Open Data Day was organized to show support for and encourage the adoption of open data policies by the world’s local, regional and national governments. A gathering of people from around the world in different cities working to write applications, liberate data, create visualizations and publish data analyses using open public data. The Open Data Day’s event was also organized here in Kathmandu in DeerWalk Complex, Sifal on 21 February, 2015 in collaboration with Young Innovations and Kathmandu Living Labs. Even though it is a new concept in Nepal, this is not the first time that Open data day has been celebrated in Nepal. Unlike 2013 and 2014, 2015’s event was even grand in terms of scale and participation.
With the theme Open Data and Mapping for Local Governance and Civic Participation there were different programs held during the event. Let’s see the bullet points below:
- Launch of Transparency and Citizen Participation Forum for KMC Ward-7
- Celebrating Open Data
- Open Data Hackathon:
Techies working with CSO representatives, journalists and citizens to collectively develop applications, visualizations and tools that harness the power of open data at local level to promote citizen engagement and participation.A total of 42 participants divided into 10 teams created apps on topics revolving around the theme of this year.- Criminology( Extracts Information about Various Criminal Activities and Generates Statistical Reports on the Basis of Geographical Regions)
- Missing! (Track People Missing after the Civil War of Nepal)
- Nari sakti (Women education and women voice)
- O-NGO (Provide information on Non Government Organization)
- Open Health Nepal (Makes Diseases Information Accessible to People)
- Process ( Information on Government Services and Processes that People Might be Unaware of)
- Health and Sanitation Event Tracker (Make Public aware of Events Related to Health and Sanitation)
- Tax Visualization(Representation of Tax paid by Different Private Institutions, Governmental Branches and the Citizens)
- Density Index (Present Population Density According to Geographical Distribution)
- Mapathon
- Talk Shows
- Sparking the Data Revolution in Nepal to promoting with Open Data(Joshua Leslie and Pavitra Rana, Open Nepal)
- Open Data in the perspective of Entrepreneur (Mr. Anish Shrestha, Yellow Nepal)
- Promoting Data access & use for informed decision making (Mr.Kiran Shakya, ICIMOD)
- Open Challenges on Dairy Industry (Mr.Dipesh Khanal, Robotics Association of Nepal)
- Advocacy & Legal Advice Centre (Mr.Kamal Pokhrel, Transparency International, Nepal)
- Importance of open data for improving Local Governance : Experience of CAHURAST-Nepal (Mr. Bishnu Pukar Shrestha , CAHURAST Nepal )
- Role of Youth in promoting good Governance (Sarita Bartaula, Youth Initiative)
- Experience Sharing of Data Journalism in Nepal (Arun Karki and Sunil Dhungana, Center for data journalism in Nepal)
- Data Journalism Round Table (Gyanu Sharma, Open Nepal)
- Special Feature of a Day: Play on “Kursi Khali Chha” (Accountability Lab and Shilpee Theater)
- Showcasing Stalls
Galli Galli, ICIMOD, Accountability Lab, Kathmandu Living Labs, Development Check, Aidstream,VoiceInn, Youth Initiative, Transparency and Citizen Engagement Forum and Open Nepal were there set up with their individual booths to share their initiatives and get engaged with visitors.
Overall the Open Data Day 2015’s event was a success and a lot of fruitful outcome has been seen including interesting applications which will be reviewed shortly. After 2013, 2014 and 2015’s event it can be said that the open data community has been rising and people are getting to know what really open data is.
