The Web Foundation’s Open Data Lab Jakarta will be attending Rightscon from 24-25 March 2015 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, Metro Manila, Philippines. Our highlight session will take place from 11:00 AM to 1:30 PM on the 24th of February entitled “A Right to Data? Challenges at the Intersection of Freedom of Information and Open Data”. The session will draw lessons from the Emerging Impacts of Open Data in Developing Countries research, as well as from open data projects in Indonesia and the Philippines to tackle the link between Freedom of Information (FoI) and open data. Additionally, we will address the challenge of ensuring a two-way approach with these initiatives, with the government addressing the supply-side, and the citizens being capacitated to access, use and identify the demand for data.
The discussions will be led by our own Project Manager, Michael Canares. He will dive into the issues and challenges of ensuring a successful two-way approach for handling public data—that it is available and accessible from the government, and that citizens are able to make use of it.
Together with him, the session will have presenters from other organisations, namely:
- Silvana Fumega from the Open Data for Developing Countries project will talk about the link of FoI and open data, citing examples, projected movements and happenings around the globe surrounding the topic.
- Gabe Baleos from Open Data Task Force Philippines will present open data initiatives and challenges in the Philippines, providing deeper insights on how to sustain commitment from national government agencies in disclosing data. He will also discuss the uses and intended users of the released data.
- Firmansyah MS from Kinerja will share perspectives from Indonesia and elaborate on Kinerja and the Lab’s experience in Banda Aceh, particularly in merging FoI and open data to define a clearer understanding and actionable processes to improve the state of education in Aceh.
This year, Rightscon will take place in Manila to highlight the related digital rights movements in the region. The event will bring together activists, law and policy-makers, government officials and private sector representatives to discuss and engage on technology issues, strategies and initiatives surrounding the topic of human rights and the open Internet.
Our team members will be available throughout the event to talk about open data and our projects, as well as other programs of the Web Foundation. If you’d like to grab coffee and know more about what we do, talk about possible collaborations and projects, or simply say hi, send us a message on Twitter tagging @ODLabJkt, and we’ll get right back to you!
We hope to see you there!
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