Understanding the Demand for Open Financial Data
Image Credit: World Bank Flickr
Why worry about the demand for open data?
When it comes to open data, much has been done around what we can publish, but much more can be done on identifying what others might need and want. Many open data initiatives have been started as supply-driven efforts seeking to increase transparency and leverage new information dissemination technologies - and that’s been a good way to start. However, being supply-driven is not the only way forward – a genuinely demand-driven approach would allow data providers to respond to, rather than anticipate, the data needs of users.
So what is the demand for open data? This is a simple question that is difficult to answer. Unearthing even elements of the answer would help to increase understanding, inform the continued practical growth of open data efforts and activities, and hopefully result in more relevant, accessible, and widely-used data.
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- wbfinances
- opendata
Would you give up your personal data for development?
If you joined us at the World Bank for Open Data Day on Saturday, February 23, you heard about the DC Data Dive slated for March 15-17.
If you're playing catch up, read more about the plans and potential impact for future Data Dives. Also have a look at what colleagues at a Data Dive in Venice accomplished by analysing World Bank contracts and vendors. And now, read the cross-posted blog below from UNDP's Giulio Quaggiotto and World Bank's Prasanna Lal Das who ask: Would You Give Up Your Personal Data for Development?
What has the World Bank done for your neighborhood lately?
Let’s say you are in the middle of what others may call ‘nowhere’ and need information on the Bank’s work in the vicinity before an upcoming meeting with local officials. Or you are a civil society organization rep and want to make sure that the numbers you have about a particular project are the same as what the Bank reports (and if not, you want to know why not).
Your laptop is no good because - it is the middle of nowhere after all! - and you can only rue your decision to leave your stack of papers behind.
What do you do? Well, the answer might be in your pocket.
It took longer than we'd hoped but it's finally here - the new World Bank Finances app answers many of the questions you asked after the release of the first version last year (click here to download the new version for Android; an updated iOS version will be out soon).
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- wbfinances
- opendata
The Power of Open: Crowd-Sourced Ideas & Crowd-Powered Solutions
#DDC2012 + #RHoK - The people spoke, financial data was published, and answers were developed.
What did you do this weekend? How was your weekend? For most of us, these are simple routine questions which often warrant rote and unrehearsed responses: “fine,” “great,” and perhaps even a nonchalant, “not bad.” However, those who took part in the World Bank Finances Development Data Challenge (DDC) on Friday and Random Hacks of Kindness (RHoK) on Saturday & Sunday were not only witness to but a part of an extraordinary series of events that displayed the power of crowd-sourced ideas and solutions. They might tell the story of an amazing three days, a story of collective passion, resolve, collaboration, and results. It is the story of how an idea was formed, empowered, and developed over what was collectively just over twenty-four hours.