Open Know-Where Data Awards

Now Accepting Nominations and Proposals: OKW Manufacturing World Map Data Awards

Do you know a person or organization that has mapped or wants to map manufacturing capabilities and could use some financial support to adapt or collect data? Following the use case application of the Open Know-Where standard in Round 1, we are now accepting nominations and applications for the next round of the Decentralized Manufacturing World Map Data Awards!

If you would like to submit an application or nominate someone else to apply, you can do so HERE.

More About the Data Award Goals and Objectives

In April 2021, the IOP Alliance launched the Open Know-Where (OKW) standard, a metadata standard for documenting and sharing information about the location of manufacturing facilities and capabilities globally. Round 1 of the OKW Data Awards provided the experience of applying the standard in community projects, bringing us closer to our goal of OKW as an initiative to help map manufacturing facilities and machinery for use in decentralized manufacturing.  

Our objective for 2023 is to map at least 150,000 points of interest (i.e.: facilities and machinery), under the OKW initiative. This mapping, in addition to benefiting community makers in finding where to produce items, will enable us to develop a key part of the infrastructure for the distributed production of hardware: a global map of facilities, machines, and tools, based on shared open data and open APIs.

We know that there are already great datasets out there, in fact, many were used in the research leading up to the creation of the OKW standard. We also know that reworking data to align it to a standard is time-consuming. We are continuing our work with global community partners to continue populating a map, through the verification of manufacturing facilities, and investigation on how we can approach the verification of data points for machinery.

More About the Award and How to Apply

$6,000.00USD will be divided up into 3-6 one-shot financial awards ranging from $500-$2000. The award will fund time and operational costs to do one, or both, of the following:  

  1. Take existing datasets of facilities, machinery, or tools and help us integrate them into our growing global manufacturing facilities and machinery data by developing processes or software to validate or transform the source data.
  1. Collect data related to the mapping of manufacturing capabilities, through surveys, or data scraping for integration into our growing global manufacturing facilities and machinery data.

By collecting more data to add to our growing project, we are seeking to answer questions such as:

  • How might makers, manufacturers, entrepreneurs, and others want to use the data once it is collected into a Manufacturing World Map?
  • What types of facilities make the most sense for inclusion in a Decentralized Manufacturing World Map?
  • How do you undertake validation of what is inside of a facility - what could the data scrubbing process look like?

While every mapping project and application is different, we are generally seeking the mapping of facilities by:

Facility Name and Location


GPS coordinates and post address, and contact information (email, website contact form, or phone number).

Machines available per Facility and their classification

We will provide a classification list of tags, for example: Machine; CNC; Router; Power tool; drill; Tool; Saw; etc.

List of Materials commonly used per Facility, including their specifications

Product basic specifications

Dimensions, pieces, and their relationship in the input material, machine, and output product process (i.e. Material A, used by Machine B, to produce Piece C).

Metadata for each record

  • Timestamp, formatted by ISO 8601
  • Surveyor: Person if survey was the method of collection; Database address if the method was database scraping.

The delivery format of the dataset must be CSV, SQLite, JSON, etc. The access of the database file must be continuous during the project; reports and milestones of the contents will be considered as proof of work. There is an Example SQL database on the application form.

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Who Should Apply for This Award

Priority will be given to volunteer-based organizations such as: national maker networks and consortia, open science hardware groups, humanitarian agencies, and organizations located outside of the Global North. Collective teams bringing together multiple networks or organizations into a single project are also welcomed to apply.

How to Apply for the Award/Application Process

  • Members of the Internet of Production Alliance and partners will be invited to apply or nominate possible awardees.  
  • Applications will be accepted and awarded on a rolling basis, with a submission deadline of Feb 15, 2023.  
  • Successful applicants will be notified by March 15, 2023.
  • Applications will be reviewed by a selection panel, which will assess applications by the following criteria:

Diversity

Priority consideration will be given to projects that represent a diverse perspective and/or focus on underrepresented or marginalized groups, including but not limited to:  

** Multiple applications from the same geographic location will be carefully considered to avoid overlap/oversaturation.

Organization, planning, and feasibility of project

Priority consideration will be given to applications that present a project that is well-organized and presents a manageable workload with clear output(s) included.

Clarity and alignment

Priority consideration will be given to applications that clearly outline a project that is in alignment with the Decentralized Manufacturing World Map goal(s):  

  1. To reach 150,000 mapped points of interest that will benefit communities engaged in decentralized manufacturing by helping them find where items can be produced locally.
  1. Enable the IoPA to develop a key part of the infrastructure for the distributed production of Open Hardware: a global map of facilities, machines, and tools, based on shared open data and open APIs.

Impact on Global Manufacturing Ecosystem

Applications with larger impact by potential higher number, or higher quality of data points, or focus on a traditionally underrepresented/mapped area will be given priority.

NOTE: All successful applicants/awardees will be expected to meet with the IoPA data awards support team at regular intervals over the course of the project, to be determined in agreement between awardee and the support team. This is to ensure that the necessary support is provided to project participants and that final project goals/outputs are attained in accordance with the proposed timeline.

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Questions?

If you have any questions about the Data Awards, please don’t hesitate to get in touch!

info@internetofproduction.org