[Air-L] First OpenData Fest in Sierra Leone

[nativebuddha]

For those of you who follow IT and West Africa:


Event Description

The Right to Access Information Commission in collaboration with the Open
Data Council and the Ministry of Information and Communication with support
from the Open Aid Partnership of the World Bank and other partners
are organising a two-day datafest to raise the awareness of Open Data and
its importance to economic development through a multi stakeholder process
on Thursday and Friday, April 21 - 22, 2016 at 10 a.m.

As a Preamble to that event will be a symposium celebrating International
Open Data Day on March 5, 2016 and an ideathon in the afternoon to
kickstart the Hackathon process which ends on April 22. The Hackathon will
encourage young developers and coders in Information Technology to develop
their own "do-it-yourself" projects via hackathons over 6 weeks on specific
topics to include:

   - Peacebuilding and State-Building
   - The Sustainable Development Goals
   - Exposing Gender-Based Violence
   - Land and Women’s Rights
   - Academia
   - Agriculture
   - Legal aid, the Judiciary and Freedom of Information

Open Data Day <http://opendataday.org/> is a gathering of citizens in
cities around the world to write applications, liberate data, create
visualizations and publish analyses using open public data to show support
for and encourage the adoption of open data policies by the world’s local,
regional and national governments.

The event is open to all, curious citizens, journalists, tech-geeks,
students, scientists, graphic designers. Come by on the day to learn, hack,
wrangle and just plain hangout.

We emphasize that no specialist skills are needed - come along to learn and
connect with other members of the community. You don’t need to know
anything about (open) data or technology in advance – enthusiasm and
interest is all that is needed and you’ll get support and advice from
others!

Events:

The following are the events that would be held on the Open Data Day:

   - Launch of national awareness campaign on open data
   - Formal presentations on open data activities
   - Ideation workshops for brainstorming on projects related to open data
   - Scrap-a-thon workshops on creating web tools for collecting data from
   sources online
   - Sessions and talks from some of our amazing partners, such as Code for
   Africa and the World Bank! Learn more about how you can use tech to drive
   social impact for your own communities!

Register for Training Before the Hackathon!

Never been to a hackathon before? Want to get accustomed with how open data
can be used for creating products that benefit the community? Sign up for
our Data Fest Training in the link below! The training shall run from
the 4th-5th
of March. Register Now! Limited seats available!

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1nIEDvWO_Sh82hAmEYU5Ecj9HRBaSLRXqNADl0Jks3Z4/viewform?ts=56d3fd9d&edit_requested=true

FAQs:

Q. Who is this event for?

A. Everyone. If you have an idea for using open data, want to find an
interesting project to contribute towards, learn about how to visualize or
analyze data or simply want to see what's happening, then definitely come
participate! No matter your skillset or interests, we shall be fostering
opportunities for you to learn and help the global open data community
grow.

Developers: We need computer cowboys and cowgirls like yourself to wrangle
data into something useful. That means visualization, notification,
integration, etc., all in the name of doing something crazy and fantastic.

Designers: We need people like you to make the everything look amazing,
feel intuitive, and have a smooth user experience.

Librarians:  I heard you folks like books and eat catalogs of data for
breakfast. You beautiful people are going to scour the earth for
interesting data, help the rest of us figure out what’s important, and
generally be useful.

Statisticians: YES! YOU ARE SO NEEDED. Seriously. While we can find it,
blow it up, calculate it, and make it look pretty, we needs us some mean
number crunchin’ to present meaningful visualizations. Join up.

Citizens: We need you the most. If it weren’t for you, this whole thing
wouldn’t be happening. We need ideas, cheerleaders, and friends to spread
the word.


Q. What to Expect?

A. A lot will be going on. So... expect to:

   - Learn more about open data.
   - Find out how your local and national government could do more to
   release open data.
   - Meet & network with tons of cool people in your city and around the
   world.
   - Voice your opinion & share your ideas with the people and media
   attending.
   - Find out about apps being created, and get to play around with them as
   well.
   - Help out with parts of the conceptualization, creation, design,
   advertisement and testing of apps.
   - Have lots and lots of fun!


Q. Should I bring anything?

A. We recommend bringing a device that will allow you to access and browse
the internet (via wifi - wifi will be provided). A laptop or tablet would
be perfect.

If you plan to code, design or write quite bit of content we recommend
bringing a laptop rather than just a tablet as it will be easier to write
with.

Q. Do I need specific skills to participate?

A. No - you don’t need any special skills (technical, data or otherwise) to
get involved. Interest and enthusiasm are recommended :-)

Our Partners for the Event:

   - Open Data Council
   - Ministry of Information and Communication, Sierra Leone
   - The World Bank
   - Code for Africa

WHENThursday, April 21, 2016 at 9:00 AM - Sunday, May 22, 2016 at 11:30 PM
(GMT) - Add to Calendar
<https://www.eventbrite.com/e/open-data-festival-sierra-leone-2016-registration-22452688596#add-to-calendar-modal>
WHEREFreetown - Right to Access Information Commission Open Data Council
and the Ministry of Information and Communication Miatta Conference
Centre,Youyi Building, Brookfields, Freetown, Sierra Leone - View Map
<https://www.eventbrite.com/e/open-data-festival-sierra-leone-2016-registration-22452688596#map-target>