text: **2. Social and political landscape**
  It is worthwhile to begin by mentioning several events, happened between the end of 2010 and the 
  
  first months of 2011, that can help to understand what will be the place and role of Open Data in the 
  
  future, as well as the challenges faced by its advocates. 
  
  The first two are the Spanish "Indignados" and the Arab Spring. The first movement has among its 
  
  goals*"a change in society and an increase in social awareness"*. The Arab Spring, as L. Millar put 
  
  it on the New Zealand Computer Society website,*"demonstrated the potency of technology to*
  
  *reflect citizens' views of government systems that are not transparent."*As a consequence, noted the 
  
  Afrinnovator blog,*"we have seen from the civil disobedience in the North of Africa and the Middle*
  
  *East, the appetite for more accountable and transparent government will only grow from here on"*. 
  
  From this analysis it looks like, in a way, both the Indignados and the participants to the Arab 
  
  Spring are (also) asking for Open Data, even if they aren't using the term and many participants to 
  
  these grassroots movement may still ignore its definition, that was born inside hackers and Public 