Open Data Day 2020: Open data for equal development

Following last year’s success, in the early morning of 07 March 2020, the 6th annual Open Data Day was held. Around 60 participants from different occupations and diverse backgrounds such as students, journalists and the government sectors attended the event at Diakonia Center. Following the global Open Data day, this year’s theme is “ Open Data for Equal Development”. Aligned with global and Cambodia’s sustainable development goal of equal development, this year’s event aims to enrich the public with the knowledge and awareness of the  potential use of open data and ICT tools and how crucial it is for promoting public participation and the efficiency of public service delivery as well as how to use data and information to promote public awareness by a digital data driven story. 

Agenda of 2020’s Open Data day in the morning includes an open remarks followed by a Keynote presentation on “Open data” and then a remarkable presentation on “open data in Cambodian sub national administration”. After that, a panel discussion on the topic of “Using ICT to enhance effectiveness, transparency and accountability in public service delivery in Cambodia” is on the agenda and the presentation from essay competition candidates to wrap up a fruitful morning. After lunch break, it is an essay award ceremony. On top of that, there are two more presentations in the afternoon on the finding of the study on women engagement in Open Data in Cambodia conducted by ODC staff and a presentation on data visualization tool and data journalism by ODC staff. After the 2 presentations, the whole agenda was occupied by a Hackathon session on data visualization to wrap up the event. 

The event started with a very warm introductory remark from the Director of Open Development Cambodia, Mr. Thy Try. The substance of his speech includes a brief history of Open Data events, the purpose of the event and the introduction to the term itself. “The event is to raise awareness of using open data in Cambodia”, said Thy. He further argued that disclosing and disseminating data can encourage the culture of writing in the kingdom as well. Clearly emphasizing the link between open source data to the writing culture and habit, this event will serve as a stepping stone toward a society of accessible data and contribute significantly to the general knowledge of the term “Open Data”. A very energetic crowd of audience applauded the speaker for a very well put into words speech. 

Mr. THY Try, director of ODC is giving a introductory remark.

After that, come the next agenda. A keynote presentation by the event’s honorable guest speaker, Mr. John Weeks. As one of the open data specialists in Cambodia, he has considerable experience over this crucial topic. John has linked the significant roles of open data to the improvement of public service and provided tangible examples from  different countries such as Nepal, England, Tanzania, and Uganda on how their government utilizes open data to deliver better public service including disaster management, public transportation, healthcare and education. He claimed that, with the freedom of accessing data, we can do so much more and contribute to social development of the country.

Mr. John Week is giving a keynote presentation on Open Data.

Another guest speaker, Mr. Chet Kimjung, a representative of the National Committee for Sub-National Democractic Development (NCDD) has delivered a remarkable presentation on the role of open data in the sub national level administration in Cambodia. The speaker highlighted the needs of e-governance in the Cambodia status-quo. “As we live in a modern developing world, it is necessary for the country to start establishing e-governance that allows the public to get access to and gain benefit from various data of the government ” speak Kimjung. He has also stressed on the contribution of NCDD by introducing the data system of the organization such as e-library. “A Lot of books and information have been uploaded to the e-library that allow for convenient public access. The online library on NCDD website is available to all users and will be useful for the development especially for the education system in Cambodia ”, Mr. Kimjung continued. 

The panel discussion also contributes great inputs to the event. Three guest speakers from different institutions discuss on the topic “Using ICT to enhance effectiveness, transparency and accountability in public service delivery in Cambodia ”. The three speakers are Mrs. Som Chanthida, a representative from Transparency International Cambodia (TI), Mr. Chet Kimjung, a representative from the government side, and Mr. Nop Vy a representative from Cambodian Center for Independent Media. The panel discussion was lively and interactive. Mrs. Chanthida has briefly discussed how TI makes use of the advancement in technology to further expand on their objective. She raised the function of social media and its effective role in maintaining transparency and accountability in delivering public services. 

In addition, Mr. Nop Vy shared a similar perspective. Stressed on the importance of communication platforms such as Facebook, he believed it is a crucial tool to push for citizen’s understanding of the public service. He continued that “citizens are pivotal in the development of an accountable and transparent public services sector. Exposing them to understanding public service will push for more effectiveness in public services delivery in the kingdom”. The panel went on to the Q&A session and knowledge exchange between the audiences and the panel speaker. 

After a productive half morning, drinks and accommodations are being served to recharge and refresh the audience’s energy before the start of writing contestant presentation. The presentation of all 5 contestants were enthusiastic and informative. The crowd were astounded by the details and information all contestants have included in the presentations which reflect hard working effort they have put into the essay competition. It was an enjoyable session indeed. 

Following the lunch break, the essay competition winner was announced. Given the score of the five judges, Mr. Pisey came out on top to become the well deserved winner. His outstanding essay greatly comprehends the role of open data in promoting transparent, effective and accountable public service in Cambodia. He will receive a travel scholarship to attend the international open data conference 2020 in Kenya as a competition winner.

Then, a presentation of a research finding on the study of women engagement in open data in Cambodia by Ms. Vimoil who is one of ODC’s staff. For more information about her presentation and research finding, please refer to this article. Afterward, another presentation on data visualization and tools presented by one of ODC’s staff, Ms. Bormey took the center stage. Different categories of data visualization tools were illustrated to the crowd. The presentation aims to vaccinate the public about the process of data visualization includes data collecting process, data clearing etc. 

Finally, it is time for the Hackathon session. Three groups of 5-6 members are recruited using a voluntary basis and formed randomly to complete​ assigned tasks initiated and guided by different mentors on how to produce data visualization and story. Each team shows keen interests and great enjoyment in learning the process of how to produce info-graphics that can visualize data in different form. The three groups have shown great creativity and team spirit to showcase impressive presentations on the different data stories. It is by all means a fun yet educational experience for all audiences who partake in the Hackathon session. 

In the end, under the organization of ODC, the 2020 Open data day was concluded with huge success. Through this event, the general audience learns about open data to a further extent. This unique opportunity will serve as an important tool pushing toward an effective, accountable and transparent Cambodia’s public services in the future.