{"id":1510,"date":"2015-12-23T09:56:15","date_gmt":"2015-12-23T09:56:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/labs.webfoundation.org\/id\/?p=1510"},"modified":"2016-01-28T04:38:23","modified_gmt":"2016-01-28T04:38:23","slug":"build-facilitate-celebrate-a-look-back-at-our-2015-highlights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/labs.webfoundation.org\/id\/build-facilitate-celebrate-a-look-back-at-our-2015-highlights\/","title":{"rendered":"Build, facilitate, celebrate: A look back at our 2015 highlights"},"content":{"rendered":"

2015 is almost over, and it\u2019s paved the way for a lot of learning for us. We took on the challenge of listing down five out of the many Lab highlights for 2015. To know what they are, read on!<\/p>\n

    \n
      \n
    1. We celebrated our official launch!
      \n<\/b><\/b>The Open Data Lab Jakarta officially launched<\/a> on 5 February. The event at the Sari Pan Pacific Hotel in Jakarta was bustling with over 130 distinguished guests from government institutions, international and local organisations, civil society, media, and partners from across the Asia-Pacific region. Highlights of the evening<\/a> included the \u2018rice cutting\u2019 ceremony, performances of Indonesian traditional dances, and guest presentations from our partners from across Indonesia, India and the Philippines. For us, this official launch emphasised our commitment to advancing open data in the Global South, particularly in Indonesia and Southeast Asia.<\/p>\n

      \"OD-Jakarta-Lab-Formal-Launch<\/li>\n

    2. We facilitated the development of a regional open data agenda
      \n<\/b><\/b>Parallel to the launch, we also       held the first Regional Open Data Agenda-Setting for Asia workshop<\/a> from 4 to 6 February in Jakarta. The event brought together participants working in various sectors from over eleven countries across Asia-Pacific. Joined by members of the Web Foundation Open Data team, we developed an agenda for open data for the region moving forward<\/a>.This workshop was conducted as part of the Harnessing Open Data to Achieve Development Results in Africa and Asia project<\/a>, and gave birth to Open Data Asia 2020<\/a>, which laid the foundation for the selection and design of research projects<\/a> with partners in Malaysia<\/a>, Nepal<\/a>, Indonesia<\/a>, and the\u00a0Philippines<\/a>.<\/a><\/p>\n

      \"rw6\"<\/li>\n

    3. We moved from pilot to policy in Banda Aceh
      \n<\/b><\/b>      Our project in Banda Aceh<\/a> took a leap this year. With the finish of the first two phases focusing on education and health services, we published our first Lessons Learned Paper<\/a>. Additionally, in November we participated in the \u201cGCF Knowledge Exchange and Learning Event<\/a>\u201d organised by the Asian Development Bank. Here, we experienced firsthand the growing interest in the \u2018Responsive Open Data Model<\/a>\u2019 we used for this project detailed in our How-to Guide<\/a>. These papers, along with results from the earlier project phases, and using inputs from case studies around the world, led to our current third phase, which delves into the creation of a legal framework for open data. Together with the City Mayor, and using the Jakarta PerGub<\/i> 181\/2014<\/a> as reference, the goal is to create a Perwali<\/i> or City Mayor\u2019s Decree to make government agencies in Banda Aceh proactively publish their data. This has also been brought about by findings and research showing that the most effective means to ensure the open data initiative\u2019s sustainability is to provide a legal basis for proactive disclosure<\/a>.<\/p>\n

      \"151214_3\"<\/li>\n

    4. We helped civil society use open data for fiscal transparency
      \n<\/b><\/b>October marked the culmination of our       Open Data for Transparency (OD4T) project<\/a>. Kicking off in June 2014, the OD4T project had us working with four civil society organisations from Indonesia and the Philippines, with the goal of capacitating them to effectively use open data in their fiscal transparency advocacies. With each of our partners\u2019 and the overall projects\u2019 lessons learned identified, we put together a Lessons Learned Paper<\/a>, which inspired the How-to Guide<\/a> that outlines the model we used to implement this project. We also have partner interviews in the line up and all these will be released in January 2016, so watch out for them!<\/p>\n

      \"Projects-OD4T\"<\/li>\n

    5. We built new partnerships across Indonesia and Southeast Asia
      \n<\/b><\/b>2015 was peppered with conferences, workshops, trainings and events. While we would love to talk about them all, a few stood out.<\/p>\n