Free webinar | Open data for development (4 June 2015)

Data is all around us. This is the information age. Within international development (and beyond), data is becoming a necessary part of our work; thanks to technological advances, we can deliver, coordinate and communicate faster than ever. To put this into context, a full 90% of all the data in the world across history has been generated over the last two years. (Responsible dev data, e-book)

Nowadays data matters so much that some organisations working in the development sector have made data their main ‘service’. This is the case of the UN Global PulseLabs aimed to analyse big data to accelerate social innovation for sustainable development; or the Akvo foundation focused on developing open source tools used by hundreds of organisations throughout the world to manage data and information in areas such as water, sanitation, health, education, agriculture, conservation and economic development.

How do international development actors deal with this enormous amount of data? How do they make data and information meaningful for the groups they want to empower? How do they use data to improve transparent and accountable decision-making process? And, last but not least, how may they increase the quality and effectiveness of development interventions starting from data?

Guided by Pelle Aardema from the Open for change initiative, we will investigate the meaning of expressions such as open data for development and open development. Special attention will be dedicated to the IATI standard, a framework for publishing information on development cooperation activities in a timely, comprehensive and forward-looking manner.

This is a web-based conference (webinar), that means that it is delivered online and that access to internet is an essential condition for participation. To take part in the event you will need a computer and an Internet access, preferably broadband or with at least 56kbps bandwidth. System requirements for attending a webinar are detailed here: FAQs page.

During the event you will see the speaker’s slideshow presentations in real-time and you will be able to ask questions and participate as you were attending a normal public meeting.

If you cannot take part in the online live event, register anyway! You will receive the webinar registration via email.

“Open development: fiction or opportunity?”, Open Development Toolkit
Seven ways to use IATI data, Openworks.me
Responsible data for humanitarian response, Akvo Blog