Code for South Africa is now OpenUp!

Yes, you read it! We have a new name:

You may have heard the natterings about it around town or maybe you just read about it last year when we asked you for your ideas.

From that blog:

At three years old, we’ve done some exciting work, learnt a lot and it is time to ensure that our name matches up with our vision, mission and values.Code for South Africa has served us well, but it does not do justice to what we do: use data and technology to promote more informed decision making that drives social change.

We’ve been pretty busy since that first call for a new name. Rhyming, designing, iterating and voting (lots of voting!) and generally driving ourselves slightly insane with lots of really important brand and marketing mumbo jumbo.

We feel that “OpenUp” speaks loudly about what we do. We open up information by building tools that makes data understandable and empowers people to make informed decisions and understand their options. We open up communication between citizens and government by supporting those who give citizens a voice, and helping government use technology effectively.

We also believe in working openly. We use open source tools, and all our tools are open source. And, as cliché as it sounds, our door at Codebridge is always open, as everyone who has passed through it will tell you.

We’ll be sharing a lot more with you over the next few months, but for now, have a look at our new website at openup.org.za, which we’ve designed to be more - yup, you guessed it - open, where you can read more about OpenUp, what we do, what we believe in, and who we are.

Click here to read an open letter from our Director, Adi Eyal.

Find us at openup.org.za, follow @openupsa on Twitter and like OpenUp on Facebook.