Open data, open hearts
30th June marked the end of my internship with Open Development Cambodia
Welcome to ODC!
In these two months, I was involved in the Elections project, which is timely designed in view of the commune election in June and the national election in July 2018. After a fruitful discussion with Mr Chandara, my supervisor, on my first day of work, we agreed on the following as my job scope: 1) Review the current ‘elections’ landing page and propose suggestions to improve on data visualization; 2) Research and develop content for new sub-pages on political parties and figures on the ODC website; 3) Design page templates for the new sub-pages.
Imagine my excitement as a Political Science major! In the previous semester, I have just taken a module in school on political parties and elections where I learnt about the different party types and electoral systems. Interning for ODC thus gave me a valuable opportunity to put what I’ve learnt in theory to practice.
Despite my expertise in research, creating the subpages was not all easy and smooth-sailing though. In this journey, I took away a few valuable lessons. Firstly, I became more aware of the importance to step out of my comfort zone to explore a new field. I did not expect myself to be involved in page design because I figured I would be doing more backend research since I lack a strong background in IT or communications and new media. However, I seized the opportunity presented to me as I believe that content and the presentation of it are highly intertwined and should not be dichotomised. This was also pointed out by Mr Chandara when he asked me about my work progress and I told him that it was challenging to juggle between content research and page design. He assured me that the way we choose to present our data would influence the kind of content we want to develop. The ODC team uses WordPress to customise their pages. However, to attempt a more minimalist and visual-friendly presentation style, I used Wix, a web development platform, to design the new pages. During my presentation to the team, I received good feedback on the use of pictures and interactive graphics to illustrate content, which is a departure from the usual content-heavy wordy texts.
My proposed page design of the elections page
Secondly, I learnt how to navigate my way around obstacles instead of giving up on the idea altogether. While most of the team were pleased with my designs, they also raised concerns over my choice of images I used for the high-profile political figures. They were worried that the politicians might find the image chosen to represent them unflattering and accuse us of misrepresenting them. In Cambodia, I learnt that politics is a highly sensitive issue, perhaps even more so than Singapore and Malaysia. To write for a non-advocacy NGO that aims to publish objective content, it is important to be careful about the language I use. Sometimes, even laying out facts may come across as an anti-government act. Fortunately, with Mr Chandara’s guidance, I managed to sharpen my writing and focus on writing politically neutral content. It is a tough balancing act – to publish the truths people deserve to know and to avoid crossing the government.
Other than handing politically sensitive content, I also had difficulty accessing sources in Khmer as my proficiency level in the language is bare minimum. The internal policies of the political parties are often available only in Khmer. It is also hard to find information on the smaller parties, some of which do not have a functional webpage. This, in a way, shows that there is still a long way to go before a viable multi-party politics scene can emerge at the national level. I am thankful that Mr Chandara helped me out with the translations of some useful documents, which will add value to the profile pages.
At the end of the internship, I managed to create a timeline story of elections in Cambodia which will be included on the landing page and proposed templates for both political parties’ subpage and the individual political party profile. I am glad that Mr Try tried pushing for the publication of the new elections pages before I left. I am also honoured to have participated in the web user testing session, in which we provided feedback on improving search results for the ODC users.
Buffet lunch after ODC web user testing
Piseth and I toasting to balut
I really enjoyed the ease of arranging a meeting with my supervisor Mr Chandara to exchange updates, the openness of team discussions – everyone’s opinions are taken into consideration, the opportunities to represent ODC in conferences and forums.
The ODC family
However, Internship is not just about work too. What made the work environment so enjoyable are the people in the team. I received plenty of warmness from my fellow colleagues who always asked me about my weekends and introduced me to local food (including balut) and activities (cycling to silk island), the refreshments prepared at the end of a presentation to celebrate our progress, meeting professionals from other organisations.
The housekeeper made hot coffee and tea every morning and greeted me with a wide smile when I walked into the kitchen. The colleagues always smiled widely when I barged into the office in the morning. There was a lot of cultural exchange as we shared experiences and situations about our own countries from agriculture to food to public transport. Everyone is curious and willing to listen and educate one another.
If there is an opportunity in the future, I’ll definitely love to contribute to ODC again.
Author: Charine Yong
Position: Research Intern (8th May – 30th June 2017)
