Open Data Week is being organized for the third year in a row by Office for IT and eGovernment and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) honoring International Open Data Day. This year seven events in five Serbian cities – Belgrade, Pančevo, Kragujevac, Valjevo and Lazarevac – will be held from March 21 to 25. Events will be focused on the impact and potential of open data and we will implement them in cooperation with numerous partners, including educational and local institutions, NGOs, media, private sector and tech community.
The local department of Western Serbia Academy of Applied Studies will hold a seminar “Research and Machine Learning from Open Data” from March 22 to 25 in Valjevo aimed at the general public, high school and college students, teachings, professors, entrepreneurs and other interested parties.
Sister Analyst association will host an “Open Data Challenge” workshop for high school students in two cities: March 23 in Lazarevac and March 24 in Belgrade. The goal of the workshop is to teach young people, age 15 to 19, how to use open data and free open-source software, like R and GitHub, for solving problems and the realization of ideas that will improve their lives. One of such applications of open data is the AirCare app which shows the level of air pollution in Serbian cities.
Together with the Association of Students with Disabilities and several media companies, the Green Peace Association will host a two-day interactive event in Kragujevac from March 23 to 24 where they will demonstrate the importance of open data for improving lives of persons with disabilities. Following the success of the city of Bor in terms of urban mobility, the participants will be mentored by the organizers to use open data to map the building accessibility problems in their city and offer inclusive solutions.
Center for Education and Transparency from Pančevo will host a media conference on March 24 where they will present the concept of open data and National Open Data Portal to journalists and show them the possibilities of integrating data visualization in media reporting. After the conference, a meetup called “Walk through the Portal – reach the data” will be held, demonstrating the use cases of open data by local and national institutions, highlighting their contributions to improving the availability of open data and demonstrating the practical applications of open data to all participants.
On the last day of Open Data Week, the Serbian Highschool Union will hold a training session in Belgrade related to the use of open data in project-based learning, focusing on topics gaining popularity with the youth – sustainable development and physical and mental health. The idea is to popularize the use of open data in teaching in order to modernize education in Serbia and to foster the development of digital skills of high school students.
On the same date, March 25, the ICT Cluster of Central Serbia, partnering with the private sector, will host an event focused on smart decision-making on the local level assisted by open data. After a lecture on the use of data visualization software (PowerBI) as support for local decision-making, a panel discussion “Open data – Link between good governance, business and education” will be held.
Participation in all events of Open Data Week is free and more information about the events and possible ways you can join and contribute can be found on the web-pages of local organizations: Green Peace, Sister Analyst, Center for Education and Transparency, Western Serbia Academy of Applied Studies, Serbian Highschool Union and ICT Cluster of Central Serbia.
Open Data Week is being organized as part of the “Open Data for Sustainable Development” project by the Office for IT and eGovernment and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Serbia, with the support of the UK Government.