OpenGov Hub 2.0: Official Launch!

We’re beyond excited to announce that, last night, we officially launched the new (and we’re proud to say, improved!) OpenGov Hub. We’ve all been trickling in and getting settled over the last two months, but we’re finally ready to (re)take the open government space by storm.

When we first moved in at 1889 F Street in October 2012, we were 10 organizations strong. Today, we’re 28 orgs strong. We’re already learning from our neighbors and putting good ideas to work on the ground. Case-in-point: we launched an OpenGov Hub in Nepal a few weeks ago. And, with GlobalGiving moving in next door, the hub’s first collaboration, Feedback Labs, will be even closer together.

In addition to hearing from all hub tenants, it was a great honor to hear from Jim Wolfensohn at the launch last night. He’s known to most as the former World Bank president, but for us it’s more personal: he’s our founder. In 2000, he launched Development Gateway within the World Bank, and since 2004 we’ve been functioning as an independent non-profit, and now, a social enterprise. Peter Eigen, founder of Transparency International, also helped us celebrate. He’s been a maverick in the transparency and accountability spaces for years. Both Jim and Peter paved the way for groups like us and the hubbers, and we’re eternally grateful for their passion, their innovations, and their guidance. As Jim rightly joked: we’d all be unemployed without him and Peter!

Here at Development Gateway, we take great pride in our commitment to developing solutions that empower. If the last two years of the OpenGov Hub experiment have shown us anything, it’s that close and creative collaboration open up a world of possibilities of succeeding in our mission. We can’t wait to see what the next few years bring!