Data.Africa
Several local, civic and institutional initiatives to promote and open up data have been launched in French-speaking African countries. Without a single platform or directory, it is often difficult to learn about dedicated websites and activities that have been completed or are under way. A lack of targeted communication also limits the use of datasets by local media and other intended audiences.
We propose creating an African platform called www.data.africa to document all existing initiatives and projects. It will also aggregate the latest content published through national projects. The platform will serve as a database and, above all, as an effective way to communicate about projects led by members and other stakeholders in the community.
The www.data.africa platform is intended both as a meeting place and as a tool to support civic initiatives that promote open data and its use for social initiatives.
Activists and organisations interested in collecting, processing and managing data in French-speaking Africa have recognised that they lack the resources to stay in touch and make their efforts more effective through the exchange of experience. The www.data.africa platform is intended to provide a space for that exchange: a single hub for all these regional projects.
First and foremost, the platform will be a directory of initiatives, organisations and activities in the field of open data in French-speaking Africa. It will be a reference point for African open-data advocacy movements, as well as a useful tool for groups with similar aims in other parts of the world. The platform will give the digital activist community a new way to connect with like-minded groups elsewhere.
This meeting space will also be an open door for other civil society groups and organisations that can make use of open data. Social enterprises and social movements alike can contribute to social transformation by drawing on the availability of such data.
In short, www.data.africa will bring African open-data initiatives together with similar initiatives in other regions and with other organisations that can make use of available data. It will also serve as a showcase and a source of information that society can fully benefit from.
The case for a platform such as www.data.africa rests on the fact that, without a single hub and comprehensive directory of these initiatives, it is often difficult to find out about dedicated websites or activities in development or planned in the field of open data. These communication challenges limit the initiatives, while making it harder for local media and other stakeholders — including those who might want to work with the data from different perspectives — to use the datasets.
The www.data.africa platform will document all existing initiatives and projects. It will also aggregate the latest content published by national projects. It will serve as a database and as an effective tool for communicating about projects led by members and other stakeholders in the open-data community.
