Who the hell are you?
Self-confessed data nerd (I literally bore my wife to tears)
Open Data Credentials
-
Co-founder of Odadi (open data and democracy initiative)
- One of the coordinators of HacksHackers Cape Town
- Usurper of the OKFN-ZA mailing list
- Director of Code4SA
Hacktavist Wannabe (more on this later)
I kissed the data dark-side....and I liked it (profile stalking on an industrial scale, debt collection, customer profiling).
Email: adi@burgercom.co.za
Data? I JUST came for the free Booze
- A record of events or facts
- Usually quantitative (numbers, labels, etc) but could also be qualitative - stories too.
GAMBLING WITH HUMAN LIFE
It is sad to see that not even simple medicine such as pen v and piriton is available at the clinic. People will lose confidence they arrive at the clinic and are only given Panado. The ministry should improve the working culture than to gamble with human life.
Numbers, Stories, Got IT - Why do I care again?
- Data helps us understand the world around us (how much does my neighbour's house cost? Is my neighbourhood safe? What is the student/teacher ratio at my child's school)
- It helps us make better decisions (is this car really worth R100,000, where should the ANC focus their resources in the upcoming elections?)
- It helps us hold the authorities to account?
Heard on Twitter
@statssa spent R100m last year (10x time than the previous year) on catering. That's a lot of partying. Anything to do with #census2011?
@soapsudtycoon the increase is due to aprox 160 000 extra staff trained and employed for census 2011
COULD YOU PLEASE MOVE onto the PRETTY PICTURES?
Data by itself is not useful.
Only data geeks like it.
Real people don't care.
INFORMATION products and TOOLS
The main output of our work is the production of products.
Products help people make decisions about their lives and their environments:
- medicine stockouts
- house prices in the neighbourhood
- housing lists
- access to services
- neighbourhood crime
- politics and battlegrounds
- who is stinking up the neighbourhood?
Where can I find DATA?
-
StatsSA - it's there, you just have to play peek-a-boo for a bit
-
AfricaOpenData.org
- Independent Electoral Commission
- Municipal Demarcation Board
- Build it yourself
- Ask on the mailing lists - more later
You lost me there. Please PAINT me a picture
Give me a second to get onto my soapbox and start preaching about open source software.
* if anyone is reading this presentation online - sorry, this slide is mostly about me waving my arms in the air.
I'm sold. Where do I sign up
Open Data Described
By Adi Eyal
