[okfn-za] Open Data on CO2 Emissions

Thu Apr 25 05:35:31 UTC 2013

Hi Adi and everyone else

Thanks for your soapbox moment. I'm a philosophy lecturer, have been a
youth and student activist and know my religious, cultural, political and
social dimensions of life - but I cannot code at all. So I was wondering if
I wasting my time on the list.

Glad to know that there's is a role for non coders

Best

Leon G. Marincowitz
    Apologies for brevity, sent from smartphone
lmarincowitz at gmail.com
On 24 Apr 2013 8:16 PM, "Adi Eyal" <adi at burgercom.co.za> wrote:

> Hi Jakes
>
>
>> I'm not that IT literate i.e. hackathons and don't know how to scrape
>> data, etc. The only chance I have to learn about these literacies is to
>> join the activities.
>>
>
> -- adieyal steps onto soapbox
>
> Sorry to but into the thread but there's an important point about open
> data that many people miss. More important than IT skills is domain
> knowledge. My experience so far is that the perception is that if you can't
> code, you can't play. The reality is that many developers don't really know
> much about data either. What we really need is geologists, geographers,
> lawyers, health professionals and the like, far more than we need
> programmers (although a tame programmer is always an asset).
>
> -- adieyal gets off soapbox
>
>>
>> Jakes
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On 24 April 2013 17:19, Justin Arenstein <justinarenstein at gmail.com>wrote:
>>
>>> Hi again.
>>>
>>> Just one additional point of clarification:
>>>
>>> OKFN-ZA & HH chapters focus more on individual membership & networking.
>>> ODADI was conceived more as an umbrella forum for institutional
>>> stakeholders (NGOs, grassroots movements, civic orgs, donor agencies,
>>> universities, etc) to coordinate policy & resource strategies on issues of
>>> common interest.
>>>
>>> Also, on HH, the Jo'burg chapter is hosting a meetup at Jozihub on May
>>> 8, with an international speaker from TorProject.org, looking at digital
>>> security & encryption for journalists & activists who need to protect their
>>> sources & whistleblowers in an age of increasing digi-surveillance. The HH
>>> chapters also cohost longer digital & data skills bootcamps (4-days each),
>>> 48hr hackathons & scraperthons, & help teams to develop ideas for things
>>> like the $1m annual www.AfricanNewsChallenge.org.
>>>
>>> Cheers,
>>> Justin
>>>
>>> Justin Arenstein*
>>> *
>>> SA Mobile: +27.82.374.0812
>>> US Mobile: +1.650.336.5878
>>> Skype: JustinArenstein
>>> Twitter: JustinArenstein <http://twitter.com/justinarenstein>
>>> Web: http://www.linkedin.com/in/JustinArenstein
>>>
>>> *PGP Key Fingerprint: **8B19 3C53 2B40 453B F48D 9D7A 7346 A3AE DB88
>>> 30CD*
>>> *Do you want to email me confidentially? See: **http://bit.ly/VLJt1N*
>>> *
>>> *
>>> *
>>> *
>>>
>>>
>>> On 24 April 2013 16:21, Adi Eyal <adi at burgercom.co.za> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Hi Jakes
>>>>
>>>> I'm really glad to see another voice on this mailing list. Also, the
>>>> discussions are starting to become a lot more interesting. I'll just answer
>>>> one of your questions which hasn't yet been answered.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>> Also, what is 'hackshackers-CT & -JHB'  and 'odadi' all about?
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>> There are a couple of groups around the country who are interested in
>>>> open data. There is much overlap between them but in many cases they are
>>>> attended by people with slightly different interests. HacksHackers (JHB and
>>>> CT) focus specifically on the intersection between journalists (hacks) and
>>>> programmers (hackers). The main interest here is around data journalism but
>>>> not exclusively. In the next week or two (HacksHackers) will be hosting a
>>>> workshop for basic data processing focusing on a salary survey that we ran
>>>> a month ago. We aren't targeting  journalists exclusively and the event
>>>> should be relevant to anyone wanting a basic introduction to data
>>>> processing. No need to be scared of data and no programming skills required.
>>>>
>>>> Odadi (Open Data and Democracy Initiative) is a general interest group
>>>> but biased toward the civil society sector (but again not exclusively).
>>>> Here we are more interested in the larger ecosystem of open data (both
>>>> consumers and producers) and advocacy around access issues in the
>>>> government sector. The group has been a little quiet since our hackathon
>>>> last year but as with OKFN, we are trying to revive discussions.
>>>>
>>>> Finally OKFN-ZA is pretty much similar but doesn't (as far as I see)
>>>> have a specific focus and is a general interest group. For anyone
>>>> interested in these types of issues, I highly recommend subscribing to all
>>>> through groups. The traffic load is not very high (at least not yet) so
>>>> your inbox shouldn't explode.
>>>>
>>>> You can subscribe to the odadi group at
>>>> odadi+subscribe at googlegroups.com and hackshackers at
>>>> hackshackers-capetown+subscribe at googlegroups.com.
>>>>
>>>> Adi
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>> Thanks again and thanks for all the good work.
>>>>>
>>>>> Best regards,
>>>>>
>>>>> Jakes Rawlinson
>>>>>
>>>>> Department of Public Health
>>>>> University of Limpopo
>>>>> Polokwane
>>>>>
>>>>> +27-82-410 9524
>>>>> +27-86-664 6262 (Fax)
>>>>>
>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>> okfn-za mailing list
>>>>> okfn-za at lists.okfn.org
>>>>> http://lists.okfn.org/mailman/listinfo/okfn-za
>>>>> Unsubscribe: http://lists.okfn.org/mailman/options/okfn-za
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> Adi Eyal
>>>> Data Specialist
>>>> phone: +27 78 014 2469
>>>> skype: adieyalcas
>>>> linkedin: http://za.linkedin.com/pub/dir/Adi/Eyal
>>>>
>>>>
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>>>>
>>>
>>
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>
>
> --
> Adi Eyal
> Data Specialist
> phone: +27 78 014 2469
> skype: adieyalcas
> linkedin: http://za.linkedin.com/pub/dir/Adi/Eyal
>
>
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