The Institude for Democracy and Economic Affairs (IDEAS) is organizing a one-day seminar and exhibition on Open Data for good governance, civic engagement and economic growth. The objectives of the seminar are: To advocate for enhanced civic engagement and good governance as an outcome of open data initiative To strengthen the coalition’s work and to encourage other organisations to join the coalition To disseminate Open Government Partnership values and related projects.

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CONCEPT PAPER
Open Government Partnership Seminar and Exhibition:
Open Data for Good Governance, Civic Engagement and Economic Growth
WHAT ARE WE PROPOSING?
A one day seminar and exhibition on Open Data for good governance, civic engagement and
economic growth that will achieve these following objectives:
● Discuss the potential benefits of open data for improving good governance, civic
engagement and economic growth
● Facilitate discussion on the strengths and weaknesses of current open data initiatives
by the Malaysian government
● Showcase the use of open data by Malaysian non-governmental organisations (NGOs)
involved in GIAT (a coalition of five NGOs working on and for good governance,
integrity, accountability and transparency) and businesses including highlighting
challenges in the use of the open data
● Discuss ways to move forward to maximise the potential of open data for good
governance, civic engagement and economic growth including through the adoption of
an international framework such as the Open Government Partnership
● Facilitate dialogue between government, business and NGOs in closing the gap in
reaching the full potential of open data for economic growth, good governance and
civic engagement.
The seminar and exhibition will be jointly organised by members of GIAT. They are the
Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs (IDEAS), Transparency International Malaysia
(TI-Malaysia), Centre to Combat Corruption and Cronyism (C4), Sinar Project, Citizen’s
Network for a Better Malaysia (CNBM) and Friends of Kota Damansara.
WHAT ARE THE PROGRAMME OBJECTIVES?
The seminar will be a follow up to the OGP workshop that IDEAS organised in October 2014.
The coalition was set up as a result of the workshop and members have been meeting
regularly since November 2014. The purpose of this seminar is to:
● To ​advocate for enhanced civic engagement and good governance as an outcome of
open data initiatives
● To ​strengthen the coalition’s work and to encourage other organisations to join the
coalition
● To ​disseminate​Open Government Partnership values and related projects.
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WHY ARE WE PROPOSING IT?
The Malaysian government has already embarked on open data initiatives. In 2013, the
government launched data.gov.my, a website in which the public can access government data
from various ministries. In addition to data.gov.my, the government has also voluntarily
released information on various government sectors in separate websites. Examples of these
websites are:
● www.procurement.gov.my​, in which the public can find information about tender
related information
● www.audit.gov.my for the auditor general’s report
● meih.st.gov.my for energy related information
Open data has been a growing global trend in the last five years. Governments around the
world increasingly realise the benefits of open data not only for improving transparency and
accountability, but also for spurring innovation needed for economic growth. They, like
Malaysia, started to release data voluntarily to the public. A large number of countries in fact
have seen its benefits. The United Kingdom, which was regarded by the Open Data Barometer
as the leader in the field, is witnessing the emergence of many tech-businesses that source
70% of it's information from government open data.
Malaysia is still far from fully benefitting from open data. The Open Data Barometer suggests
that Malaysia’s initiative is still one-sided, with the government releasing certain data but the
release is not matched by its effective use by both businesses and civil society organisations.
The type and quality of information released as well as the social, economic and political
context have influenced the limits of open data benefits in Malaysia.
This seminar will therefore be a platform to discuss these limitations and facilitate
discussions between various stakeholders on how to move forward.
WHAT OUTPUTS WILL WE DELIVER?
● One day seminar involving various stakeholders including non-government
organisations, businesses, government and media
● One day exhibition of the use of Open Data and access to information by Malaysian
NGOs and Businesses. The exhibition will be open to the public and the materials for
the exhibition will be made available online after.
● A policy brief highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of current open data
initiatives by the Malaysian government which also recommends ways for moving
forward.
● Video recordings of the speakers’ speeches which will be disseminated in social media
channels of IDEAS and its GIAT partners.
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WHO ARE WE TARGETING?
We are targeting to have around 50-70 people from various sectors including civil society
organisations, business, government and the media attending the seminar.
WHAT IS THE TIMELINE AND AGENDA?
We plan to organise the seminar and exhibition and release the publication on Monday, 18
August 2015.
AGENDA
Time Programme
09.00-09.30am Registration
Refreshments will be served. Participants are free to view the exhibitions by
GIAT members
9.30-10.00am Opening Remarks
YB Datuk Paul Low, Minister in the Prime Minister's Department
Her Excellency Victoria Treadell, High Commissioner of the United Kingdom
to Malaysia
10.00-11.15am Session 1: ​What is Open Data and How Can it be Used?
