[School-of-data] Ghana Databootcamp

Wed May 8 07:46:56 UTC 2013

Hi,

Wanted to share info about an upcoming Data Bootcamp in Accra, Ghana.

About the Data Journalism Bootcamp

It's a 3 day event (from the 27th to the 29th of May), jointly hosted by the Africa Media Initiative, the World Bank Institute, and Google, and supported by the Open Institute, Open Knowledge Foundation and GIMPA, with a focus on the Extractive Sector. 

The first Data Journalism Bootcamp was held in October 2012, on Data Literacy, and this bootcamp is an extension of that. The aim is to continue with bootcamps that focus on surfacing information that the Ghanaian public is generally interested in. And yes, that means you!

Please register here: http://ghana.databootcamp.org/ (Click the Registration Form link)

Spaces are limited, but we hope to have a synergistic group of journalists, bloggers, programmers, web designers, and civil society activists for lively discussions leading to the development of productive tools. Better still, it will lead to a community that uses Open Data tools and skills to fortify content about Ghana on and offline. 

Why the Extractive sector?

Non-renewable resources are important to the development of any country. Ghana is particularly fortunate, having Gold, Manganese, Bauxite, Oil, Natural Gas, and a host of others. To provide better information for collective decision making (specifically the distribution and allocation of resources for development), it's important that people who are affected most have access to information about how these are being extracted, and attendant benefits to society. While many tend to think it's about the mining communities, non-renewable extraction is a National Issue and extends far beyond the mines. 

Aims of the Bootcamp
This bootcamp aims to facilitate communication between sources of information and those disseminating it, allowing the latter to develop stories and applications that people can use to get a good handle on what is happening -  so they can in turn impart that knowledge to others. The focus is on building capacity among people in the media and civil society (as well as bloggers and citizen journalists too!), as the are all crucial channels of information. 

Royalty payments and how they are being spent are a small (yet important) part of this issue. There are many other factors such as dividends (and other revenue accruing to the state), environmental concerns, displacement, levels of community engagement (pre, during and post mining activities) that can be covered by Open Data. Please don't hesitate to add your ideas. 

Pre-event meetings with Blogging Ghana and Vim Series

By having pre-event sessions with you, we hope to get a better idea of what information you want to see at the bootcamp (that isn't already available), to make it easier for the development of useful tools, and prompt you to think about how Open Data in general, and in the Extractive sector in particular is of interest to you. 

If you are part of another group that would like to have a discussion on Open Data and the Extractive sector ahead of the bootcamp, please just let me know! It won't be about heavy lifting, just a way to discuss what you might want to work on, to determine what data needs to be surfaced, and what specific questions may need to be addressed by the speakers (http://ghana.databootcamp.org/speaker-profiles/). 

I look forward to seeing you all soon (in pre-event discussions), and hope to see you at the Bootcamp as well! Please telleveryone you think will be interested. 

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact me, or Simeon Oriko of the Open Institute (simeon at openinstitute.com (mailto:simeon at openinstitute.com)). And do leave a comment on http://ghana.databootcamp.org/leave-comment/!  

-- 
Simeon Oriko | Digital and Innovation Strategist

Web: www.mtotowajirani.com (http://www.mtotowajirani.com/) | Twitter: @mtotowajirani (https://twitter.com/mtotowajirani)

LinkedIn: ke.linkedin.com/in/simeonoriko (http://ke.linkedin.com/in/simeonoriko)

Cell: +254 724 892 941 | Skype: simeonoriko
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