On Mon, Jun 8, 2015 at 4:31 PM, S Moonesamy <sm+mu_at_elandsys.com> wrote:
> 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.
>
Thank you for the report SM.
I would like to know concretely what is going to be done to make "Open
data" a reality. What are the next milestones that are going to be
set ?
> Regards,
> S. Moonesamy
>
>
>
Received on Mon Jun 08 2015 - 17:24:40 PST