1) The document discusses building citizen-focused open data ecosystems in Africa through a grassroots, demand-driven approach. 2) It outlines a "pipeline" strategy using partnerships, skills training, community building, infrastructure development, tools, fellowships and funding to empower citizens and create social impact through open data. 3) The goal is to seed skills, build local capacity, produce useful tools and prototypes, and ultimately establish self-sustaining open data ecosystems across Africa.

1. Building Demand-driven &
Citizen-focused Open Data
Ecosystems

2. civ·ic /ˈsivik/ Adjective
1. Of or relating to a city or town, esp. its administration; municipal.
2. Of or relating to the duties or activities of people in relation to their town, city, or local area.
We are guided by the 2nd definition.
We are a grassroots-driven and demandfocused movement that seeks to build active
citizenry by strengthening civic watchdogs
and creating new avenues for civic
engagement to help shape better public
governance & public services.
http://CodeForAfrica.org

3. Image © http://www.flickr.com/photos/microlinks/
Citizen focused:
We empower mass mobilisation agents,
such as citizen movements and the
media, to give ordinary citizens access to
data, tools, and skills for real civic
engagement.

4. Image © http://www.flickr.com/photos/albanyassociates/
Demand driven:
Open data needs to be more than just rhetoric. It needs to
answer the real-world challenges facing citizens. And, it
needs to be underpinned by a data economy.

5. Image © http://www.flickr.com/photos/ilri/
Outcomes based:
We aim for 'outcomes' not just 'outputs'.
Our metric for success is meaningful
impact, that creates lasting change
through citizen agency. We also aim for
scalability and/or replication in all our
initiatives.

6. Pipeline strategy:
To build a selfsustaining ecosystem,
you need catalytic
mechanisms that
support the
germination and
growth of open data
champions.
Our 'pipeline' strategy
uses a modular
approach to provide
incremental access to
resources, skills,
support systems, and
various acceleration
mechanisms.

7. 1 - Partnerships:
We're building a demand-driven eco-system of data creators + curators
and data analysts + narrators, partnered with grassroots citizen
movements.

8. Nairobi Data Bootcamp 2012
2 - Data Literacy Skills:
We host data literacy bootcamps and
masterclasses, develop course
materials, and convene strategic
policy roundtables + catalytic
hackdays across Africa to develop
data skills & knowledge.
http://DataBootcamp.org

9. Ghana
Ghana
Ghana
Malawi
Tanzania
Tanzania
South Africa
Seeding Skills Across the Continent

10. Hacks/Hackers
Code4Democracy
3 - Building Community
We're creating a diverse community
of civic hackers, data activists and
data narrators through a panAfrican network of Hacks/Hackers
chapters, citizen tech desks in
incubators, and 'kickstarter' Code
for Democracy co-creation events.

11. d|Roundtables strategy sessions
d|Clinic project planning
#EditorsLab hackathons
MediaParty data summits

12. openAFRICA.net - the continent's largest
volunteer-run open data repository
4 - Building the Backbone:
Much like the railways powered industrialisation,
Africa needs open data infrastructure, from data
and code repositories, to an AfricanCommons
resource hub. We've adopted a modular,
community-centric approach.
http://OpenAfrica.net

13. OpenDuka + AfricaConnected - turning
parliamentary, newsroom & university
archives into machine readable data
Liberating Data:
By digitizing documents and knowledge
within media, academia, and civil society,
we're turning 'deadwood' archives into
new digital 'structured data' resources,
with open APIs to allow for 3rd party reuse.
http://OpenDuka.org

14. Citizen Tools:
Data needs to be
action-orientated, to
be meaningful. It
should help citizens
decipher & navigate
the complex forces
shaping their worlds.
It should support
evidence-based
public discourse &
decisionmaking .
http://wmmd.codeforafrica.org

15. Prototypes:
Most Africans don’t
believe that
granular data
exists - and even if
it does, they believe
it is too complex
for ordinary citizens
to use
meaningfully.
Proof-of-Concept
prototypes that
demonstrate both
accessibility and
ease of use are
therefore crucial for
changing
mindsets.
http://dotmap.adrianfrith.com/

16. 5 - Fellowship Programs:
National-level fellowship programs that
embed technologists into 'mass
mobilisation' organisations, to catalyze
change & build proof-of-concept
products or services.
http://Code4Kenya.org

17. GotToVote:
A data-driven application that helped
citizens find their election registration
centers, and then helped track polling
results, plus allowed them to send
'peace messages' to fellow voters.
http://GotToVote.co.ke

18. FindMySchool:
A data-driven application that helps
parents track & compare academic
performance at schools, as well as
identify schools their children will be
channelled into, based on
performance.
http://findmyschool.co.ke/

19. Star Health:
A suite of data-driven applications
that help citizens check if their doctors
are in 'good standing', whether their
treatment / prescriptions will be
covered by health insurance, and
where their nearest medical specialists
are.
http://starhealth.code4kenya.org

20. 6 - Citizen Tech Labs:
Core teams of coders in jAccelerators,
with additional mentorships +
workspace for data start-ups and
citizen-driven projects in tech
incubators across Africa.

21. 7 - Funding to Scale:
A venture funding pipeline, offering angel
& early-stage impact investment, to
initiatives that have achieved meaningful
traction, and that offer scalability,
sustainability and replicability.
http://AfricanNewsChallenge.org

22. Growing the Circle
The focus now is on diversifying funding
sources, to allow for wider support in new
thematic focus areas, plus funding to
help startups scale beyond prototype.

23. What's
Next?

24. Kickstarting
A
Continent:
Building on the
success of the
Kenyan pilot,
we are
launching in 3
new countries,
to embed data
fellows, to build
the underlying
infrastructure,
and produce
proof that data
tools work
through
prototypes and
qualitative
research.

25. Knowledge
Sharing:
Share our successes
& mistakes with the
world

26. Nepal (Asia)
Argentina (LatAm)
Moldova (E.Europe)
Jordan (M.East)

27. Global Commons:
Instead of constantly reinventing the
wheel, we're focusing on pooling
resources to build common
solutions. OpenAfrica.net has already
inspired a clone in Latin America,
and we are collaborating with Code
for Europe to build OpenCivic as a
common resource and toolset.

28. Taking Open Data to the Grassroots
http://CodeForAfrica.org

29. What Have We Learned?
?
Human Capital
Building human capital is as (if not more) important as building technology.
Community Base
Initiatives are only as good as the community that you nurture.
Early Partnerships
You need to forge 'real' partnerships with thematic experts & 'end-user'
beneficiaries prior to building anything.
Grassroots Impact
To design for grassroots impact, you need to get out into the field for usercentric needs assessment.
Minimum Viable Product
Building proof-of-concept prototypes does not need to cost much nor do
they need to take much time.
Iterative Approach
Keeping ideas / solutions simple works best. Iterate, get feedback, reiterate,
cull what doesn't work, scale what does.
http://CodeForAfrica.org

30. Want to Collaborate?
Speak to Us
info@codeforafrica.org
@code4africa
http://CodeForAfrica.org

31. Thank You
Justin Arenstein
@JustinArenstein