 18 July 2017 - Civic Lab Brussels (7th) in BeCentral   (Meetup (archived) | photos)
  • Start collaboration with Flemish address register
• 1 August 2017 - Civic Lab Brussels (8th) in BeCentral   (Meetup (archived) | photos)
• 15 August 2017 - Civic Lab Brussels (9th) in BeCentral   (Meetup (archived) | photos)
• 29 August 2017 - Civic Lab Brussels (10th) in BeCentral   (Meetup (archived) | photos)
• 12 September 2017 - Civic Lab Brussels (11th) in BeCentral   (Meetup (archived) | photos)
• 26 September 2017 - Civic Lab Brussels (12th) in BeCentral   (Meetup (archived) | photos)
• 10 October 2017 - Civic Lab Brussels (13th) in BeCentral   (Meetup (archived) | photos)
• 24 October 2017 - Civic Lab Brussels (14th) in BeCentral   (Meetup (archived))
• 7 November 2017 - Civic Lab Brussels (15th) in BeCentral   (Meetup (archived) | photos)
• 21 November 2017 - Civic Lab Brussels (16th) in BeCentral   (Meetup (archived) | photos)
• 5 December 2017 - Civic Lab Brussels (17th) in BeCentral   (Meetup (archived))
• 19 December 2017 - Civic Lab Brussels (18th) in BeCentral   (Meetup (archived) | photos)
• 2 January 2018 - Civic Lab Brussels (19th) in BeCentral   (Meetup (archived))
• 16 January 2018 - Civic Lab Brussels (20th) in BeCentral   (Meetup (archived) | also (archived) | photos)
• 30 January 2018 - Civic Lab Brussels (21th) in BeCentral   (Meetup (archived))
• 13 February 2018 - Civic Lab Brussels (22th) in BeCentral   (Meetup (archived))
• 27 February 2018 - Civic Lab Brussels (23th) in BeCentral   (Meetup (archived))
• 13 March 2018 - Civic Lab Brussels (24th) in BeCentral   (Meetup (archived))
• 27 March 2018 - Civic Lab Brussels (25th) in BeCentral   (Meetup (archived))
• 10 April 2018 - Civic Lab Brussels (26th) in BeCentral   (Meetup (archived))
• 24 April 2018 - Civic Lab Brussels (27th) in BeCentral   (Meetup (archived))
• 8 May 2018 - Civic Lab Brussels (28th) in BeCentral   (Meetup (archived))
• 22 May 2018 - Civic Lab Brussels (29th) in BeCentral   (Meetup (archived))
• 5 June 2018 - Civic Lab Brussels (30th) in BeCentral   (Meetup (archived))
• 13 June 2018 - Build Your Air Quality Sensor in BeCentral   (Meetup (archived))
• 19 June 2018 - Civic Lab Brussels (31th) in BeCentral   (Meetup (archived))

Statistics

The metrics and statistics of this project are:

• 1st: 33 people present, 4 presentations
• 2nd: 12 people present, 4 presentations
• 3rd: 19 people present, 3 presentations
• 4th: 15 people present, 4 presentations
• 5th: 16 people present, 5 presentations
• 6th: 15 people present, 4 presentations
• 7th: 40 people present, 9 presentations
• 8th: 20 people present, 3 presentations
• 9th: 8 people present, 2 presentations
• 10th: 6 people present, 1 presentation about 2 subjects
• 11th: 15 people present, 2 presentations
• 12th: 12 people present, 3 presentations
• 13th: 10 people present, 2 presentations
• 14th: 5 people present, 0 presentations
• 15th: 8 people present, 0 presentations (working session)
• 16th: 13 people present, 0 presentations, 2 working groups meetings
• 17th: 6 people present, 0 presentations (working session)
• 18th: 10 people present
• 19th: 8 people present (working session)
• 20th: 16 people present (2 working sessions)
• 21th: 17 people present (1 working session)
• 22th: 12 people present
• 23th: 15 people present
• 24th: 16 people present
• 25th: 10 people present
• 26th: 15 people present
• 27th: 18 people present
• 28th: 15 people present
• 29th: 16 people present
• 30th: 14 people present
• 31th: 18 people present

Related links

• Civic Lab Brussels on Meetup.com
• Photos of Civic Lab Brussels on Wikimedia Commons
• #CivicLabBxl on Twitter
• Civic Labs Belgium website

Announcements and notices

• Launch of Civic Lab Brussels, blogpost Open Knowledge Belgium, 5 May 2017   (archived)
• Civic Lab Brussels launched!, blogpost Open Knowledge International, 15 May 2017   (archived)

• Al 300 Belgen meten zelf het fijn stof in hun omgeving, 29 June 2018   (archived)

• 11 May 2017 - Report published in the Wikimedia GLAM newsletter This Month in GLAM about Civic Lab Brussels starting   (info | report)