Open Data Day 2016: Workshops Around the Globe

Open Data Day 2016 took place on Saturday, March 5th. Thousands of citizens in cities around the world gathered to write applications, create visualizations and publish analyses using open public data. People were excited to show their support for open data policies by the world’s local, regional and national governments.

We caught up with open data champions from Africa, Russia, the Middle East, and the United States to discuss their thoughts on open data and see how they celebrated.

1) “Open data will serve as the backbone for the government of the future.” – Kalen

Former middle school teacher turned entrepreneur Kalen Gallagher is the Co-Captain of the Code for San Jose brigade. Kalen’s work at Code for San Jose has been heavily focused on encouraging the city and other local partners to increase public access to data. Kalen enjoyed a successful Open Data Day at Code for San Jose’s Open Data Jam. Project focuses ranged from affordable housing to garbage collection to city permitting.

Why are you celebrating Open Data Day?

“I celebrated Open Data Day because strong open data policies are the backbone from which 21st century local government will be built. Throughout the country, some of our greatest minds are rethinking the ways local governments deliver services to their citizens. The new solutions are often faster, cheaper, and simpler. Cities need to make their data available and updated using the latest data standards.”

Featured open data project:

Code for San Jose is a Code for America Brigade, a group of volunteers who collaborate with local government and community partners to build new tools that help with local civic issues. They promote civic innovation by developing civic apps, advocating for open data and hosting community events. View current projects here.

2) “Open data means granting ‘ownership’ of data to individuals and organizations” – Dominic

Infogram ambassador Dominic Kornu is an educator, blogger and volunteer from Ghana. Dominic, also known as Kafui, held an open data talk and hands-on workshop over the weekend with the GDG Sunyani Chapter. Using tools like Infogram and Excel, Dominic taught students the basic principles of open data, data analysis, and data visualization. 

How can open data impact the world?

“Open data can help improve intergovernmental cooperation and the development of uniform standards for the web, development frameworks, research methods, etc. Gaining access to open data from across the globe would literally make us citizens of the world!”

Featured open data project:

Odekro seeks to empower communities and marginalized populations to promote transparency, accountability and democratic governance through citizen action and engagement with relevant government agencies. Odekro provides public online access to bills, motions, and Parliamentary debates (Hansards) in Ghana.

3) “Open data gives us a much better understanding of our world.” – Ivan

Infogram ambassador Ivan Pechishchev is a professor at Perm State University, media consultant and volunteer. Ivan also schedules monthly meet-ups on various topics in order to help the development of NGOs. With the support of Teplitsa, Ivan hosted an ‘open data for social projects’ workshop in Russia where they spoke about successful projects from 2015 and projects for the new year. 

What role do citizens play with open data?

“Open data isn’t just a state issue, it’s a citizen issue. Citizens need to understand the importance of open data and learn how to ask for necessary information. We need to create an open dialogue and a demand for open data.”

Featured open data project:

MAPERM is a compilation of statistics and data on the city of Perm. MAPERM provides an interactive map of the city with information for citizens about utilities, roads, educational facilities, the environment, and more. The site was completely built using open data and was created by a grant from Teplitsa.

4) “Open data is not an end, but it is a start.” – Heather

Infogram ambassador Heather Leson is a program manager and community builder for global open source projects. She held a casual coffee meetup in Doha to talk about data-driven innovation and how open data can play a role. She met with journalists, policy experts, designers, climate change activists, researchers, and entrepreneurs in Qatar.

What challenges does open data face?

“The biggest challenge is balancing the needs of business, government, and citizens with those of privacy and security. We need to be accountable and transparent. However, data can be damaging if you don’t safeguard and educate the very citizens you aim to help with data-driven innovation.”

Featured open data project:

The Humanitarian Data Exchange (HDX) is an open platform for sharing data. The goal of HDX is to make humanitarian data easy to find and use for analysis. Launched in July 2014, HDX has been accessed by users in over 200 countries and territories.

Are you inspired to experiment with open data? If you have data you’d like to display, visualize it! Infogram can help turn spreadsheets into engaging visuals that are easy to understand and even easier to share. Sign up to get started and be a part of the data revolution.