Louis-Nino Kansoun: data, a common good to be shared
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OpenData Media 2Born in Benin in 1996, Louis-Nino Kansoun was the youngest of the data activists who travelled to Tbilisi (Georgia) to attend the Open Government Partnership (OGP) Global Summit, held from 17 to 19 July 2018. Read on to find out more about a young journalist who wants to use open data to make a difference in his profession.
Unlike other participants, Nino's reasons for wanting to attend this major open data event were unrelated to his activism. A journalist by profession, his primary goal is to ensure his fellow citizens are better informed, arguing that "data are a common good to be shared with everyone".
"At first, I was rather taken aback to find myself in this universe!"
Thanks to the various data processing tools he learned about during the training days offered as part of the event (including, among others, R, Open Refine and Python), Nino hopes to change the way news is reported in his country: "When I write an article that's all text from top to bottom, if it's too long, the reader will end up losing interest before they get to the end! When I return to Benin, I'll be able to share the skills I've learned with my fellow journalists so that they can also change the way they write their articles. Our readers will be better informed as a result."
The training offered as part of Open Data Media 2 should also help him to see through his own personal project, which aims to open data in Benin's health sector. "Access to health care in Benin is quite limited. I'd also like to be able to open up data on health and to publish an investigative study to make a bit of a difference! Having attended the OGP summit, I'm now able to draw on examples and to share valuable experience in this area."
