Open Data for Democracy: Emphasise what would be lost if we don’t have open data in our country - Event Report

Fecha

Saturday 6 March 2021

Horario

14:30 (ICT)

Local

Online, Thailand (Asia & The Pacific)

Organizadores

Punch Up and ELECT.in.th

On Saturday 6th March 2021, the eleventh Open Data Day took place with people around the world organising hundreds of events to celebrate, promote and spread the use of open data. Thanks to generous support from key funders, the Open Knowledge Foundation was able to support the running of more than 60 of these events via our mini-grants scheme.

This event received an Open Knowledge Foundation mini-grant thanks to support from the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.

How did your event celebrate open data?

On March 6, we held the afternoon event themed in 'Open Data for Democracy,' which includes two main sessions. The event was held hybrid: about 40 participants were in our office, while about 100 participants joined online.

The first session features 15-minute talks. We invited 4 guest speakers to give some update and opinion about open data in Thailand and neighboring countries. The topics include :

• Dream and Hope : what could we have if we have open data in our country, by a speaker from Malaysiakini
  
• Welcome to the real world! : open data situation in Thailand, by a chief editor of Thairath (Thailand's biggest media)
  
• What's next? : suggestion for Thailand's data governance structure, by a researcher and academic
  
• Understand Better! : PDPA (Personal Data Protection Act) and open data in Thailand, by a researcher and academic
  
  The other session features 1-hour panel discussion. We invited 3 guest speakers from research institute (Siam Lab), civil organization (iLaw), and civic technology (ELECT) to discuss about open government. The topics include :
  
• What is open government and how does it deal with open data?
  
• How open data can support democracy in our country? And what's the problems now?
  
• What have we lost when we don’t have open data?
  
• What's our next expectation? And what can/should the government and people do?
  
  We also held a mini data exhibition, gathering all our and our partners' projects that deal with government data, to narrate the struggling process of establishing each project and why open data matters.
  
  Before and after the event day, we also held clubhouse sessions, inviting other guests and those who are interested in this issue, but can't join the event day, to discuss about open data as well.
  
  A summary of the event is published here: https://elect.in.th/open-data (it's in Thai - please use translator)

เรียกน้ำย่อย สำหรับงาน #OpenDataDay กับผลงาน “เปิดความยาก VS ง่าย กว่าจะได้ Open Data ของภาครัฐ” ที่โชว์ตัวอย่างผลงาน ที่ทีมงานได้พยายามขอข้อมูลจากภาครัฐ เเละนำมาเเปลงมาเป็นชิ้นงานที่ประชาชนจะสามารถเข้าใจได้ง่ายเเละชัดเจนนั้น ต้องผ่านเวลาเเละด่านความยากง่ายมากี่ขั้นตอน pic.twitter.com/C92YgfaGmB

— ELECT.in.th (@electinth) March 6, 2021

Lessons learned from your event

• Even most participants admired all speakers we invited, but we think we should decrease numbers of speakers but give them more time to go more into details
  
• We thought we should think about more activities to let participants join and do something. (We started thinking about this event a bit too late - maybe next year :))
  
• We have a lot of untouched domain for open data; we have a lot of things to do!

Why do you love Open Data Day?

It encourages everyone in every corner of my country and also around the world to talk about 'open data' at least annually.

•