All posts by Nisha Thompson

Data Diaries: What I learned

As some of you might know I’ve recently moved back to the US and after taking a break, I wanted to share some of my thoughts on the past 7 years of Open Data in India. These are just some of the big lessons I’ve learned and observations that I think are important.

Data needs advocates from every sector

Historically the biggest voices that government hears about data are corporations selling products or statisticians being gatekeepers. Now that data is a part of everybody’s life in ways that are unseen, data literacy is necessary for everyone and data needs advocates from every walk of life. What I experienced with DataMeet was that broad data ideas with inputs from experts from all sectors can be very powerful. When you advocate for the data itself and how it needs to be accessible for everyone you can give solutions and perspectives that statisticians and for profit companies can’t. Ideas that are new because they are in the best interest of the whole.  That’s why we are invited to the table because even though it doesn’t make political or economic sense (yet) to listen to us, it is a different perspective that is helpful to know.

This is why every sector, education, environment, journalists, all actors have to integrate a data advocacy component to their work.  Issues of collection, management, and access affect your work and when you go to talk to governments about the issues you want to improve, creating better data and making it easier to get should automatically be apart of it. The idea of “I got the data I need so I’m good” does not make the next time you need data, or being upset with the quality of data  being used to create policy, easier to deal with.

Building ecosystems are more important than projects

In 2011 when I started to work on water data, it became clear that there was no techie/data ecosystem for non profits to tap into for advice and talent. There were individuals but no larger culture of tech/data for public good. This hadn’t been the case in the US so when I was at India Water Portal I wanted to spend time to find it because it’s really important for success. I was basically told by several people that it wasn’t possible in India. That people don’t really volunteer or share in the way the west does. It will be difficult to achieve.

With open data growing quickly into an international fad with lots of funding from places like Open Gov Partnership and Omidyar, I knew open data projects were going to happen. But they would be in silos and they would largely not be successful. Creating a culture that asks and demands for data and then has the means to use it is not something that is created from funded projects. It comes from connecting people who have the  same issues and demonstrating the demand.

DataMeet’s largely been a successful community but not a great organization. This is my fault. A lot of my decisions were guided by those early issues. It was important to have a group of people demonstrating demand, need, and solutions who weren’t paid to be advocates but who were interested in the problem and found a safe space to try to work on it. That is how you change culture, that is why I meed people who say I believe in open data because of DataMeet. That would not have happened as much if we just did projects.

You can’t fundamentally improve governance by having access to data.

It is what we work toward as a movement but it just doesn’t really work that way- because bad governance is not caused by the lack of information or utilization of data. Accountability can’t happen without information or data; and good governance can’t happen without accountability. But all the work spent on getting the government to collect and better use data is often not useful. Mostly because of the lack of understanding of what is the root cause of the issue. I found that budget problems, under staffing, over stressed fire fighting, corruption, interest groups, and just plain apathy are more to blame then really the lack of information. This is something that civil society has to relearn all the time. Not to say data can’t help with these things, but if your plan is to give the government data and think it will solve a problem you are wasting time. Instead you should be using that data to create accountability structures that the government has to answer to. Or use that data to support already utilized accountability influences.

You gotta collect data

Funding that doesn’t include data collection, cleaning, processing costs is pointless. Data collection is expensive but necessary. In a context like India’s where it is clear that the government will not reach data collection levels that are necessary, you have to look at data collection as a required investment.  India’s large established civil society and social sector is one of its strongest assets and they collect tons of data but not consistently. A lot of projects I encountered were based on the western models of the data being there, even if not accessible, it is complete somewhere. NOPE. They count on the data existing and don’t bother to think about the problem of collection, clean up, processing, and distribution. You have to collect data and do it consistently it has to become integrated in your mission.

Data is a pretty good indicator of how big a gap exists between two people trying to communicate.

100% of every data related conversation goes like this “The data says this but I know from experience that…. ” Two people will have different values and communicating a value by saying “I think you should track xyz also, because its an important part of the story” can be a very productive way to work out differences. That is why open data methodology is so important. It also becomes a strong way for diverse interests to communicate and that is always a good thing.

