[OKFN-Greece] Budget Monitoring Documentary & OKFN trip to Greece - who to visit?

[Lucy Chambers]

Hi Charalampos,

Fantastic to 'meet' you, thank you very much for getting in touch!

>
> Your project seems interesting and promising!

Thank you!
>
> We have worked on OpenSpenidng and similar projects lately and have posted
> information about them on our group's blog

This is great! I'm really happy to see that you have got your data in
there. It appears as though there is a visualisation there, but it
isn't loading, have you created one? Maybe that is something we could
work on together if not!

Btw - are you on the OpenSpending mailing list?
http://lists.okfn.org/mailman/listinfo/openspending - would be great
if you could share your experiences with those there!

> http://www.greek-lod.gr/apps/diavgeia-police/spendingVScrimes.htm

Also looks great, Google translate won't work for me on this - could
you enlighten me on what is shown?
>
> http://www.greek-lod.gr/DiavgeiaTreeMap/dapanes/General.html
>
Yey - treemaps :)
>
> http://gr.okfn.org/en/greek-lod/
>
> I would like to meet you in person too, so you would be very welcome, here
> in Thessaloniki!
>
Wonderful! I hope to be there perhaps even as early as 5th / 6th July
- would that work for you for a meeting?
>
> About your inquiry:
>
>
>
> Budget Monitoring Organisations: There is a government one; I will check for
> non-government organisations and report back.

Wonderful! I can only find one contact email on the website, if you
know of anyone there I should contact individually - please do let me
know!

> Issue Advocacy: I  have contacted some people and I am waiting for input on
> this one
> Transparency (Process Advocacy): you should meet the people
> behind Diavgeia (Clarity) (Greek Free Open Source Community).

That would be great - would you do some introductions? - you are
involved in this yourself?

> Academic / Economists who do research using financial data: I recommend you
> to meet prof. Varsakelis from the School of Economics, Aristotle University
> of Thessaloniki, also prof. Spyrakis (Director of Computer Technology
> Institute and Press "Diophantus", Steering Committee OKFN Greece) and prof.
> Metakides (President of DIGITAL ENLIGHTENMENT FORUM, Steering Committee OKFN
> Greece) and prof Antoniou (Director of MSc Web Science, AUTH, Steering
> Committee OKFN Greece).

Likewise, I would love an introduction!

> Parliamentarians: I have some people in mind, that have served in notable
> positions (from parliamentarians to ministers of finance) that would
> certainly be well aware of the issues.

:)

> I am willing to contact each of the organisations for you, to make it easier
> to communicate your objectives to them. It would be nice if you offered some
> more details on your project, in order to help you more effectively.

Thank you so much for all of this :) I hope to put a blog post up in
the coming days, when I am a bit more sure that this will work, but
here's a bit more about the project...

The documentary is quite informal, we are looking to interview
organisations who work in the area of budget and expenditure
monitoring, social auditing etc, Issue Advocacy e.g. Gender budgeting
/ Youth budgeting, Transparency (Process Advocacy) - people who
campaign for information to be released... , Academic / Economists who
do research using financial data, Technology and Data Advocates, Media
/ Journalists researching financial topics, Parliamentarians - the
individuals within governments responsible for analysing and making
policy based on these types of data. We expect to make some 5-10
minute long mini-films on the issue of budget transparency and they'll
be published on OpenSpending.org.

We have two aims:

1) To establish the role of data in people's work - what data they
rely on to do their work (build up a list of core datasets that we can
show governments that there is demand for this type of thing!), how
they work with it, whether there are any barriers etc.

2) To establish which tools people currently use to work with the
data, and whether there are any additional gaps / things that could be
made easier if the correct tools are available (aiming to answer the
question 'what should be built next?').

(I was also contemplating talking to some non-experts / passers-by to
try and gauge how much awareness there is around budgeting issues -
not sure whether this will work yet, but keen to try it out. Any
ideas, let me know!)

Thanks once again for all your help and look forward to meeting in person :)

Lucy


>
>
>
> Best regards
>
>
>
> Charalampos
>
>
>
>
> Hello Greece!
>
> Apologies for posting in English. I'm a colleague of Kat Braybrooke's, my
> name is Lucy Chambers and I work on the OpenSpending.org project
> (http://openspending.org/) here at OKFN.
>
> I'm currently working on a project to map out and compare how organisations
> who monitor budget issues work in different countries - what tools and
> techniques they use, and what the barriers are (More here:
> http://openspending.org/blog/2012/01/12/civil-society-and-spending-data-who-is-mapping-the-money.html).
> I'm hoping to visit Greece and make a mini-documentary on the topic next
> month.
>
> I'm wondering whether anyone on the list would be able to recommend any
> people I should visit while I am there? I am looking in particular to get in
> contact with:
>
> - Budget Monitoring Organisations
> - Issue Advocacy e.g. Gender budgeting / Youth budgeting
> - Transparency (Process Advocacy) - people who campaign for information to
> be released...
> - Academic / Economists who do research using financial data
> - Technology and Data Advocates
> - Media / Journalists researching financial topics
> - Parliamentarians - the individuals within governments responsible for
> analysing and making policy based on these types of data.
>
> If there are any organisations you can recommend me to get in contact with -
> please do let me know!
>
> I am also very keen to meet up with those of you who were at the last
> meetup, it would be great to meet in person :)
>
> Thankful for any help you can offer,
>
> Lucy
>
>
>
>
>
>
> --
> Lucy Chambers
> Community Coordinator,
> OpenSpending & Data Journalism
> Open Knowledge Foundation
> Skype: lucyfediachambers
> Twitter: @lucyfedia
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> okfn-gr mailing list
> okfn-gr at lists.okfn.org
> http://lists.okfn.org/mailman/listinfo/okfn-gr
>
>
>
>
> --
> Dr Charalampos Bratsas
> Web Science Program
> Mathematics Department
> Aristotle University
> Thessaloniki 54124
> Greece
> Tel:  +30 2310 997897
>      +30 6974317051
> Fax:  +30 2310 997929
> E-mail:  cbratsas at math.auth.gr
>
>
>
> --
> --
> Dr Charalampos Bratsas
> Web Science Program
> Mathematics Department
> Aristotle University
> Thessaloniki 54124
> Greece
> Tel:  +30 2310 997897
>      +30 6974317051
> Fax:  +30 2310 997929
> E-mail:  cbratsas at math.auth.gr



-- 
Lucy Chambers
Community Coordinator,
OpenSpending & Data Journalism
Open Knowledge Foundation
Skype: lucyfediachambers
Twitter: @lucyfedia