An overview of data journalism projects supported by AMI's www.CodeForAfrica.org initiative through CitizenLabs in Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa.

1. News You Can Use:!
Creating News Tools + Services
That Give Audiences Actionable
Information

2. Citizen focused: !
We build mass mobilisation tools, to give
ordinary citizens “news they can use” with
personalised + localised information, along
with strong feedback loops to improve
audience engagement.
Image © http://www.flickr.com/photos/microlinks/

3. Demand driven: !
News needs to be more than just rhetoric. It needs to speak to
the real-world challenges facing citizens. And, it needs to be
underpinned by a economic imperatives.
Image © http://www.flickr.com/photos/albanyassociates/

4. Outcomes based: !
We aim for 'outcomes' not just 'outputs'. Our
metric for success is meaningful impact,
that creates lasting change. We also aim for
scalability and/or replication in all our
initiatives.
Image © http://www.flickr.com/photos/ilri/

5. Pipeline strategy: !
To build a self-sustaining
ecosystem, you need
catalytic mechanisms
that support the
germination and growth
of open data champions. !
Our 'pipeline' strategy
uses a modular approach
to provide incremental
access to resources,
skills, support systems,
and various acceleration
mechanisms.

6. IDEAS MARKETPLACE:!
CfAfrica currently supports 90 active projects
across Africa, ranging from camera drones
and citizen reporter apps, to fact-checking &
plagiarism verification platforms, + advanced
forensic data analysis, data visualization &
geo-narrative platforms, and newsroom
workflow tools.

8. RE-USABLE RESOURCE:!
All 90+ of CfAfrica’s partner projects are built with open source code that
your newsroom can immediately re-use … free of charge.

9. News Tools:!
Tools need to be
action-orientated to
be meaningful. They
should help citizens
decipher & navigate
the complex forces
shaping their worlds.
They should support
evidence-based
public discourse &
decision-making .

10. GotToVote:!
A data-driven application that helped
citizens find their election registration
centers, and then helped track polling
results, plus allowed them to send 'peace
messages' to fellow voters.

11. Star Health:!
A suite of data-driven tools that help
citizens check if their doctors are in
'good standing', whether their
treatment / prescriptions will be
covered by health insurance, and
where their nearest medical specialists
are.

12. FindMySchool:!
A data-driven application that helps
parents track & compare academic
performance at schools, as well as
identify schools their children will be
channelled into, based on
performance.

13. Liberating Data: !
By digitizing documents and knowledge
within media, academia, and civil society,
we're turning 'deadwood' archives into new
digital 'structured data' resources, with open
APIs to allow for 3rd party re-use.
! sourceAFRICA + connectedAFRICA - turning
parliamentary, newsroom & university
archives into machine readable data

14. Building the Backbone:!
Much like the railways powered industrialisation, Africa
needs data infrastructure, including data and code
repositories, and an AfricanCommons resource hub.
We've adopted a modular, community-centric approach.
http://OpenAfrica.net
! openAFRICA.net - the continent's largest
volunteer-run open data respository

15. Forensic Tools / Research Desks: !
Tracking money, deciphering contracts, and pinning down
company ownership is difficult. ID creates a centralized
research team to help newsrooms / transparency activists.

16. New Business:!
Most African media
don’t believe that
granular data exists -
and even if it does,
they believe it is too
complex for
newsrooms or
citizens to use
meaningfully.!
Proof-of-Concept
prototypes that
demonstrate both
accessibility and
ease-of-use help build
diversified or new
revenue streams.

17. IN THE OVEN:!
Major new investigative tools currently
under development by CfAfrica on
behalf of ANCIR include a secure,
encrypted platform for whistleblowers
& journalistic sources, + a secure
document analysis toolkit, + a forensic
relationship / network analysis toolkit.

18. SEED FUNDING:!
CfAfrica & its affiliates offer over $2m in
kick-starter grants every year through
the ANIC, TASC, and country-specific
programmes like Hala Nigeria.!
!
But it isn’t just money. CfAfrica also
offers tech support & strategic advice.

19. Kickstarting
A Continent: !
Building on the
success of the
Kenyan pilot, we
have launched
‘Code’ teams in !
4 countries,
creating
CitizenLabs &
embedding data
fellows, to build
the underlying
infrastructure +
prototypes that
produces proof
that data tools
work.

20. http://DataBootcamp.org
Data Literacy Skills: !
We host data literacy bootcamps and
masterclasses, develop course
materials, and convene strategic
policy roundtables + catalytic
hackdays across Africa to develop
data skills & knowledge.
! Nairobi Data Bootcamp 2012

21. !Argentina (LatAm)
! Nepal (Asia)
! Moldova (E.Europe)
! Jordan (M.East)
Going Viral: !
The d|Bootcamp has run in 5 African countries &
has also been cloned across the world …

22. Building Community!
We're creating a diverse community
of civic hackers, data activists and
data narrators through a pan-African
network of Hacks/Hackers chapters,
citizen tech desks in incubators, and
'kickstarter' Code for Democracy co-
creation events.
!Hacks/Hackers
! Code4Democracy

23. SELF-HELP COMMUNITY:!
The pan-African Hacks/Hackers community has over 30,000 people in its network,
with 16 chapters in 14 countries … all experimenting with digital innovation.

24. !
!d|Roundtables strategy sessions
!d|Clinic project planning
!MediaParty data summits
#EditorsLab hackathons

25. Partnerships: !
We're building a demand-driven eco-system of data creators + curators and
data analysts + narrators, partnered with grassroots citizen movements.

26. Thank You
!
@JustinArenstein