OpenData Media

Goals

To play a part in making citizens more involved in monitoring public policies, by helping journalists and actors in civil society to gain a better understanding of open data and use it more effectively.

480 K

3months

50Trained professionnals

15Countries

A project

Supported by

In partnership with

Project timeline

September 2016 December 2016

100%

This project is finished

Presentation

In Africa, the Arab world and South-East Asia, the increasing professionalism of the citizen web and the growing demand for democratic transparency have gradually paved the way for the emergence of public data, otherwise known as open data. At the instigation of international organisations, States have pledged to publish public data, and data collection and transmission platforms are now seeing the light of day. However, this information is often incomplete or difficult to exploit, and the platforms are struggling to cope.

As part of the OpenData Media project, 50 journalists and leaders of Civil Society Organisations have been selected to receive training in the political issues and techniques of open governance and how to use open data. The project aims to develop civic skills, in order to make open data a useful tool for monitoring public policies.

As well as receiving the technical training courses on how to best use open data, the beneficiaries will be attending the 'Open Government Partnership ( OGP)' World Summit in Paris on 7 to 9 December 2016, which will bring together 2,000 people involved in open data. Bolstered by the skills that they have acquired and a wider professional network, the beneficiaries will then be able to launch local, citizen-led projects involving the use or creation of open data.

"The workshops and meetings allowed me to understand how to recover existing data and make it available to citizens to give the means to challenge the public authorities on their commitments."

Tobias Souleyman, webjournalist from Togo

Project beneficiaries

50 journalists and leaders of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) in 15 countries in French-speaking Africa, the Arab world and South-East Asia.

Files to download

Open Data Media

Actions

Training on the use of open data

The project includes four training sessions that will be held in Dakar (Senegal), Tunis (Tunisia) and Manilla (Philippines) in October and November 2016. The workshops will focus on collecting and reusing open data.

Each practical workshop will start with a presentation of the tools, with examples of applications being given, followed by practical exercises. At the end, the trainer will present more advanced tools to the participants.

Attendance at the Open Government Partnership (OGP) World Summit

As part of the Open Government Partnership (OGP) World Summit that will be taking place in Paris from 7 to 9 December 2016, meetings with international actors in the open data arena will be organised in order to allow the participants to exchange good practices and build up contacts.
A customised programme will be devised for the participants based on their needs and interests, in partnership with Etalab, the event organiser.

Before attending the summit, the participants will complete a day-long masterclass led by open data professionals, in particular data journalists and leaders of CSOs specialising in open government.

Launch of local OpenData projects

- Devising the projects:
After the four training sessions have been held in Dakar, Tunis and Manilla, and in the run-up to the OGP World Summit, two days will be set aside for preparing a public presentation to be given by the participants, in which they will reflect on the open data situation in their respective countries and devise their projects.

- Presenting the projects:
The participants will present their thoughts and proposals for developing open data in their respective countries at a round-table meeting forming part of the official programme of December's OGP World Summit in Paris.