South African Open Data Unconference
South African Open Data Unconference
18 months have passed since the Coding for Democracy hackathon, the first open data event in SouthAfrica. Since then, a community has slowly grown. Various groups such as HacksHackers, Open Data and Democracy Initiative (now defunct) and the Cape Town Chapter of the Open Knowledge Foundation.
Here at Code for South Africa, we feel that progress has been too slow. That’s why we emerged in the first place. An organisation run by professionals with the objective of pushing the open data envelope. We arrived on the scene in late 2013 and we’re already starting to make a splash. Regular open data meetings (our Thursday night unhackathons), an actual hackathon, working with the media to kickstart data journalism in the newsroom and policy work with the City of Cape Town and the Western Cape Government. We’re also building the core infrastructure that will power part of a new open data ecosystem. A bill tracker (plus API), elections API and other tools that can be used by data consumers to produce information products.
Speaking of the City and the Province, we are represented on a working group to develop open data policies for each of the two governments. Progress has been slow but we’re finally finishing off. The policies are about ready to be sent through the approval process (which hopefully won’t mangle them too much). Big up to the City by the way for taking a very practical and well thought out approach towards implementation. We’re still waiting for their open data copyright though.
The Making All Voices Count Initiative (MAVC) call for proposals on “closing the feedback loop between citizens and government” is going to be a game changer. South Africa was selected as one of eight countries in which collaborative efforts in the areas of innovation, scaling and research will be funded. 91 submissions were received from South African projects. In short, this space is about to explode. In her country survey on behalf of MAVC, Debbie Budlender identified two Code for South Africans, Adi Eyal and Gabriella Razzano as central figures in the open data space. In a series of many interviews, we were repeatedly identified by stakeholders as the people to watch in the open data space (blush - thank you, thank you very much).
Ok, momentum, where to next? Let’s all meet. So far, the community has been fragmented and not all players have come to the table. At the policy workshops that I mentioned above, we offered to provide that table. Let’s bring together government, civil society, academia, donors, private sector and th media together into one room. Let’s find out about the issues and what our shared interests are. The response we received was extremely positive.
Not ones to pitch and run, we (along with Kelsey Wiens from Creative Commons) having been making significant progress towards putting together an unconference of the most important decisions makers and data consumers in the country.
Unconference
Nope, that wasn’t a spelling mistake. An unconference. Not like the boring bring-a-keynote-speaker variety with tons of plenary sessions that no-one actually goes to. An unconference is a highly ordered chaotic environment that creates a space for real engagement between stakeholders. You’ve been to a standard conference right? Dark lecture halls, experts talking at you, your mind wanders, perhaps you sneak in a quick snooze (what? I don’t believe that I’m the only one). The cool part is the coffee break. You meet interesting people and chat about your work and issues that you care about. Occasionally, these discussions turn into collaborations.
How about we turn the conference into one long coffee break? Let’s leave the boring stuff at home and actually do something worthwhile. The conference will be 1.5 days long. The invitation list will contain a very diverse and influential group of decisions-makers. We hope (actually we’re certain) that this event will change the landscape.
By the end of the conference, strong ties will have been created between stakeholders. We’ll begin to understand each, what we want and what our constraints are. We’ll identify a representative steering committee for how we take forward the movement and make open data a household word.
Our guest list includes leaders in the field, a wide range of organisations and key government officials. We’re a long way off and we expect it to take place after the elections but there is real movement.
Exciting stuff. Watch this space and we’ll let you know more as events unfold.