Open Data Day by SUZA YouthMappers - Event Report
- Date
- Tuesday 9 March 2021
- Time
- 13:00 (EAT)
- Location
- Zanzibar, Tanzania (Europe, Middle East & Africa)
- Organisers
- SUZA YouthMappers
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 Mapbox.
How did your event celebrate open data?
The event was organised by female interns from Resilience Academy programme, SUZA Youthmappers members and several alumni.
Things kicked off with a welcoming session from the Youthmappers vice president, followed by a short speech from a representative of the SUZA students organisation. This session was followed by a short presentation about Open Data Day, Youthmappers and the EverywhereSheMaps initiative by Mrs Raya Ahmada, SUZA Youthmappers mentor and regional ambassador.
The first speaker, Jamila Mdungi, a Resilience Academy Intern and SUZA Youthmappers alumni, started with an Introduction to GIS.
The next speaker, Asya Juma, talked about the Geonode, a climate risk database. Asya is also an RA intern and SUZA Youthmappers committee member. She introduced the importance of supporting research, education and disaster-risk management practices.
The sessions were followed by data visualisations presented by three SUZA Youthmappers members and alumni, all of which are females. Some of the data visualisations showed flood risk assessments based on waste collection points near the drainage system in Zanzibar and the Zanzibar waste collection atlas.
Mr. Yussuf from Tanzania Flying Labs then finished with the discussion on drones and AI.
The event finished with a surprise gift from SUZA Youthmappers students to their mentor to show appreciation of the support they get from her. A wall clock with SUZA Youthmappers logo and the mentor name was printed on the display.
Open Data Day event organized by @SUZAYouthMapper with the support from @OKFN ..
— SUZAYouthMappers (@SUZAYouthMapper) March 9, 2021
Much Thanks to Youthmappers Tanzania Regional Ambassador @RayaIdrissa @youthmappers @StateSuza pic.twitter.com/4cXN4MHSRp
Lessons learned from your event
The event gave the students from SUZA and other universities the chance to learn more about open data and the GIS skills. It also gave us a room to transfer knowledge from students who have the skills to those who are new to the field.
Mr. Yussuf, a computer science graduate at SUZA, was a vivid example as he is now working with drones at Tanzania Flying Labs. Most of the presented data visualisations were also prepared by the students from the department of computer science and IT. So it is not only about collecting data, but also producing meaningful stories from existing data.
The students were excited about open data - all they needed was support and motivation. The Open Data Day celebration provided a platform for open data awareness to the community, and it should continue to offer more support.
Why do you love Open Data Day?
Open data is a very important platform to show the benefits of open data and encourage girls and women to participate in open data collection and use for the benefits of the community.
