The next time you go to openup.org.za, you might be surprised to find that things look a little different. There's a new logo, the layout has changed and we've incorporated a bit more colour into our world. This is our new website and we'd like to take a minute or two to introduce you to it, in all its glory.
But first, a bit of context. For everyone else, this might seem quite unexpected, but for us, this has been a long and carefully considered process. Over the past few years, OpenUp has gone through lots of changes (our projects, offices, methodology and staff have all changed quite a bit) and the idea of rebranding has been floating just beneath the surface for some time. It isn't merely that things have changed within the organisation, but also outside of it. No one expected we'd spend a chunk of this year fighting a global pandemic, did they?
Much like the rest of the world has had to change and adapt the way they work, shop, interact with other people and survive, so too has our little corner of the Open Data world. Our new website is just the first step in this adaptation, and there's so much more to come!
"While we may look different, we are still the same OpenUp at heart."
This website will guide us and those we work with in creating new tools; innovating ideas of openness and transparency within a range of sectors (government, civil society and the private sector); and it will also hold us accountable in continuing to change and adapt where necessary. All of that being said, we're still those geeks who make data look and feel "cool", from under a bridge in the heart of Cape Town.
Now onto the actual website itself. If we're being honest, our old branding didn't quite fit who we are and what we do. The new website is clean and simple, but with splashes of colour and lively graphics, it tells our story perfectly. Our new logo, displayed proudly at the top of each page, suggests that we are constantly moving everything towards open. We no longer subscribe to single buzz words like "data" and "tech". Instead, we've chosen to describe our areas of focus in more detail, with visuals that build on these descriptions. We're civic-tech creators who helped civil society inform and empower the public; we're also data training specialists, who work with all kinds of people and organisations to learn how to work with big pieces of information; we're open data advocates, who - through our work - fight for openness and accessibility for all; and we work closely with government as consultants, which sometimes means creating tools and resources alongside them.
The new website also features articles from our blog more centrally. Our blog is where we express our learnings, talk about our experiences as all of the things listed above, and where we try to share things that we think could be useful to others. We're committed to engaging with our collaborators, friends, donors and the public through these articles and on social media.
We've put a lot of time and effort into building the new website, and OpenUp's new brand identity (more on this in a future blog), and we not only hope that people appreciate that, but also that they let us know about their interactions with it. In a time when so much of the way we interact has moved online, we want people to use this space to feel as if they're interacting with us, the people who make up the organisation.
If you have any comments or you’ve found any bugs please email info@openup.org.za
