Comments for mtoto wa jirani

Comment on What About ‘Creating’ Open Data? by Sandra Moscoso

Sandra Moscoso — Sat, 07 Apr 2012 12:40:47 +0000

Great post. Two things:
- Could a first step toward building own data be to comment/react to existing data? Some platforms have comment/discussion options that enable creation of data right now.

- Would love to know more about “asking the Government & other open data stakeholders like the World Bank to update their datasets”. I think it’s still worth asking for it, while simultaneously building your own. On World Bank financial data, some datasets (on https://finances.worldbank.org) are updated monthly. Would love to know where the demand is for additional/more up to date data.

And yes, as Jay said “Well what are you waiting for…. Get to it.” Rock on, data and techie rockstars!

Comment on What About ‘Creating’ Open Data? by Mark Braggins

Mark Braggins — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 07:20:41 +0000

Hi, I’m very interested in this idea. Crowd-sourced open data has potential benefits for everyone.

Comment on What About ‘Creating’ Open Data? by Muchiri Nyaggah

Muchiri Nyaggah — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 17:27:55 +0000

Hi.

I see things the same way. Recently I put up a post on our blog on private enterprise publishing data and how potent the combination of public (read government) and private data could be. Like Jay says, what are we waiting for? Our plan is start by publishing all our self funded research later this year and putting the data up. Now if only someone would have a nice portal….

Comment on What About ‘Creating’ Open Data? by Julian Tait

Julian Tait — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 12:41:52 +0000

I agree,

There are areas where this is happening and there are examples of where communities have recorded and shared data to use as a counter to government data. Pachube is a a good example of this and it did have an impact with regard to the radiation leaks of the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan. I was told that there was a group who were trying to halt the expansion of Amsterdam Schipol airport who used their own sensors to record noise impact – although I haven’t found any details of this project.
So yes getting communities to create their own data can have many positive effects. It can aslo encourage organisations to release better and more timely data

Comment on What About ‘Creating’ Open Data? by Tim Davies

Tim Davies — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 12:01:40 +0000

This is spot on. The very same technological changes that mean government no longer has a monopoly on analysing data, means government no longer needs to have a monopoly on gathering and curating data.

Individual citizens, community groups and other institutions can all use open data technologies to pool information and create new open data resources.

Some of the way ‘Government Data Portals’ have been framed, as only hosting data from governments, rather than hosting data that is relevant to processes of government (which could come from multiple sources) needs to shift to help create more space and incentive for different actors, from developers to charities and community groups, to be creators as well as consumers of data, and feeding all this data back into government, recognising many datasets are shared resources to be drawn on by communities and governments, requires a culture change – but it’s a culture change challenege we should be engaging with.

Comment on What About ‘Creating’ Open Data? by mtoto wa jirani

mtoto wa jirani — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 07:07:31 +0000

I agree with you Jay.

Comment on What About ‘Creating’ Open Data? by Jay

Jay — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 05:48:33 +0000

Here is a thought how about building applications that make collecting data easier? How about the devs. Stop talking about crowd sourced data and actually start collecting it? By government launching the Open Data Portal and getting international attention in the process, the devs. are failing to leverage this opportunity. Open Data does not mean Governement Data. Open Data does not mean it is Governments responsibility to collect data. Government acted as a catalyst with the limited funding that they had. They have just received more to take the initiative forward.

As you said ” Why not build an open data portal and apps that aggregate citizen data platforms”…. Well what are you waiting for…. Get to it

Comment on Save Computer Literacy! by mtoto wa jirani

mtoto wa jirani — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 12:56:02 +0000

One thing we all agree on but fail to practice is the fact that technology is a flat neutral ground – you decide what you make of it. Groups and ideologies such as yours only catalyze fragmented communities (and if you’ve learnt anything from the fragmented Android ecosystem, you know for sure the pitfalls of that).

Embrace everyone. If you have an issue with noobs, do your part to help them up! Stop creating ‘elitist’ ecosystems.

Comment on Save Computer Literacy! by Ghafla!Guy

Ghafla!Guy — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 12:31:01 +0000

Very informative article. However I still feel there needs to be a real distinction between techies and normal computer users. I once met a person who feels qualified to call himself a techie simple because he could instal the Windows operating system without assistance! SMH!

Comment on The Digital Divide ‘Within’ African Technology by Wangechi

Wangechi — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 06:46:04 +0000

Wonderful piece. Well written and captures the situation as it is. I was no early adopter of tech. It took me two weeks, only two weeks, to understand the power that tech holds. It is not that they do not want to use technology, it is simply the case of the single story. It is very easy for people to embrace technology, somebody just has to explain to them its various uses and benefits.