Delighted to break the news: I am amongst the happy few to become a Certified Open Data trainer!
The Open Data Institute (ODI) is the London-based prominent actor in the field of open data and technologies. The certification they have designed is a rewarding result of a five-day-long intense course that our class inaugurated.
Continue readingBishkek is the Eastern Europe of 30 years ago, except with mobile phones and internet access. It is more or less a museum relic of the former Soviet Union Bloc.
This quote translates my exact feelings upon arrival in Bishkek, the capital city of Kyrgyzstan. Although I remember nothing from the Soviet Union bloc 30 years ago, I do remember how my own homecountry looked like 15 years ago. And even if Bulgaria was not formally a part of the Soviet Union, it was close enough to the Big Brother to look strikingly alike. I have done my best to collect my impressions in a dedicated photoset: a concrete post-Soviet experience, in both senses of the term ‘concrete’.
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We at RS Strategy are strong supporters of open knowledge. Our founder is a trained scientist, thus opening up science and research are a soft spot for us.
We are thus happy to join a dedicated workgroup at the French National Institute for Agriculture Research (Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique, INRA) aiming to map the current legal framework of research data production and management. To our knowledge, this workgroup is the first of its kind at the institutional level in France. The group’s members wish to explore the legal challenges ahead of opening the Institute’s data. An expected outcome is a handbook for researchers to smoothen their journey towards Open Science Data.
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The Projects initiative is a Digital Science endeavour. Projects is a desktop app that allows you to comprehensively organise and manage data you produce as research projects progress. The rationale behind Projects is that scientific data needs to be properly managed and preserved if we want it to be perennial. There’s indeed a worrisome trend showcasing that every year, the amount of research data being generated increases by 30%, and yet a massive 80% of scientific data is lost within two decades.
Projects and open science data-sharing platform figshare published an impressive and pretty telling infographic on science data preservation and chronic mismanagement [scroll down to see it]. What struck me looking at these numbers is neither the high-throughput data production nor the overall funds it requires – 1,5 trillion USD spent on R&D! – but the little to no information on public policies aimed at solving the problem.
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Rayna Stamboliyska, the founder of RS Strategy and Open MENA, served as the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Editor for the Open Data Index.
The Index ranks countries based on the availability and accessibility of information in ten key areas, including government spending, election results, transport timetables, and pollution levels, and reveals that whilst some good progress is being made, much remains to be done.
The Open Data Index 2013 is the first assessment of openness of fundamental government data in the Middle East and North Africa, including full scorecards for six countries (Israel, Tunisia, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Yemen). The six countries from the Middle East, featured in the Index, globally show very low openness.
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RS Strategy actively contributed to this year’s edition of the Open World Forum. Our involvement encompassed chairing a whole session (from programme curation to on-site delivery) and two keynotes.
As previously mentioned, I curated the programme for and organised the Open Data track. Experts from Morocco, the French national railway company SNCF, and the French Prime Minister’s Open Data Taskforce Etalab shared views on opening governance and public sector data.
Also, contributing to specific tracks, I gave two talks:
“Open Data in Science and Research” (track ‘Public Policies’), introducing the audience to the vital importance of opening up scientific research:
[slideshare id=26940244&doc=rayna-opendatascience-owf2013-131007090440-phpapp02]
(also view directly on Slideshare)
“Big Data, Bad Data” (closing keynote, with Romain Lacombe from French Prime Minister’s Taskforce Etalab and Rand Hindi from :SNIPS:), a critical look at the misconceptions ‘big data’ can endorse — and how to account for them:
I’ve already announced the OKCon ‘Open & Citizen Science satellite event’. As you may remember, we launched idea submissions several days ago. The detailed descriptions are below. You can vote for your favourite one and join us geeking out next Thursday, Sept 19. Don’t hesitate to get back to us either via Twitter (@MaliciaRogue, @stefankasberger) or via mail.
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Stefan Kasberger from OKFn Austria and myself are organizing this one-day workshop as an OKCon satellite event. Join us!
Thursday 19 September, 10:00 – 17:00 @ Centre Universitaire d’Informatique Université de Genève, Auditorium, Ground Floor
Coordinators: Stefan Kasberger (Open Knowledge Foundation Austria) and Rayna Stamboliyska (Open Knowledge Foundation France), in collaboration with Daniel Lombraña González (Citizen Cyberscience Center / Citizen Cyberlab) François Grey (Citizen Cyberscience Center / University of Geneva), Margaret Gold/ Brian Fuchs (Citizen Cyberlab / The Mobile Collective)
Hacking science makes us happy. If it makes you happy, too, then, this year’s Open Knowledge Conference is the place to be!
Indeed, OKCon 2013 is where an amazing bouquet of insights from Open and Citizen science will converge. But if you thought there would be only food for the brain, you were wrong. A satellite event will take place on 19 September aiming at giving space for everyone to actually get great things done.
