OGP Unconference: Making Data Work for an Open Government

The Data Literacy Consortium is heading to Ottawa at the end of May to participate in the Open Government Partnership Unconference: Making Data Work for Governments. The Unconference will take place on May 29th, just before the commencement of the Open Government Summit, a gathering of 70 countries and 20 local governments, to share knowledge and together create solutions for more open and transparent governments around the globe.

Hundreds of Open Government Partnership (OGP) commitments involve the creation, publication or use of data. Data supply has increased dramatically over the last decade, with governments and civil society exploring all sorts of new ways to visualise, analyse and work with data.  Open governments need to be data literate at all functioning levels and they need to be held to account by an engaged and data-literate citizenry.

A new State of Open Data publication has identified that, although much effort has been invested in open data policy and practice, action to build data literacy has lagged behind. New approaches are needed to scale up data literacy building and we need to connect existing projects that are making progress to new projects that have potential.

The Open Data for Development (OD4D) Network, in partnership with the Open Government Partnership, will provide a unique opportunity to engage on a range of issues related to Data Literacy. The Unconference will be devoted to participant-driven discussions about how to achieve data literacy, skills, and capacity in ways that support the development and implementation of open government commitments.

Dirk Slater, from Fabriders and Data Literacy Consortium Co-Chair, will be facilitating the event. The agenda will be designed to strengthen ties and connections to open government practitioners in order to compare experiences and expertise and learn from each other. We will aim to generate open dialogue about capabilities needed across a diverse range of actors internal to government, such as ministers, executives, & the public service, and external to government, such as civil society, journalists, academia, educators, etc.

We will explore:

• How governments can increase their capacity to develop, implement and monitor meaningful data-related commitments within their National Action Plans;
  
  
• How to make meaningful use of data by increasing skills and capacities, helping to bring about social and economic innovation;

Learnings and outcomes from the OGP Unconference will be shared via a Data Literacy Consortium Online Discussion, details TBA. Register interest here.

Note that only individuals who have registered for the OGP Summit can attend. To attend the Unconference, register here: