An overview of open data in the Philippines

The workshop was led by Jules Bonnard, a data journalist at AFP (Agence France Presse) and Gemma Mendoza, a data journalist at Rappler, an innovative online news portal in the Philippines and Indonesia which was also the co-organiser of the course. The goal was to produce a status report on open data in the Philippines, Cambodia and Indonesia, with the attendance of Philippine officials in charge of the country's public data and transparent government being a particular highlight.

Potential avenues for ideas and action were also supplied by Khun Chandara, who reported on his experience as a researcher with Open Development Mékong, a Cambodian online platform for open data in the social, economic and environmental fields. The Indonesian data journalist Wahyu Dhyatmika, joint editor-in-chief of Tempo magazine, also gave a presentation on his work on the Panama Papers and the methods employed to process data.

The intense three-day session was also punctuated by a number of practical exercises (on finding better ways to identify data sources, process data on spreadsheets and reshape it into graphics and maps), before concluding with a group practical exercise on extra-judicial killings in the Philippines.