Data is a common

In places that still don’t have the best infrastructure. Where institutions and official channels aren’t the most consistent. The best thing you can do is make information open and free. It will force issues out, create bigger incentives for solutions, and those solutions will be cheaper. Openness can be a substitute for money if there is an ecosystem to support the work.

You can collect lots of data but keeping it gets society no where.

A lot of people in India are wasting a lot of time doing the same thing over and over again. If I had 5 rupees for every person I spoke to who said they had already processed a shapefile that we just did, or had worked with some other dataset that is hard to clean up I could buy the Taj Mahal. Data issues in the country are decades old, but not sharing it causes stunting. Momentum is created from rapid information sharing and solutions; proprietary systems and data hoarding doesn’t. The common societal platforms that are making their way around India’s civil society and private company meeting rooms won’t do it either. You can’t design a locked in platform with every use in mind, its why generally non open portals have had such limited success. If you have solved a hard problem and make it open you save future generations from having to literally recreate the wheel you just made. How much more brainpower can you dedicate to the same problems? Let people be productive on new problems that haven’t been solved yet.

The data people in government are unsung heroes.

Whenever I met an actual worker at the NIC or BHUVAN or any of the data/tech departments they were very smart, very aware of the problems, and generally excited about the idea of DataMeet and that we could potentially help them solve a problem. It was not uncommon when being in a meeting with people from a government tech project for them to ask me to lobby another ministry to improve the data they have to process. While I wish I had that kind of influence it made me appreciate that the government is filled with people trying their best with the restrictions they have, but the government has “good bones” as they say and with better accountability could get to a better place.

I don’t think I covered everything but I’m very grateful for my time working on these issues in India. I feel like I was able to achieve something even though there is so much more to do. To meet all the people who are dedicated to solving hard problems with others and never giving up will inspire me for a long time.

 

 

Survey of India Nakshe Portal

The Survey of India has launched a map sharing portal called Nakshe.  This is a great first step for the SOI who have not exactly been the most open with their maps.

“In Nakshe portal, user can see the list and meta data of all Open Series map(OSM) district wise released by Survey of India in compliance with National Map Policy – 2005. These maps are available for free download once the user login to the site using his/her Aadhar number. ”

While we applaud this initiative we hope they make it even better and more useful to a wider population. We have submitted to the SOI a letter with recommendations for the portal you can see the letter below.

We hope to get some feedback from people who have used the portal to get maps. We are happy to keep sending them feedback in hopes they will continue to improve the portal.

Field Papers: How To

At the Indiranagar Data Party! Garbage Go! they had a few people who didn’t want to use technology to map garbage so Maanya and Aarthy printed out Field Papers for mapping. These worked really well and allowed for a more inclusive event.

Maanya from Mapbox made a how to for using Field Papers.

field-paper

Step 1: Click on Make

field-paper-1

Step 2: Go to the area you want to map and select with the rectangle.

field-paper-2

Step 3: Download and print.

They will look like this and you can give them to people to map along the way.

20160929_104244

Data Party! Garbage Go! Update

After a week of mapping 1000 spots in Bangalore has been mapped!

screencapture-citizen-co-lab-mapunitygroups-1475391663877screenshot_2016-09-30-15-45-28

We have 50 people who have mapped at least one spot across the city.  The event last Saturday brought together people from different neighborhoods to take a walk and map some garbage.

We hope to be able to double this number and maybe even get to 3000 spots by the 3rd week of October!

If you have some time please download the app and map the garbage spots in your area. You can see the full map and zoom into your neighborhood here. 

To download the app find the links below.

Link to Mapunity Groups IOS app:
Link to Mapunity Groups Android app.
See Read more 

If you don’t want to download the app feel free to send us pictures. Turn on the GPS tag on your camera and then put up your pic on Twitter or Facebook with the Hashtag #garbagego

All data will be made open at the end of the campaign.

