Open Data in South Africa. What is it? What is the South African context? A couple of Case Studies and how to get involved

1. Promoting Informed
Decision-making
Adi Eyal
adi@code4sa.org
@soapsudtycoon

2. What is open data – isn't it just
transparency?
Available
Accessible
Available in
bulk
Available in
machine
readable
format (mb
not kg)
Open data
copyright –
which means
(commercial
use!!)
Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/illustrator/

3. Advocacy
Open data policy
working group
Talk shops
PAIA Requests
Copyright Copyright Copyright

4. Advocacy
Open data policy
working group
Talk shops
PAIA Requests
More copyright

5. Advocacy
Open data policy
working group
Talk shops
PAIA Requests
Frivolous or vexatious

6. Despite what many people
think – data already exists
Image © http://www.flickr.com/photos/dfid/

7. Using data to make medicines
more affordable
Image © http://www.flickr.com/photos/dfid/

8. Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/runesteiness/
Success – easy peasy

9. Thank goodness we have ceiling prices
to protect the consumer
Image © http://www.flickr.com/photos/dfid/

10. Why stop at the public sector?
http://mpr.code4sa.org
Image © http://www.flickr.com/photos/dfid/

11. Code for South Africa is an NGO that supports
informed decision making in society through the use
of technology and the promotion of access to
information.
Image © http://www.flickr.com/photos/ilri/

12. I love data – all 651 pages of it
Image © http://www.flickr.com/photos/ilri/

13. Learn something new about your
party in 30 seconds
Image © http://www.flickr.com/photos/ilri/

14. Not just pretty pictures:
Data journalism is about telling
stories in new ways
http://za.okfn.org/files/2013/03/wards.png

15. Data isn’t the story:
It can help you find it but it won’t
tell it for you.
http://za.okfn.org/files/2013/03/sample.png

16. Media Fellowship Programme:
We support media to explore how data journalism can
improve newsrooms’ ability to report and communicate.

17. Come to our meet-ups. Join our mailing lists
our meet-ups. Join our mailing lists
Come to our meet-ups. Join our mailing lists
http://www.code4sa.org/#community
http://www.code4sa.org/#community
http://www.code4sa.org/#community
Code4Democracy
Community Outreach
Hackathons, Meet-ups
Mailing lists

18. Data eco-system
We liberate
data
http://wards.code4sa.org
Build APIs
Stimulate
demand
http://iec.code4sa.org

19. http://www.code4sa.org/2014/01/09/IDP-hackathon-feedback.html
December
Hackathon
http://www.electionmap.co.za

20. February
Speed data(ing)
MP Gift Disclosures

21. Data can be fun (and misleading)

22. Visualisation:
Most South Africans
don’t believe that
granular data
exists - and even if it
does, they believe it
is too complex for
ordinary citizens to
use meaningfully.
http://dotmap.adrianfrith.com/

23. Local Context:
People relate to what they can see.
Local information has more impact
than national statistics.
http://dotspotting.org/u/980/sheets/2279

24. Hyper-local is the new
awesome

25. Know
your
hood

26. Show me the data
●
http://www.africaopendata.org
●
Superweb on StatSA (use Google to find it)
●
http://iec.org.za
●
http://demarcation.org.za
●
The best place is to ask on the mailing lists
Join our mailing lists
http://www.code4sa.org/#community

27. Contact Us
adi@code4sa.org
@soapsudtycoon
Come to our meet-ups. Join our mailing lists
http://www.code4sa.org/#community