Becky Hogge

Becky Hogge is a writer and researcher. Between 2006 and 2008 she ran the Open Rights Group, a UK-based grassroots campaign to establish and protect our rights in the digital world. Between 2008 and 2013 she was a non-executive director of open data pioneers the Open Knowledge Foundation. She has just finished a major piece of research work commissioned by Omidyar Network “Open Data: Six stories about impact in the UK”. The full report, whose findings are reflected in this piece, is available here.

How the BBC can create a better digital public sphere

The BBC’s remit is not just broadcast. It has the power to improve our experiences online, and to realise the digital public sphere we want.

By Becky Hogge

/ 19 Jul 2016

Now is the time to defend the public’s right to know

Britain has just attended the Open Government Partnership Summit in Mexico as the world leader on open data policy – a clear winner, now under threat. How come?

By Becky Hogge

/ 3 Nov 2015

Networked activism meets the dominant culture of technocratic managerialism in Westminster

The first full-time executive director of the Open Rights Group (and one-time openDemocracy technology director) describes the clash of cultures she experienced as a citizen activist trying to influence digital policy. Expect centralising managerialism to continue to have all the wrong instincts o

By Becky Hogge

/ 4 Aug 2011

The freedom cloud

The tools that help Arab democracy protesters also extend the reach of three United States corporations. The power of Facebook, Google, and Twitter represents an appropriation of the hacker-utopian ideals of the early internet, says Becky Hogge. The challenge to those who still uphold these ideals

By Becky Hogge

/ 29 Mar 2011

The internet's fading promise

It seems like old news. Two years ago, for openDemocracy, I reported on the release of the Open Net Initiative (ONI)'s investigation into internet censorship in China (see

By Becky Hogge

/ 21 May 2007

Digging in

As any mathematician will tell you, there are many different kinds of numbers. Aside from odds and evens, integers and primes, you can have real and unreal numbers, rational and

By Becky Hogge

/ 8 May 2007

Campaigning in cyberspace

As the 3 May 2007 local-government elections in Britain draw near, temperatures aren't running quite as high on this side of the channel as they have been in

By Becky Hogge

/ 23 Apr 2007

We are the web

After the Sandinista government took power in Nicaragua in 1979, its reform of the education system included expanding the country's schools for the deaf. The schools' methods

By Becky Hogge

/ 9 Apr 2007

Data is the pollution of the information society

The entry for "tin-foil hat" in Wikipedia includes the definition "a popular stereotype and term of derision; the phrase serves as a byword for paranoia and is

By Becky Hogge

/ 26 Mar 2007

A gain for the public domain

Almost two years ago, openDemocracy ran an interview with Cory Doctorow, then an Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) activist, entitled "Democracy and Dissent at the World Intellectual Property Organisation"

By Becky Hogge

/ 13 Mar 2007

Reporting Africa, blog by blog

"Reuters is not responsible for any content provided by external sources", reads the notice posted beneath a list of links to blog posts on the international news agency&

By Becky Hogge

/ 28 Feb 2007

One high, one low note for downloaders

At the beginning of last week, one man surely had the admiration of bloggers across the globe. All Steve Jobs, head of Apple Computer Inc, had to do was post

By Becky Hogge

/ 13 Feb 2007