 

RTI Stories: Repost Citizen Matters

Troubles in getting data through RTI.

From Akshatha 

It has been precisely five months since I filed an RTI application with the Advertisement department of Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) seeking information about legal and illegal advertisement hoardings in the city. (If you haven’t read the first piece you can read it here). And today as I write this second post about the status of my application, I stand in dismay, even as I continue to struggle to get the information that I am looking for.

In the last five months as I ran around pursuing this RTI application, there have been times when I sat counting the days and hours I spent on this chase. I would ask myself, “is it all worth it? What am I going to get at the end of it?” May be after months of prolonged wait, even if I succeed to get the information, it might just turn out to be obsolete. But then if I stop following it up, I for sure know, the lethargic city corporation officers who shifted their responsibility and did their best to wash their hands off, will continue doing the same in future. –
Read more 

Data Party! Garbage Go!

At DataMeet we have spent years looking for and trying to make data accessible. The last few years more and more data is being made public which we are excited about however people demand data that fills the gaps in data that already exists or that is more actionable. Data that people want and need isn’t being produced, and if it is being produced it isn’t being shared.

This is the most true in urban spaces where there are tons of projects dedicated to collecting data for the city but none of this data enters the public domain as open data. It isn’t public data because the government doesn’t collect it and the various governance and civic oriented groups who collect the data are more prone to write reports or put the analyzed data up online and not the usable and complete raw data.

So DataMeet along with Oorvani Foundation and Mapunity want to start a monthly Data Party! Where we pick a topic and try to collect as much data as we can over a month. Then we will make the data open for download on OpenCity Urban data portal and also send it to the appropriate person in the government, as well as, write data stories on Citizen Matters.

So please join us on Sept 24th to kick off the first ever Data Party! Garbage Go! 

There are an estimated 9000 garbage blackspots in Bengaluru. We are trying to catch them all!

Sign up to map your neighborhood everyday. Or join us for chai and snacks on Sept 24th and map with friends in 3 locations: Koramangala, Indiranagar or Frazertown.

You have to register and download the app so we can plan for the snacks.

Event location will be sent to you once you register.

Time is 9:30am to 12:30am – Sept 24th Saturday morning.

9:30am – Intro and app explanation
10 to 12 – Mapping
12 to 12:30 – Closing and Next Steps.

All data collected will be made open on the OpenCity.in Urban Data Portal for download and use, and this data will be sent to the BBMP and followed up on.

Indirangar – Maanya – Meeting place MapBox India

Koramangala – Nitin – Meeting place Sagar Fast Foods behind BDA complex

Frazertown – Contact Nisha Thompson – Meeting place French Loaf by Richards Park.

Register here.

Download the app and get mapping.

Link to Mapunity Groups IOS app:
Link to Mapunity Groups Android app.
SeeRead more 

Ask Us Anything – Updated

It has been 5 years and we are now at over 1500 members and we thought it would be a good time to do an Ask Us Anything Hangout with DataMeet Central – Thej, Anand S, and me.

It will be Tuesday September 20th, at 6:30pm. We will be doing a broadcast Google Hangout will send the link out half hour before.  Bring your thoughts and questions about DataMeet, data in India, things we have done, things we should do, etc. It would be helpful to have some questions beforehand so feel free to comment here, if not you can ask during the hangout!

Hope to see you then!
Updated!
Thanks to everyone who joined the hangout! Here’s the video.

Save the Map – Update

From Sajjad

Thank you so much for supporting Save the Map ()
and sending your thoughts to the Ministry of Home Affairs regarding the Geospatial Information Regulation Bill. We manage to send over1700 emails to the MHA, and several organisations and groups sent feedback to them expressing disapproval of the current state of the bill.

As of the monsoon session the bill was not submitted to Parliament and seems to have been put on the back burner. There has been no official response regarding if they will change the draft and incorporate any of the feedback. So as of right now we are unsure if the bill will come back and what form it will take.

