Hello SM,
I would like thank you for being our representative and for sharing the minutes of meeting. I would appreciate if others could add their observations as well. I know that some of our members were present at the workshop even though they were not representing the MIU. I appreciate the fact that these people showed interest and participated in the workshop. I think it's high time for the Ministry to look for qualified people in Mauritius instead of looking for foreign experts. There was a comment that there were no geeks in Mauritius. There were actually some geeks present today.
Question time! ^^
> > 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.
I would like to know if they are planning to design a new website for it or are they going to link the open data to the existing website.
> > 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
How can they be sure the information will be shared only between government agencies? There has been some vulnerabilities on some of the govmu.org websites. What are they planning to do to counter any information leakage?
> > There was a presentation about how Open Data was used to create a mobile app
> > in Jamaica. The eight pillars of the open data readiness 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.
Could you please share what you said Ish.
> > 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.
What guarantee do we have that the Ministry is serious about Open Data?There is no law to protect Software in Mauritius? and Mauritius is being promoted as an IT hub for the region?
> > 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.
Looking forward to see if they will indeed make things happen instead of organizing workshops just for the sake of saying they did something for Information Technology.
Thank you for the report SM.
Received on Mon Jun 08 2015 - 18:36:42 PST