RE: Workshop on Open Data Readiness Assessment

From: S Moonesamy <sm+mu_at_elandsys.com>
Date: Mon, 08 Jun 2015 12:05:50 -0700

Hi Shelly, Ish,
At 11:36 08-06-2015, Shelly Hermia Bhujun wrote:
>Question time! ^^

:-)

>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 were comments about an Open Data Portal. I don't know whether
it will be part of an existing web site. I did not ask about that as
there was agreement between the Linux User Group Meta and the
Mauritius Internet Users to focus on the release of the datasets
instead of promoting a portal which will delay the release of the datasets.

>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?

As the information being share would not be sensitive it could be
shared as Open Data. Vulnerabilities or information leakage would
not be a problem for Open Data as the information is supposed to be
publicly available.

>What guarantee do we have that the Ministry is serious about Open Data?

We do not have any guarantees. I decided against asking this
question as I did not think that the answer would be interesting.

>There is no law to protect Software in Mauritius? and Mauritius is
>being promoted as an IT hub for the region?

There is the Copyright Act 2014 which covers software. A World Bank
official commented that software patents might not be in the interest
of the people present.

>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.

The workshop was different from the usual local workshops as the
assessment cannot be done if there aren't any questions or
discussions about problems related to Open Data.

At 11:12 08-06-2015, Ish Sookun wrote:
>My second question was directed to Ms Alla Morrison as she gave
>examples on how the private sector could use open data. I said the
>question should be rather how do we (private sector, user groups
>etc) get access to Open Government Data and what guarantee do we
>have that the data will be made available? I asked if anything was
>being done at policy level to ensure access to Open Government Data.

I prefer to keep the Mauritius Internet Users from the private sector
as I am not representing the private sector on Open Data. I may
support some points from the private sector if it is in line with
what was agreed to on the mailing list. I suggest considering what
the private sector means in the context in which it was used.

Regards,
S. Moonesamy
Received on Mon Jun 08 2015 - 19:06:18 PST