Recap: We had a successful launch event over a week ago!

On the evening of 5 February 2015, the Istana Ballroom of the Sari Pan Pacific Hotel in Jakarta became packed with guests celebrating the official Launch of the Open Data Lab Jakarta.

The success of the Launch was amplified by over 130 attendees, including newly-appointed head of Bappeda and keynote speaker, Tuty Kusumawati, Ford Foundation Indonesia’s representative David Hulse and his team, and many others from government, international and civil society organisations, academia and media. Traditional dances from Java and Bali, acoustic music, and a myriad of local food contributed to the visitors’ entertainment and the overall positive vibe of the evening.

Highlighting the evening, guests were treated to presentations on the states and trends of open data across the region. 

• Setiaji from DKI Jakarta talked about the progress of open data in Jakarta in the recent years, from the passing of Indonesia’s Freedom of Information Law, joining the Open Government Partnership to the on-going open data initiative of the city government.

• Luna Fedrafaisya from Flower Aceh talked about open data in Banda Aceh, presenting and discussing visualisations their organisation made as an output from the Opening Data for Better Education pilot project.

• Tenti Kurniawati from Perkumpulan IDEA, one of the four partners in the Open Data for Transparency project, tracked the progress of open government data’s accessibility in the city of Yogyakarta.

• Sunil Abraham from the Center for Internet and Society, discussed case studies from India and his experiences dealing with government to get access to data.

• Lastly, Ivy Ong from Open Data Task Force PH shared with the guests applications made using open data during the #KabantayNgBayan: Procurement Hack in the Philippines, showing that better governance is a product of collaboration from and wherein both the citizens and government benefit.

Find out more about our Launch’s partner event, the Regional Open Data Agenda-Setting Workshop here, or read our reviews here. Learn about our Labs and projects, get in touch with us, or follow us on Twitter @ODLabJkt to stay updated on our latest activities!