Kenya frees Government data on the Internet
President Mwai Kibaki launched last Friday a key website making Kenya the first country in sub Saharan Africa to offer loads of government data to its citizens.
The government has released several large datasets, including the national census and statistics on government spending at national and county level to enhance transparency in governance and access to information.
The data presented in user-friendly format is now available online via an open data portal.
In an interview with Nation, Dr Ndemo said the website will be one of the first and largest government data portals in sub-Saharan Africa.
"With the open data portal, such obstacles will be a thing of the past. Information is power and we are aiming to empower citizens by enhancing their access to usable data that was not accessible easily to the public," said Ministry of Information Permanent Secretary, Dr Bitange Ndemo.
"For the first time, Kenyans will have information about their community at their fingertips allowing them to make informed decisions at a personal level--currently most decisions people make are not scientific since they are not based on data yet data is available but inaccessible," he added.
The PS said the portal is part of an initiative of pushing local content to the Internet and to offer over 70,000 Kenyans who graduate from Kenyan colleges annually to manipulate the data for beneficial use.
"By creating a knowledge society, you create a knowledge economy...we do not want to lag behind as we watch other countries releasing data to their people for profitable use...we have not even scratched the surface in terms of data, we are working on data centres, which was our last piece of infrastructure development," he said.
The information on the portal is from published government data available from the ministries of Finance, Planning, Local Government, Health, Education and the Kenya National Bureaus of Statistics.
According to Dr Ndemo, much of this information is also available at the World Bank and the United Nations thus it beats logic why it has not been openly availed to citizens.
Dr Ndemo said globally, governments are adopting the concept of open data to reap benefits of a more informed citizenry.
This, he said, would deter public servants and politicians from vices such as fraud that thrive in situations where secrecy and monopoly of information abounds.
Dr Ndemo said data users will be able to create maps and other visualizations and directly download underlying data for their own uses.
"Data is not information until it is converted to make sense to users...that is what we have done at the portal," Dr Nemo said.
This has never happened before and it welcomes an era of openness where the citizen will be empowered to put leaders to account in the use and distribution of public resources.
For instance it will now be near impossible to misuse public funds since all records pertaining spending shall be available online for citizens to scrutinise and ascertain if 'what is on the paper tallies with what is on the ground'.
For decades, it has been the practice of some unscrupulous government officials to misuse public funds and misinform that the money has been spent to implement 'non-existent' projects.
With the open data portal, constituents will track monies assigned on projects and point out discrepancies between expenditure reports and reality at the grassroot.
Dr Ndemo said the Ministry of Information and Communications will give grants to support the development of innovative high-impact web and mobile applications to ensure useful and relevant applications are built.
Through the Kenya ICT Board, the Ministry will make a Call for Proposals for ideas on how to use government data.
The Call for Proposals is open from July 8 - August 8; the best proposals will receive $50,000 each (for companies) and $10,000 (for teams and individuals). At least 30 grants will be awarded in 2011.
The portal is managed by the Kenya ICT Board in partnership with the World Bank and Socrata, a US-based developer and provider of Open Data Services that enable federal, state, and local governments to improve the reach, usability and social utility of their public information assets.
Source: The Daily Nation via Balancing Act
The government has released several large datasets, including the national census and statistics on government spending at national and county level to enhance transparency in governance and access to information.
The data presented in user-friendly format is now available online via an open data portal.
In an interview with Nation, Dr Ndemo said the website will be one of the first and largest government data portals in sub-Saharan Africa.
"With the open data portal, such obstacles will be a thing of the past. Information is power and we are aiming to empower citizens by enhancing their access to usable data that was not accessible easily to the public," said Ministry of Information Permanent Secretary, Dr Bitange Ndemo.
"For the first time, Kenyans will have information about their community at their fingertips allowing them to make informed decisions at a personal level--currently most decisions people make are not scientific since they are not based on data yet data is available but inaccessible," he added.
The PS said the portal is part of an initiative of pushing local content to the Internet and to offer over 70,000 Kenyans who graduate from Kenyan colleges annually to manipulate the data for beneficial use.
"By creating a knowledge society, you create a knowledge economy...we do not want to lag behind as we watch other countries releasing data to their people for profitable use...we have not even scratched the surface in terms of data, we are working on data centres, which was our last piece of infrastructure development," he said.
The information on the portal is from published government data available from the ministries of Finance, Planning, Local Government, Health, Education and the Kenya National Bureaus of Statistics.
According to Dr Ndemo, much of this information is also available at the World Bank and the United Nations thus it beats logic why it has not been openly availed to citizens.
Dr Ndemo said globally, governments are adopting the concept of open data to reap benefits of a more informed citizenry.
This, he said, would deter public servants and politicians from vices such as fraud that thrive in situations where secrecy and monopoly of information abounds.
Dr Ndemo said data users will be able to create maps and other visualizations and directly download underlying data for their own uses.
"Data is not information until it is converted to make sense to users...that is what we have done at the portal," Dr Nemo said.
This has never happened before and it welcomes an era of openness where the citizen will be empowered to put leaders to account in the use and distribution of public resources.
For instance it will now be near impossible to misuse public funds since all records pertaining spending shall be available online for citizens to scrutinise and ascertain if 'what is on the paper tallies with what is on the ground'.
For decades, it has been the practice of some unscrupulous government officials to misuse public funds and misinform that the money has been spent to implement 'non-existent' projects.
With the open data portal, constituents will track monies assigned on projects and point out discrepancies between expenditure reports and reality at the grassroot.
Dr Ndemo said the Ministry of Information and Communications will give grants to support the development of innovative high-impact web and mobile applications to ensure useful and relevant applications are built.
Through the Kenya ICT Board, the Ministry will make a Call for Proposals for ideas on how to use government data.
The Call for Proposals is open from July 8 - August 8; the best proposals will receive $50,000 each (for companies) and $10,000 (for teams and individuals). At least 30 grants will be awarded in 2011.
The portal is managed by the Kenya ICT Board in partnership with the World Bank and Socrata, a US-based developer and provider of Open Data Services that enable federal, state, and local governments to improve the reach, usability and social utility of their public information assets.
Source: The Daily Nation via Balancing Act
