This session will assess the progress made in advancing the data revolution for sustainable development and the challenges, opportunities, and priority action areas for the year ahead. This session address the following questions:
What have been some of the successes and challenges in advancing an open data revolution for sustainable development over the past year since the Global Goals were adopted and Global Partnership was formed?
How can we more powerfully and sustainably advance a data revolution for sustainable development that specifically seizes the opportunities of open data along with other new sources of data?
This session will examine the intersection of open data and official statistics. It will be a provocative discussion on the vital role of open data to support Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Experts and government representatives will discuss the challenges and opportunities of open data to leverage production and expand use of official statistics. The session will focus on questions including:
How open are official statistics, particularly those being used to support the SDGs?
Where can NSOs and their partners get big returns from their investment in open data, even in the short-term?
How can open data help with addressinsg some of the SDG data challenges of national statistics agencies? What are the experiences of NSOs actively involved in this work?
The purpose of the session is to bring together key sector leaders to showcase examples of how open data is deepening the impact of their work (e.g., natural resources governance through environmental data disclosure, service delivery in health and education, fiscal transparency through open budget data, access to information through proactive disclosure, anti-corruption through open contracting data) and highlight opportunities presented by Open Government Partnership (OGP) to scale up and deepen those efforts.
Through a facilitated roundtable discussion, we hope to:
Establish how open data is the connector and key driver of impact across sectors (health, education, fiscal transparency, access to information, natural resources, and anti-corruption, open contracting, etc.).
Showcase with real examples how open data is being used in OGP countries to deepen the impact of open government reforms at the sector level.
Unpack the theory of change at work and draw conclusions on what’s working, what’s not working, and why and how future interventions can be successful.
Seek ideas on how OGP can scale up and deepen the impact of open government reforms using open data approaches so that it benefits citizens beyond intermediary data users.
The open data community has made significant progress in developing platforms to make open data more available and accessible. Many solutions are now available either as open source, subscription (e.g., Software As a Service) or traditionally licensed products. As a result, there are many opportunities and factors for data providers, particularly government ministries, to consider in their decision making and selection criteria. This session will provide an overview of the current state of open data publishing platforms. Representatives of several leading data platforms will give “lightning talks” on the demands and trends they’re seeing and what they think might be in store for the future. There will also be a “town hall” style discussion for audience members to share the challenges they are experiencing and get the views of the panel.
This session will explore whether open data is strengthening social cohesion in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Disillusionment with the results of transition in the region has resulted in an overall erosion of public trust. However, open data, and in particular open government data, is being used as a transformative tool in the relationship between citizens and government. This panel will discuss to what extent have such developments taken place in the region and what are some of the other key changes that the open data agenda has brought in, as well as where does the diverse group of experts and implementers see the value in working on open data.
How successful have such collaborations been in countries otherwise wrought with distrust? And how can the trust generated be sustained over long periods? Are new communities created around open data, resulting in a new interaction? What incentives can spur a stronger and more ingrained movement locally?
By the end of the session participants will be able to:
Identify the latest thinking and practises of collaborative work between governments and civil society.
Gain practical insight into best practises and challenges of current initiatives.
Present the web-platform for data journalism in English and Russian, tailored to academic staff.
The most important revelations about matters that affect our lives in recent years have happened due to people who had the chance to reveal wrongdoing did so.
Snowden’s Global Surveillance revelations, Wikileaks’ United States diplomatic cables leak and, most recently, ICIJ’s Panama Papers have been made possible thanks to people risking their lives to let the public know and an increasing group of investigative and data journalists translating dry and boring data and information into stories the public can more easily understand.
The Panama Papers leak alone, allegedly largest in history, exposed 11.5 million financial and legal records, way more than the great majority of open data portals combined.
In these scenarios where secrecy is the rule, can we really expect openness to have an impact? When? How?
If so, what is the kind of information and data we should really fight for to make open?
This session will bring panelists who have worked in some of the most known leaks as well as a whistleblower who made one possible himself (Swiss leaks) to discuss how openness can break the power of closed… if at all...
SDG 5 sets lofty targets for gender equality, and open data has the potential to be a critical tool in delivering a more just and equal world for women. But like any technology, whether it lives up to that promise will be influenced by who designs it - and with which ends in mind. While there are many facets of diversity worthy of discussion, on this panel we will focus on gender inclusivity.
The panelists will share their experiences on finding accurate gender data, conceiving open data projects with women as creators and end-users in mind, and promoting the participation of more women in the open data field.
