[open-development] #OpenDataLDN Meetup #2: opendata within ICT4D

Wed Oct 5 12:43:54 UTC 2011

Sarah, Mark, good questions raised! Map Kibera will be starting a full process to convene online (and off) a directory of community actors in Kibera, created by and for the community, as well as externally. As youve explored, community level transparency raises another whole set of concerns.

Tim, ke open data is great, and the case of kibera raises interesting questions generally. Most all the data there is aggregated to constituency level, and kibera shares its constituency with the wealthy rural suburb of Karen. All the data is therefore skewed in a way that prevents analysis at the community level. A seemingly sensible and innocuous policy decision around open data results in a real issue for community level open data.   
http://groundtruthinitiative.org/2011/08/09/opening-data-in-kenya-my-method-is-to-hack/

Mikel on the phone

On Oct 5, 2011, at 6:51, "Sarah Johns" <sarah.johns at plan-international.org> wrote:

Hi – just to clarify something in Mark’s email – I haven’t worked in Kibera! Apologies to Mark as he sent the email around to the group before posting it here, but I didn’t pick it up in time.

The organisation I work for, Plan International, has worked with the Map Kibera Trust on a couple of projects, including one in another informal settlement in Mathare, Nairobi, and I was lucky enough to meet Jamie, one of the Directors of MKT recently and have a chat about the project. Two very good sources of stories about life in these settlements are: http://matharevalley.wordpress.com/ and http://www.mapkibera.org/blog/

In addition to Mark’s great notes on the group discussion, we talked about the following in the ICT4D group: 

It’s extremely important to engage the intended users of the data, before you build anything. Think about questions like: How do you ensure people have a say in or lead initiatives which affect them? What info they need and how they currently receive info? What does appropriate technology mean to them? How will they give and receive feedback on the project? (Thanks Amy!) This means working through/with local groups such as the Map Kibera Trust to do this (funded) work. One of the groups of data users you might want to look at is young entrepreneurs -  I’m guessing they’d be a good place to start in terms of matching data to needs.
There’s a lot of technical expertise with Nairobi in terms of app development, so it would be ideal to get them connected into any project. Here’s one place to start. http://ihub.co.ke
In terms of development, many INGOs collect data within areas like Kibera, often the same type of data. Working together on the collection and sharing of data would be a good way to go (and ease the ‘data fatigue’ of local residents)! One example of the development of common standards for data is the Water Information Sharing Project currently being developed by Catholic Relief Services, World Vision and others – more info here www.crsprogramquality.org/.../04%20ChrisSeremet_WISP_GIS.pptx

Personally speaking, I also think that opening up data does not create development/change in itself. The Kenyan government is one of the first developing countries to open up data, but people still need the skills to be able to find and use the data, and the skills and the opportunity to be able to advocate for change. So I feel it’s important that a project like this is not a stand-alone project, but also ties into/supports existing projects.

Happy to receive feedback/comments :o)

Sarah

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Sarah Johns, Publishing & Design Coordinator 
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