The Workshop for Public Knowledge

What The Workshop for Public Knowledge does

The Workshop for Public Knowledge (הסדנא לידע ציבורי, "Hasadna") is an Israeli non-profit civic-technology organization founded in 2011 and headquartered in Tel Aviv. It develops and operates a portfolio of open government data platforms — including Open Knesset, Open Budget, Open Law, Open Bus / DataBus, DataCity, Open Train, Open Pension, the Digital Urban Forest, Yodaat, Tafmap, and Meirim — that expose legislative, fiscal, planning, transport, urban, and gender-related public-sector data to citizens, journalists, researchers, and municipal users. The platforms are open source, free of charge, and built primarily on Python and JavaScript with PostgreSQL and MongoDB backing data services.

Hasadna is run largely by volunteers (organizational headcount reported in the 101-250 range is inclusive of volunteer contributors), with leadership including CEO Yuval Adam and Secretary General Benny Daon, alongside co-founder Yoav Bentov and a broader volunteer community that includes board members and project managers. The organization monetizes through grants and donations rather than product revenue, and it secured Israeli Section 46 tax-deductibility for donations in 2016. Backers documented in the input include New Israel Fund, the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, the Samuel Naaman Institution, the Awake Movement, Google Israel, JetBrains, NSA.co.il, and academic partners including Hebrew University, IDC Herzliya, and Tel Aviv University.

Strategically, Hasadna has progressively expanded from a narrow legislative-transparency mandate into adjacent civic-data verticals (planning, transit, urban environment, gender), while selectively engaging internationally (e.g., International Open Data Conference 2018 in Buenos Aires). Its defensibility rests on its exclusive structured datasets, an installed user base of newsrooms and researchers, and its open-source tooling stack that enables downstream reuse.

Name

The Workshop for Public Knowledge

Legal name

The Workshop for Public Knowledge

Website

https://hasadna.org.il

Company type

Private

Founded year

2011

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

101–250 employees

Short description

Hasadna (The Workshop for Public Knowledge) is an Israeli non-profit civic-tech organization that builds free, open-source platforms exposing Knesset, budget, planning, transport, and urban data for citizens, journalists, and researchers.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Civic Technology and Government Transparency Software

NAICS

Social Advocacy Organizations (8133), Religious, Grantmaking, Civic, Professional, and Similar Organizations (813), Civic and Social Organizations (813410)

SIC

Services-Membership Organizations (8600)

akta.pro primary industry

Public Communications, Transparency & Open Government (BPAIAAAH)

akta.pro secondary industries

Civil Society Strengthening & Civic Space (BPADAGAD), Think Tanks, Policy Research & Public Policy Institutes (BPAGAFAO), Civic Education & Community Engagement (Voting, Local Government) (EDAAAFAC)

Keywords

• Civic technology tools
• Open government data
• Government transparency platforms
• Public budget tracking
• Legislative monitoring tools

Headquarters

HQ city

Tel Aviv

HQ country

Israel

HQ region

Middle East

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure, Others

Revenue model

1. Donations and Support: Monthly support appeals to community members. Individual donations through PayPal.
2. Foundation Grants: Support from foundations including New Israel Fund, private donors, and organizational sponsors.

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

The Workshop for Public Knowledge develops and maintains more than 15 open-source civic technology websites and applications that expose Israeli government data to the public. Its portfolio spans the national budget, parliamentary proceedings and votes, public transit performance, consolidated Israeli legislation, municipal open data, planning and construction information, pension policy, gender knowledge, and urban forestry data, all provided free of charge. The organization operates on a volunteer-driven model with a small dedicated team managing development sessions, hackathons, server maintenance, and government outreach.

Product overview

The Workshop for Public Knowledge operates as a volunteer-driven, non-profit civic technology organization that builds a portfolio of open-source websites and applications to promote government transparency and citizen engagement in Israel. The portfolio centers on data liberation from public institutions, encompassing Open Budget (מפתח התקציב) for national budget visualization, Open Knesset (כנסת פתוחה) for parliamentary monitoring, DataBus (דאטאבוס) for public transit analytics, DataCity for municipal innovation, Open Law (ספר החוקים הפתוח) for Israeli legislation, Yodaat (יודעת) for gender knowledge, Digital Urban Forest for street tree data, Tafmap for early childhood ministry data, Meirim for planning content, and a Data Warehouse providing underlying API infrastructure. The tools collectively enable citizens, journalists, activists, and researchers to access, analyze, and monitor government activity, with over 15 projects collectively serving hundreds of thousands of users.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Open Budget (מפתח התקציב): Website presenting government budget allocation and changes throughout the year in the Finance Committee
• Open Knesset (כנסת פתוחה)
• Open Bus (דאטאבוס)
• DataCity
• Open Law (ספר החוקים הפתוח)
• Open Pension
• Open Taba
• Meirim
• Open Environment
• Digital Forest
• Yodaat

