[open-development] Nigerian Statistics Office Data Portal...

Wed Jun 20 19:20:30 UTC 2012

On 20 June 2012 20:10, Tobias Eigen <tobias at saidia.org> wrote:
> These are good points, thanks Rufus! Especially the (to people like us
> obvious) point about value for money and reuusability.
>
> I always wish that people designing projects like this find
> http://slashopen.net/guidelines before they start their data-driven project,

Great site (I'm not sure I'd seen it before surprisingly!)

I think material connects with the "How to Open Data" section of
http://opendatahandbook.org/en/

> or perhaps that their funders include open data in their requirements.

Good point.

> Perhaps you have suggestions on ways to improve the /o guidelines - I did
> write that up last summer and the /o site has been sleepy. :)

Yes! I also wonder if we could interlink this with the How to Open
Data section of the Handbook mentioned above.

Rufus

> Cheers,
>
> Tobias
>
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>
> On Wed, Jun 20, 2012 at 12:00 PM, Rufus Pollock <rufus.pollock at okfn.org>
> wrote:
>>
>> On 20 June 2012 17:42, Tariq Khokhar <tariq at khokhar.net> wrote:
>> > Thought you folks may be interested in news from Nigeria's Statistics
>> > Bureau
>> > ( http://www.nigerianstat.gov.ng/ ) who've just launched the "Nigeria
>> > Statistical Data Portal"  http://nigeria.prognoz.com/Map.aspx
>>
>> It is obviously great to see countries taking a more progressive
>> approach but I must say this example does seem to be of the "Shiny
>> Front End" variety [1] -- i.e. bunch of swish graphics (that were no
>> doubt not cheap to get!) and no data (or even links to data).
>>
>> [1]:
>> http://blog.okfn.org/2007/11/07/give-us-the-data-raw-and-give-it-to-us-now/
>>
>> I've looked hard (apologies if I have missed it) to locate any raw
>> data anywhere on this site or the main Statistical agency site but
>> come up empty (there is a form to request data:
>> http://nigerianstat.gov.ng/requests).
>>
>> I therefore wonder whether it would not have been a better use of time
>> / money to have put out the data behind those shiny graphics as simple
>> CSV / JSON files ...
>>
>> > While this doesn't check all the boxes to be called "open data" it's
>> > encouraging to see a progressive approach to the dissemination of
>> > national
>> > data.
>>
>> It's not about box-checking for open data I'd argue it was about
>> simple re-usability and value for money ;-)
>>
>> > We're finding at the World Bank that some national statistics offces are
>> > quite receptive towards supporting notion of national open data
>> > initiatives
>> > because they already have experience and mandates for handling official
>> > government data. On the other hand, some are not that keen at all!
>>
>> I can imagine :-)
>>
>> > As ever, good examples from other countries in the region go a long way
>> > towards building the case for opening up government data.
>>
>> Strong +1
>>
>> Rufus
>>
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>
>

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