Open Data and its Promotion of OGP Values of Transparency,
Accountability, and Civic Participation
by Michael Canares, Regional Research Manager, Open Data Lab Jakarta
Michael will speak about open data and its potential for positive change
from improving the quality of public service to increasing collaboration
between government, civil society and businesses.
How Open Data Spurred Innovation & Increased Government
Accountability in the United Kingdom
by Andrew Stott, Senior Open Data Consultant, World Bank (TBC)
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Andrew will relay his experience in establishing data.gov.uk and how the
data has been used to generate business, improve communication between
government and the public as well as increase civic engagement.
Malaysia’s Open Data Project
by YBhg. Dato’ Yasmin Mahmood, Chief Executive Officer, Multimedia
Development Corporation (MDeC)
YBhg. Dato’ Yasmin Mahmood will discuss Malaysia’s current initiatives on
open data efforts via data.gov.my and the government’s plans for further
improvements.
Questions and Answers
11.15-12.30pm Session 2: ​Panel Discussion on ​Open Data for Good Governance and Civic
Engagement in Malaysia
Moderator: ​Jeffrey Phang, Chairman, Friends of Kota Damansara
Y.B. Hannah Yeoh, Member of Parliament ​will relay the Selangor
government’s current initiatives on promoting open data and how this
information can be used.
Khairil Yusof, Co-Founder of Sinar Project who will speak on how open
data can be improved and be better utilized in Malaysia by members of civil
society.
Cynthia Gabriel, Centre to Combat Corruption and Cronyism and City
Councilor at PJ City Council ​who will speak about the importance of open
data at a local council level
12.30-1.30pm Governance, Integrity, Accountability and Transparency (GIAT)
Coalition Introduction and Launch
by Representatives from GIAT
Lunch
1.30-2.45pm Third Session: ​Panel Discussion on Open Data and Economic Growth and
Benefits to Business
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Moderator: ​Wan Saiful Wan Jan, CEO of IDEAS
Sandra Hanchard, Co-founder of Big Data Malaysia ​will discuss the
current interest in big data and what types of companies use open data for
their business.
Sajith Sivanandan, Google Malaysia, Managing Director ​will reflect on
how Google benefits from open data and how it uses the information to
grow as a company
Anthony Tan, Founder of Grab Taxi ​will relay a personal account on how
Grab Taxi grew as a start-up using data available to them.
2.45-3.00pm Reflections and Closing
Led by Representatives from GIAT
3.00pm End of Session Networking and Refreshments. Participants may visit
exhibition booths
EXHIBITION
The exhibition will also be organised on 18 August 2015. Each organisation in GIAT will be
given space to feature works/projects that relate to access to information and the use of open
data. The exhibition will show to the public currently available information from the
Malaysian government and the ways to use and improve them.
● IDEAS for example can show currently available information on procurement and how
this information can be improved.
● TI-Malaysia can showcase its project on beneficial ownership
● Sinar project can show its corruption tracker and parliamentarian database.
● C4 can show its work on the AG’s Report and Freedom of Information project.
● Friends of KOTA Damansara can show the Environmental Democracy Index
● CNBM can present its work on corporate governance
We will also invite businesses that have been using open data to feature their works.
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Organizers​,
In support of, Coordinators,
Sponsors​,
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Useful references
● http://data.gov.my/index.php​: Malaysia’s open data initiative
● https://tramdas.wordpress.com/2014/07/17/analysing-data-gov-my/​: short analysis
on data . govt my
● http://barometer.opendataresearch.org/report/about/index.html Open Data
Barometer, the organisation that evaluates the impact and quality of open data
initiatives around the world
● http://barometer.opendataresearch.org/report/analysis/explorer.html Open Data
Barometer on Malaysia
● http://bigdataanalytics.my/​part of Malaysian Government’s open data initiative
● http://poseidon01.ssrn.com/delivery.php?ID=576121020003020081110098030085
072064032043077033024024075122122067085068070080097000011050026016
049049112003113104115120088024048026026076017088091004092106086081
010095002080021064082021003089125065016083081092066068080107082095
093124006085119127083&EXT=pdf&TYPE=2 Interesting paper on linking Access to
Information initiatives and Open Data Initiatives
● http://www.opengovpartnership.org/groups/opendata/workplan OGP’s Open Data
Working Group
● http://globalopendatainitiative.org/​:
● http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/22b3afc4-0600-11e5-868c-00144feabdc0.html#ax
zz3byyIEue7​: the article that tells the story of UK’s open data initiatives
● http://index.okfn.org/place/​: another organisation that evaluate open data initiatives
of countries around the world
● http://theodi.org/about-us​: Open Data Initiative, an organisation in the UK working
on maximizing the benefits of open data especially for bussiness. They have been
working with Malaysian government too.
● https://www.techinasia.com/malaysian-startups-2015/: list of start-up company
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