We will be continuing to monitor the situation and send updates when there are new developments. You can see some other responses/comments that have been sent to the MHA [1].

Again thank you for your support and quick action. We hope to continue working toward a good policy on geospatial information that supports individuals and businesses to continue to innovate in the space.

Cheers,
Sajjad for Save the Map team

[1]

* DataMeethttp://datameet.org/2016/06/02/our-comments-on-the-geospatial-information-regulation-bill-2016/
* FICCI – http://blog.ficci.com/geospatial-information-regulation-bill/6446/
* Digital Empowerment Foundation –
http://internetrights.in/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/DEF-
Comments-on-Draft-Geospatial-Bill.pdf
* Center for Internet and Society –
http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/comments-draft-geospatial-information-regulation-bill-2016
* Medianama – http://www.medianama.com/2016/06/223-medianamas-submission-to-the-geospatial-information-regulation-bill-2016/
* Internet Freedom Foundation –
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9LKE-1DkhtFaGpENjRtallHcEFrVGRjbW1IYndWUl96VUhZ/view

Open Data Camp 2016: Pollution Party! Full Schedule

REGISTER TODAY! We have reached capacity but have left it open for today. If you are not registered you won’t be able to join as Google security is very strict and will require you to be on a list.

Day 1: Pollution Party!

9:00am – 10:00am Registration
10:00am – 10:15am Introduction to OpenDataCamp
Team DataMeet
10:15am – 10.55am Karnataka State Pollution Control Board
By Dr Nagappa, Scientific Officer
11:00am – 11:10am Tea Break
11:15am – 12.00PM Environmental Support Group
12:00pm – 01.00PM Water Dr. Priyanka Jamwal
Environmental Researcher who currently is a fellow in ATREE. Her work focuses on identification of contaminant sources in surface water bodies, modeling the fate and transport of contaminants in urban hydrological systems and assessing the risk to human health due to exposure to contaminants.
01:00PM – 02.00PM Lunch
02:00PM – 03.00PM Pollution Data Collection Demos
Sensors without Borders, IndiaSpend*, Hindustan Times, YUKTIX – Open Weather Network Bangalore, India Open Data Association
03:00PM – 03.15PM Tea Break
03:15PM – 03:45PM Getting to 12 PM 2.5 | Setting the context for Action!
Sensing Local is a Bengaluru based do-tank focused towards making cities healthier, safer and more inclusive. The studio is working in partnership with Anti Pollution Drive (APD) Foundation, Mangalore towards a collaborative project on tackling air pollution. (https://sensinglocal.wordpress.com/
03:45PM – 04:45PM Urban Emissions
By Sarath Guttikunda
04:45PM – 05.30PM Group conversation and planning session on response to Geospatial Information Regulation Bill 2016
By Volunteers of SaveTheMap.in
05:30PM – 06.00PM Closing Remarks and Plans for Day 2

Pollution DEMO HAPPY HOUR!

Mapbox Happy Hour, 6p to 9pm. Puma Social Club, 100ft Road, Indiranagar. Bring your badges!

Day 2: Action Party!

“Hardware Hello World” for children.

A video posted by Thejesh GN ತೇಜೇಶ್ ಜಿ ಎನ್ (@thejeshgn) on

Sign your kid up to learn how to build environment sensors.

Sensor workshop poster

It is also a free day for people to demo, share and work on any projects they want!

Huge thank you to our sponsors!

Sponsors

http://juxt-smartmandate.com/project/india-open-data-association/

Geospatial Information Regulation Bill 2016

The Ministry of Home Affairs just released a draft policy on regulating geospatial data.  We have several concerns regarding this bill and are drafting a response.

Here’s what you can do to contribute to the conversation.

  1. Read and comment on the policy here.
  2. Contribute to the conversation on the google group or
  3. contribute to the hackpad where we are gathering thoughts.

We have a month to respond. This bill could seriously restrict everyone’s access to mapping data and it even might restrict a individuals ability to keep any mapping data. It is an important conversation we need to have with the government.