Hi SM,
Thanks for sharing this information, your feedback will be helpful in the assessment of the current Open Data supply and demand situation in Mauritius. Based on the experiences you described, the data does not meet the definition of being open.
We would like to invite everyone interested in Open Data to join a public session on Monday, June 8. It will take place at 16.30 at the Lunch Room of the National Assembly.
On June 9 there will be a session with Civic Developers and Data Activists to interview the potential users of Open Data about their specific needs (the types of datasets, ease of access to information, etc.) This session will be by invitation and interested individuals are welcome to contact me.
My best
Alla
-----Original Message-----
From: S Moonesamy [mailto:sm+mu_at_elandsys.com]
Sent: Wednesday, May 20, 2015 2:48 AM
To: Alla Morrison; mauritius-internet-users_at_lists.elandnews.com
Subject: RE: Open Data - Mauritius
Hi Alla,
I am copying this message to the Mauritius Internet Users mailing
list as there are a few developers on the mailing list interested in Open Data.
In 2012, there was a presentation by Mr A K Hoolass, Permanent
Secretary, Ministry of Civil Service and Administrative Reforms about
the "implementation and Monitoring of Open
Government Data Initiatives in Mauritius" [1]. Slide 18 has the following:
"65 e-services for the citizen of Mauritius to interact with the Government
anytime, anywhere and in real-time"
There is a screenshot of the "Sign in" for the Government Web Portal
at
http://hacklog.in/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/govmu-org-mobile-no-captcha.jpg
Ish Sookun was unable to sign in from a smartphone as the user is
expected to solve a CAPTCHA while the form does not display any
CAPTCHA. A person would have to solve that mystery to get those
e-services to work.
Slide 34 has the following:
"Easy access to statistical data and publications on the website
of Statistics
Mauritius:
http://statsmauritius.gov.mu and are also circulated
in hard copies"
I went to the web site [2]. I assume that the Open Data is at
http://dataportal.statsmauritius.govmu.org/ I did a data search and
got a Time Series. I clicked on "Browse" and I was given the
following options:
1. Export to XLSX
2. Export to DOCX
3. Export to PPTX
4. Export to PDF
I do not consider any of the options above as appropriate for Open
Data as it is not in an easily accessible format.
Slide 35 has the following:
"This includes detailed aerial photo maps of the whole country; copies of
every deed and survey plan relating to the sale and lease of land, going
back over 250 years; and, valuation records for every property."
I would like the above to be available in a format which is easily
accessible over the internet and in a machine-readable format as it
is not possible to get free access to GIS-related information for
Mauritius. I assume that Open Data is not about data which is
already available and not data which will be made available on request.
I looked at some Open Data for Mauritius [3]. The statistics are for
2011. That is four years ago. I visited the web site of the
Mauritius Meteorological Services [4]. The isn't any Open Data about
the weather available.
Open Data is a subset of Open Government Data. There are other data
silos in Mauritius. It would be helpful if some companies could at
least release some minimal data as a first step so that software
developers can explore what can be done with Open Data.
Regards,
S. Moonesamy
1.
http://unpan1.un.org/intradoc/groups/public/documents/un-dpadm/unpan050413.pdf
2.
http://www.elandsys.com/~sm/govmu-org-domain-name-issues.html
3.
http://mauritius.opendataforafrica.org/iwgmexe/mauritius-telecomunication
4.
http://metservice.intnet.mu
Received on Wed May 20 2015 - 21:34:01 PST
