Open Data Day 2019!
Publication Date/Time
2019-03-06T09:00:00+00:00
Country
Global
Celebrating Open Data Day 2019 around the world
OPEN DATA DAY 2019

This year the international open data community celebrated the Open
Data Day [/en/news/save-date-open-data-day-2019] again.

Open Data Day [https://opendataday.org/] is an international annual
event where data enthusiasts gather to connect and build new solutions
to complex social issues by using open data. The event aims to not
only show the benefits of open data (such as an increase in
efficiency, transparency, innovation and economic growth), but also to
encourage the adoption of open data policies in various government
bodies, businesses and civil societies. Open Data Day takes place
globally and includes talks, seminars, hackathons, demonstrations and
trainings on different tracks selected for that year. In addition,
there are announcements of open data releases or other milestones in
open data.

For its ninth year, Open Data Day
[https://blog.okfn.org/2019/01/23/announcing-the-open-data-day-2019-mini-grant-scheme/]
event organisers could select from four tracks:

 	* FOLLOWING PUBLIC MONEY FLOWS with a focus on Open Contracting.
 	* OPEN MAPPING, where participants will learn about the power of
maps to develop better communities.
 	* OPEN SCIENCE, focusing on topics from open research data to open
access and how they contribute to making science more relatable and
significant for people.
 	* EQUAL DEVELOPMENT, where participants discuss anything from the
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to using data at a local level to
create impact.

This year, Open Data Day had over 300 registered events across the
world with over 50 events in Europe.

OPEN BELGIUM 2019 IN BRUSSELS, BELGIUM 

An example of an Open Data Day 2019 event was Open Belgium 2019
[http://2019.openbelgium.be/], an annual event that focuses on open
knowledge and open data and provides a platform for people to voice
their open efforts in Belgium.

This year, Open Belgium had the theme "open, usable, useful, used".
The event took place on 4 March 2019 and had participants from various
government bodies, different industries, areas of academia and
research and interested stakeholders. Open Belgium 2019 focused on
openness within Belgium from a local point-of-view and a European
perspective. The event:

 	* Gave stage to national and international keynote speakers.
 	* Presented several use cases and workshops that focused on topics
such as open data within the Flemish government, the EU copyright
reform, the role of open data portals in promoting and increasing the
usage of open data and FAIR - Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and
Re-usable - data.
 	* Showcased new evolutions in the area of open data and several best
practices from within Belgium and across the world.

One keynote speaker at Open Belgium was Catherine Stihler, the chief
executive of Open Knowledge International [https://okfn.org/], who
highlighted the importance of open data and open knowledge. In
addition, she discussed how openness is at risk because, for example,
expert views are being dismissed and ignored and facts are being
labelled as 'fake news'. She concluded with how we need to work
together to raise the profile of open knowledge and promote openness
by sharing, finding and using data.

Another speech was delivered by Ton Zijlstra, the founder of The Green
Land [https://thegreenland.eu/]. The Green Land provides advice,
research, execution and missionary work with a focus on open data to
achieve 'Open by Design'. In his speech 'the (im)possibilities of
measuring open data [http://www.zylstra.org/blog/]', Ton Zijlstra
focused on what the difficulties are to measure open data impact; what
the common patterns are across existing research; and how to avoid the
pitfalls. In addition, he discussed how to use commonalities to build
a framework and measure open data impact and the framework he helped
developing to measure open data impact for UNDP Serbia
[http://www.rs.undp.org/content/serbia/en/home.html]. The framework
was shown as a use case and best practice to measure the impact of
open data and is meant to be relatable and usable for organisations.
The framework is based on how existing cases, papers and researchers
have already tried to establish socio-economic impact.

OPEN DATA DAY AND THE EU DATATHON 2019 

On this year's Open Data Day, we celebrated open data leaders and
discussed how to continue creating and promoting open data to address
complex social issues around the world. With the first open data
milestone event of 2019 closing, we are looking forward to the
upcoming events. For example, the EU Datathon 2019
[https://publications.europa.eu/en/web/eudatathon]!

The EU Datathon is organised by the Publications Office of the
European Union
[https://publications.europa.eu/en/web/about-us/who-we-are] in
partnership with the Romanian Presidency of the Council of the
European Union [https://www.romania2019.eu/home/] and will take place
on 13 JUNE 2019 in BRUSSELS, BELGIUM. The EU Datathon 2019 aims to
stimulate the use and re-use of open data and to support competitors
in showcasing their data skills and innovative ideas. Participants are
invited to develop apps and interactive visualisations that offer new
services or public information insights to citizens, public
authorities and businesses.

Submit your ideas for the EU Datathon by 24 MARCH 2019 to win one of
the cash prizes on one of the three challenges:

 	* Challenge 1: Innovative ideas through EU open data.
 	* Challenge 2: New insights into economics and finance.
 	* Challenge 3: Tackling climate change.

For those interested in Challenge 3, join the EU Datathon Webinar 5:
Possible datasets for challenge 3
[https://publications.europa.eu/en/web/eudatathon/webinars] tomorrow 7
MARCH 2019.

Learn more about the EU Datathon 2019
[https://publications.europa.eu/en/web/eudatathon] and other open-data
events [/en/what-we-do/calendar] and follow the European Data Portal
[/en/homepage] on Twitter [http://twitter.com/EU_DataPortal], Facebook
[http://www.facebook.com/EuropeanDataPortal] or LinkedIn
[https://www.linkedin.com/groups/8428984] to stay up to date!