With our friends Daniel Lombraña González (Citizen Cyberscience Center / Citizen Cyberlab) François Grey (Citizen Cyberscience Center / University of Geneva), Margaret Gold/ Brian Fuchs (Citizen Cyberlab / The Mobile Collective), we have come up with a way allowing everyone to take part to this exciting day.
I have an idea!
We know you do. Hence, we have a dedicated form ready for you to submit a short description of what you are keen to work on. You can also indicate what additional competences you need in order to get your project done.
Idea submission will be running from today until 10 September. Every week, we will be updating everyone (through the Open Science mailing list) telling you about the new ideas submitted. In addition, a community call will be scheduled to discuss and narrow down these ideas so that they actually become feasible within one-day long hands-on sprint.
Working together
The idea of the satellite event is to geek out together. On 11 September, we will be publishing a poll with all ideas so that you can be able to vote for the project you want to work on on Day D. Voting will run until 18 September.
Do not forget to bring your favourite geeking gear (laptop, some flavour of mobile device or a fancy notebook in the perfect 1.0 fashion). We will have WiFi, cookies and fun!
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The workshop space can accommodate up to 45 people. To sign-up, express your interest in the topic and get in touch with the coordinators please write to openandcitizenscience@okcon.org.
I am the ‘Open Data’ track leader for the Open World Forum to be held in early October in Paris. To follow the event as it’s been built up, please visit the Open World Forum’s website.
For this year’s event, we have already confirmed an impressive line-up of speakers (abstracts are in French, as the session is in French):
Dans le domaine du transport, l’Open Data, a le pouvoir de relever les défis d’une mobilité plus informée, plus fluide, plus personnalisée. Optimisation et valorisation du temps de voyage, gestion de l’affluence dans les trains, adaptation aux besoins de chaque voyageur : Romain Lalanne propose un retour d’expérience de l’engagement du groupe SNCF en matière d’Open Data et présente un panorama des perspectives à venir dans l’Open Transport.
Réserve parlementaire, financement des syndicats, dépenses de la Sécurité sociale, faits constatés de délinquance et de criminalité, adresses des écoles publiques, prix des carburants dans chaque station essence, masse salariale des cabinets ministériels, attribution des véhicules de fonction, subventions de l’Etat aux associations, interventions économiques aux entreprises, dotations globales de fonctionnement aux collectivités territoriales, aides de la PAC, effectifs des fonctions publiques, nombre d’agents et de chômeurs dans chaque agence de Pôle Emploi…
Les attentes des Français sont très fortes en matière de transparence des services publics et d’exemplarité dans l’action de leurs représentants. Sans confiance des citoyens dans les Institutions, la République vacille et la cohésion sociale s’effrite. Intégrer les valeurs d’Internet dans la gouvernance publique participe ainsi au renouvellement et à l’intégrité de notre démocratie : rendre des comptes sur Internet en partageant gratuitement et librement les informations et les données produites par les services publics avec tous les citoyens – quelque soit leur statut ou leur catégorie socio-professionnelle – contribue à renforcer la liberté d’information et l’Etat de droit, in fine les libertés fondamentales de chaque citoyen.
L’ouverture des données (open data) et la ville intelligente (smart city) sont régulièrement associés. Et pour cause, les données sont au cœur de la ville de demain, et les mettre à disposition du plus grand nombre ne peut que faciliter l’innovation et la création de services aux usagers. Le Grand Lyon s’inscrit dans cette perspective par la mise en place d’une plateforme de diffusion de données territoriales au service de ses politiques publiques, des entreprises et des citoyens. Cette démarche d’ouverture est une invitation à repenser à la fois le rôle des acteurs et les façons de faire pour proposer de nouvelles expériences de la vie en ville.
Huile de palme dans le Nutella, viande de cheval dans les lasagnes au boeuf : pour les consommateurs, l’industrie alimentaire est trop souvent une boîte noire. Bien malin qui sait aujourd’hui ce qu’il y a vraiment dans son assiette. Pour apporter plus de transparence, des citoyens ont créé Open Food Facts, une base de données libre et ouverte sur les produits alimentaires du monde entier. Armés de leur smartphone ou d’un appareil photo, ils collectent les données sur les produits alimentaires pour qu’elles puissent être décryptées, analysées et comparées.
Qu’est ce que le colorant E150d et dans quoi le trouve-t-on, quels sont les sodas les plus sucrés, les biscuits qui contiennent le plus d’additifs, quelles usines préparent les produits de quelles marques : voici quelques exemples de questions auxquelles Open Food Facts apporte une réponse. Toutes les données collectées sont diffusées sous une licence libre : ce sont des données ouvertes (open data). Elles peuvent être utilisées et ré-utilisées librement et gratuitement par tous et pour tous usages. Venez en découvrir quelques uns et peut-être en imaginer et en réaliser d’autres !
Looking forward to meeting you there!
[First published on OECD’s website, prior to OECD’s Global Forum for Development.]
The constant rise of Internet and mobile phone use is an opportunity to enable more citizens to engage with governance. Technology can help improve citizen participation in decision-making and can re-energise participation in public life. Transparency and accountability are becoming a diverse and dynamic field for exploration worldwide. Opening the data produced by public administrations is part of an effective approach to poverty alleviation.
