At the beginning of open data and civic tech activities in Germany, there was originally no need to set up specific innovation spaces. There was initially no demand for "offline networking" with spatial offerings. This changed fundamentally with the Code for Germany initiative launched by the Open Knowledge Foundation (OKF DE) in 2014.
In many places in Germany, development and innovation spaces have now been created in which an exchange on digital topics such as open data and civic tech is possible. Local city labs, FabLabs, MakerSpaces and initiatives have emerged, mainly through private commitment or in association structures.
A key driver of this development was the Code for Germany initiative of the Open Knowledge Foundation (OKF DE). The spatial structures and initiatives run with a great deal of voluntary commitment have enabled further community activities and civic engagement in the digital sector at a local level.
The city of Bonn was a pioneering municipality at the time and was one of the first cities in Germany to provide content and financial support for volunteering with a focus on open data, Freifunk and LoRaWAN. The OK Lab Bonn was founded on March 26, 2015 and developed regionally into the OK Lab Bonn/Rhein-Sieg. Due to the Code for Germany and LoRaWAN initiatives, which have since expired, the Lab is no longer active.
