Workshop on Open Data Readiness Assessment

From: S Moonesamy <sm+mu_at_elandsys.com>
Date: Mon, 08 Jun 2015 09:31:41 -0700

Hello,

I attended a workshop on Open Data Readiness
Assessment which was hosted by the World Bank and
the Ministry of Technology, Communication and
Innovation in the Lunch Room of the National
Assembly at 16:30. The following notes may not be accurate.

There was an introduction about what Open Data is about:

   - machine readable
   - raw data available online for free

One of the officials from the World Bank
explained that government may have a number of
stipulations, e.g. attribution, having a link to
the web site from which the data is available, etc.

There was a presentation about the benefits of
Open Data in which the following were covered:

   - Economic value
   - Transparency and accountability if datasets are available online
   - Data exchange access government - The World Bank official commented
     that Open Data may also be of used by government to share data in
     between government agencies.
   - Data informed policymaking - policy-making is improved

There was a presentation about how Open Data was
used to create a mobile app in Jamaica. The
eight pillars of the open data rediness
assessment was explained. There is a detailed
explanation at
http://opendatatoolkit.worldbank.org/docs/odra/odra_v3_methodology-en.pdf

There were a question about when the World Bank
would deliver its report. The answer was that
the draft report would be available in two or
three months and that it is up to the government
to decide whether to publish the report.

Mr Sookun asked a question as a representative of
the Linux User Group Meta. I unfortunately did
not write down what was said. There was a
comment about a representative of the MSIRI about
getting access to geographic data and weather
data. She commented that the data was currently only available for a fee.

Mr D. Laeng commented that there was an Open Data
assessment in 2012 and mentioned that nothing had
been done since then. Mr R. Hawabhay, from the
Ministry of Technology, Communication and
Innovation responded that the workshop is a
starting point. Mr Dhiruj Rambaran, as
shoponline.mu, commented that there isn't any law
in Mauritius to protect software. He also
commented about that he viewed the Information
Technology ministries in government as
non-existant. Mr Jochen Kirstätter, as Founder
of the Mauritius Software Craftsmanship Community
commented that he organised a Developers
Conference and that his Community had over 250
developers. He complained about the lack of
support from the Ministry of Technology,
Communication and Innovation for his conference
and commented that it would have helped the
conference if Open Data was available.

There was an official from a Food and Agriculture
department (government) who commented that the
department was already making some data
available. There was a question about license
and a World Bank official pointed out that it
would be a problem for businesses to rely on that
data without any license. I commented about that
the current Copyright Act does not cover database
rights. I also said that the copyrights as used
by government departments were misguided. Mr R.
Hawabhay, from the Ministry of Technology,
Communication and Innovation responded that it
would be useful to discussed about that problem
and other problems which was raised during the workshop.

In response to questions about what would make
the government go forward with Open Data, Mr R.
Hawabhay stated that it would be part of the
National Innovation Framework. Mr R. Hawabhay
also commented that it would be easier to get
datasets which is already available instead of
datasets which are not readily available. The workshop ended around 19:00 hrs.

Regards,
S. Moonesamy
Received on Mon Jun 08 2015 - 17:18:59 PST

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