Incredible amounts of data are produced every day, by a wide range of stakeholders: governments, media, mobile operators, citizens themselves. Despite the huge potential for using data about society or government for the public good, it is rarely released and shared for public use. Additionally, reliable statistics can be hard to come by or are still the exclusive property of government or corporate officials.
[This post was initially published on FutureChallenges.org.]
I have been mulling over how to frame my thoughts about the ‘relationship trouble’ between the people and the institutions that govern them. On FutureChallenges, Corina Murafa phrased a very interesting perspective; I, however, disagree with her main proposition: “governments, be they local, regional or national, are no better than their constituencies.”
I believe many out there have read Jacques Rousseau’s “The Social Contract”, either during the seemingly never-ending philosophy classes at high school or on some whimsical Sunday afternoon later on. In this foundation work, Rousseau firmly rejects a (not only at that time) pervasive idea that people can invest some group or individual with the authority to act on their behalf and rule over them. Instead, Rousseau considers that when you hand over your general rule to another person or entity, this constitutes a kind of slavery. More importantly, the mere fact of recognizing this authority is an abdication of moral agency. Such a surrender is even more striking when you consider the hostility with which Rousseau approaches the election of representatives to sovereign assemblies: these vote and pass laws that bind citizens to terms and obligations the citizens themselves have not agreed upon.
Now, this is no scoop: many people have come to think that such an infantilizing political system needs to be challenged and reconstructed. Take the #Occupy movements, the so-called ‘Arab Spring’, 15M, #IdleNoMore, the huge protests that have erupted even in a country as apathetic as Bulgaria… But I don’t want to get into an analysis of popular movements here: I’d much prefer to talk about a more ’2.0 version’ of a Rousseau-inspired fight against the abdication of moral agency. Let’s talk about Open Government initiatives.
Save the date! On behalf of RS Strategy, I will be covering the OECD’s 2013 Global Forum on Development (April 4-5, 2013):
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is an international economic organisation of 34 countries that supports democracy and world trade. The Global Forum on Development is focussed on poverty reduction and social cohesion and attracts a wide range of participants from governments and civil society to help discuss solutions.
Leading up to the meeting, I am reflecting on development issues that help serve as weekly online discussion topics on the OECD website.
Continue readingWell, I don’t think so. But, since we all know that pessimists are out there, let’s try to convince them bringing some scientific evidence 😉 I found these maps below: you can see the sizes of penii all over the world, but also compare the distribution of the ratio IQ/penis size.
There were lot of very interesting things on the Web these last days on Open Access and Open Data. I would like to remind you that the very first Science 3.0 Blogging Contest starting on October 18 is dedicated to Open Access and will run parallel to the Open Access Week! I greatly invite you to take part, as a blogger, as a reader, as both! You will find below several links to make you feel even more eager than now October 18 comes.
I am currently spending my time reading papers. And user guides. The cliché of the lab rat is not applicable anymore. The cliché of the computer geek neither: I am hardly launching sudo aptitude update && sudo aptitude safe-upgrade on my Debian and this is it. The number of tabs in my browser is dangerously approaching 200 and this makes me nervous 🙂 So, here is a nice bunch of links:
Neelie Kroes, the vice-president of the European Commission responsible for the Digital Agenda presented the report “Riding the Wave: How Europe can gain from the raising tide of scientific data” in Brussels today, October 6, 2010. The main idea of this talk was “unlocking the full value of scientific data”. Nice support for open data in science!
The cocoa genome has been released last week, by Mars (you know, the company producing M&M’s and suchlikes). They announced it as data released in the public domain. This sounds great! Well, it only sounds…
Cameron Neylon is inviting today everybody to join and take actively part in a poject to redefine bibliographic metrics. Creating this kind of system is essential for sharing knowledge and “there is an opportunity to connect technical expertise and data with the needs of funders, researchers, and perhaps even the mainstream media and government.”. The current proposal stands for a Barcamp day in UK followed by two-day hackfest. The proposal is available to view and edit as a GoogleDoc.
This is an open access journal launched very recently and focused on medical research. It aims at publishing not only full-text reports, but also pilot studies and pre-protocols. Moreover, all data will be published online and reviewers’ comments will figure alongside the main text. This initiative emphasizes the importance of transparency and data sharing in science. Support BMJ Open, submit your results there!
Some exciting events and pieces of news on Open data and Open knowledge are summarized below, don’t hesitate to spread the word!
BMC Researcher Notes’ latest editorial titles A call for BMC Research Notes contributions promoting best practice in data standardization, sharing and publication. It announces a new initiative aiming at promoting best practice in sharing and publishing data, with a focus on standardized, re-useable formats. Thus, data from original research project described by precised Data Notes will be made publicly accessible and, along with, an example dataset will be included.
This great initiative is a new step towards open data and research reproducibility!
Read the original announcement from BMC.