Products and services

• Open Budget (מפתח התקציב) A platform presenting the Israeli national budget allocation and its evolution throughout the year in the Finance Committee, alongside government spending on subsidies and procurement. Used by citizens, journalists, and government research bodies for budget analysis.
• Open Knesset (כנסת פתוחה) A platform exposing the Israeli legislative process, presenting committee and plenum discussion protocols, votes, and ratings of Knesset members and factions by social agenda. Used by journalists, MKs, researchers, and the public.
• DataBus (דאטאבוס) A platform collecting and analyzing real-time Israeli bus transit data to check delays, overcrowding, and line accuracy. Used by commuters, researchers, and journalists monitoring public transport performance.
• DataCity A platform for municipal innovation based on open data, building quality data infrastructure in Israeli local authorities to promote substantive digital transformation.
• Open Law (ספר החוקים הפתוח) The only open repository of full-text Israeli laws integrating all legislative amendments, presented on a Wikisource platform. Used by lawyers, citizens, journalists, and researchers.
• Yodaat (יודעת) A knowledge center on women and gender in Israel, focused on sharing, accessibility, and creation of knowledge for gender equality, in partnership with the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute and the Samuel Neaman Institute.
• Digital Urban Forest (יער עירוני דיגיטלי) An application presenting the Israeli national open database of street trees and shade coverage. Used by municipalities, environmental groups, and citizens.
• Tafmap (מפת הטף) A platform collecting Israeli government ministry data, enabling cross-referencing of agency information and providing data solutions to present information in internal systems for the early childhood department's work.
• Meirim (מעירים) A platform making knowledge accessible and creating content so Israeli citizens can understand and influence the planning and construction system.
• Open Budget Data Warehouse (מחסן נתונים) A centralized data infrastructure project that aggregates data from all sources, normalizes it into a unified database, and provides a generic API server supporting complex queries including geographic queries for the Open Budget platform.

Quantifiable outcome

• Over 15 projects providing transparency tools
• +1 more outcomes

Named customers5 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature7 records

Partnerships

Six partnerships are on record, tiered minor and supporting.

• Van Leer Institute (מכון ון ליר)minorStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnership in the Yodaat project - a knowledge center on women and gender in Israel. Focuses on sharing, accessibility, and creation of knowledge for gender equality.
• Samuel Naaman Institution (מוסד שמואל נאמן)minorStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnership in the Yodaat project for gender knowledge center.
• Google IsraelsupportingTechnology or IntegrationProvided site support from June 2012
• JetBrainssupportingTechnology or IntegrationProvided PyCharm IDE licenses - development environment for Python
• NSA.co.ilsupportingTechnology or IntegrationDonated hosting servers for the organization
• Awake (התעוררות) MovementsupportingStrategic or Co-development PartnerHackathon space for weekly meetings in Tel Aviv since September 2011

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• GovTrack: Nonprofit that tracks the US Congress — bills, votes, legislators, and legislative records. Directly comparable to Hasadna's Open Knesset project in scope and approach.
• Sunlight Labs (historical): The technical arm of the Sunlight Foundation, built civic-tech tools like Influence Explorer and Capitol Words. Closely analogous to Hasadna's portfolio of government transparency applications.
• mySociety: UK civic-tech charity that builds tools (TheyWorkForYou, FixMyStreet, WhatDoTheyKnow) to open up government and parliaments. Directly comparable to Hasadna's Open Knesset, Open Budget, and parliamentary-transparency mission.
• Open Knowledge Foundation: International nonprofit that promotes open data and builds tools like CKAN. Comparable to Hasadna in mission, open-source civic-tech approach, and engagement with the global open-data community.
• Sunlight Foundation: US nonprofit historically focused on government transparency, open data, and legislative tracking (now restructured). Highly comparable in mission to track legislation, lobbying, and government spending.
• Code for America: US-based nonprofit civic-tech organization that builds open-source tools and runs volunteer brigades to improve government services. Highly comparable to Hasadna in volunteer-driven model, open-source ethos, and focus on government transparency and civic engagement.

Emerging players

• The Markup: Nonprofit newsroom that investigates how technology affects society, often building data tools to expose institutional behavior. Thematically aligned with Hasadna's civic-data-journalism approach.
• Datenanfragen.de: German nonprofit that helps citizens exercise data-access rights and file GDPR requests. Smaller-scope but thematically aligned with Hasadna's transparency mission.

Broad incumbents

• ProPublica: US investigative journalism nonprofit that also develops data tools (Represent, Dollars for Docs). Comparable civic-tech overlap but operates as a major newsroom with paid staff rather than volunteer-driven.
• Open Government Partnership: International multilateral initiative promoting open government reforms across 70+ countries. Comparable in mission framing but operates at policy level rather than building specific civic-tech tools.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/hasadna
• GitHubgithub.com/hasadna
• Facebookfacebook.com/hasadna.org.il
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/the-public-knowledge-workshop

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles13 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about The Workshop for Public Knowledge