Community

Director of the Office for Information Technologies and eGovernment

Open Data Coordinator, Office for Information Technologies and eGovernment

Andreja is a person that walks and breathes data. She joined the open data initiative very early. Through the engagement in various projects, she was mostly in contact with local governments and the focus of her work lately was the opening of local-level data. She participated in the preparation of a study on the local self-governments’ readiness to open data. She is the co-author of two publications on open data and is responsible for the standardization of open data format for local budgets and preparation of transport data in the GTFS standard. One of her strengths is expertise in data visualization using BI tools. Her motto is: “Open data requires open people”.

The Open Data portal Administrator, Office for Information Technologies and eGovernment

He’s been a part of the team for the Development and Maintenance of the National Open Data portal since 2017.
He was also involved in improving and redesigning the portal with active work on its promotion during 2018 and 2019.
The Portal migration from one infrastructure to another didn’t avoid his engagement and coordination between Office for IT and e-Government and Telekom Serbia.
There are numerous lectures on open data, as well as guest appearances at public forums and gatherings on open data.
Working on the Open Data Portal is still one of his central activities in the Office.

Sanja Arizanovic is a project coordinator in UNDP, where she coordinates the Open Data related projects. She’s graduated at the Faculty of Political Sciences in Belgrade. Since 2013 she is active in the field of the public administration reform, through work in civil society sector, and since 2017 she works on introducing open data in Serbia and putting Serbia on a global open data map. She held numerous learning courses on transparency of public administration and open data related topics, for different stakeholders. Sanja is a author of several policy papers, and she is a member of the Working group for the implementation of the Open Government Partnership in Serbia.

Slobodan Marković is a Digital Advisor with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Serbia. For the past two decades, he has been actively involved in advocating for and developing ICT policies in Serbia. Prior to joining UNDP, he worked at the Serbian National Internet Domains Registry (RNIDS) as an Advisor for ICT Policy and Internet Community Relations. From 2014 to 2017, he was a member of the Multistakeholder Advisory Group (MAG), which advises the UN Secretary-General on the Internet Governance Forum (IGF). From 2008 to 2012, he worked at the Serbian Ministry of Telecommunications and Information Society, advising the Minister on telecoms liberalization, e-government, and e-business policy. In 2010, he received the “e-Commerce AWARD” for his ten-year dedication to the development of the e-business in Serbia.

Branko Kovač is a data scientist with years-long experience in data science application in various industries, currently employed at Magna International company. Branko is one of the pioneers of Serbian data science community brought together around Data Science Serbia association. He has been a member of the Open Data Working Group since 2017. In 2018, his Logikka consulting firm was one of the winners in an open data challenge organised by UNDP with its project for visualisation of breast cancer screening data. Branko has also conducted workshops on the use of open data in business in Serbia and countries in the region.

Tatjana is a data scientist with a doctorate in Statistics from the University of Manchester. She spent many years working in the U.K. university sector as a senior lecturer and has published an extensive number of articles and papers relating to data analysis. Tatjana established the chapters of R-Ladies Manchester, Belgrade and Novi Sad and is a member of the R Forwards team and a Women in DS (WiDS) ambassador – roles dedicated to empowering women. Currently, she is the director of SisterAnalyst.org, an organisation aiming to empower women from a diverse range of backgrounds through data literacy. In addition to her involvement supporting women in STEM related activities, she is dedicated to creating an inclusive culture by developing community initiatives supporting all underrepresented groups.

Tijana Blagojev completed ‘Politics, Big Dana and Quantitative Methods’ master’s programme at the University of Warwick. She is active in the fields of media policies and open data initiative, helping media organisations and experts to collect and consolidate data, as well as with analysis and visualisation in R-programming language. Tijana is an R-Ladies Belgrade co-organiser and promotes data literacy through R-programming language workshops, particularly for journalists and social sciences students. Please find more information related to specific projects on he github page.

For over two decades, as a professional, Igor has been developing and designing software system architecture. He has had many opportunities to work in diverse business environments and industries, applying various technological solutions. Igor is an open-source and open-data advocate. He has worked on preparation, opening and use of data through various APIs. Igor is also committed to education, organising lectures and workshops. In his leisure time, Igor is reflecting on the scope and reach of technologies, and posts his reflections in a blog.

Born in 1981, in Belgrade, Vojislav earned his spatial planning graduate degree at the Belgrade University Faculty of Geography. He heard about GIS at his faculty and soon realised that this could be the right calling for him, coupling formal education with good knowledge of information technologies acquired through practising his hobby since childhood. Igor has been dealing with geographic information systems (GIS) for the past twenty years, most often as a participant in many projects commissioned for the most part by local self-government units, in his capacity as a contractor on behalf of private companies, as well as a consultant and auditor on behalf of UNOPS. In addition, he also took part in many projects as GIS expert on behalf of clients such as MISP, IUCN, Eptisa, civil society organisations, and many others.

Srđan Verbić is a co-founder and director of Social Innovation Observatory. He is providing professional consulting and data-analysis services, particularly in the fields of education, science and innovation. Srđan teaches applied data science at the Faculty of Economics, Finance and Administration (FEFA) in Belgrade. He was the initiator of opening data en masse at the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development in 2015. Srđan has participated in multiple projects for processing, opening and visualisation of publicly accessible data in collaboration with many national and international organisations, particularly UNDP and UNICEF. Srđan Verbić has a physics graduate degree and a PhD in artificial intelligence earned at Belgrade University.

Jelena Adamović is a lawyer. In the course of her career she worked at several Belgrade law firms specialising in various areas of commercial law, and now runs her own law office. Jelena was commissioned by Share Foundation as a legal consultant and researcher for digital-rights-related projects. Over time Jelena has focused in her practice on personal data protection laws, as well as other issues pertaining to regulation and data economics. She was a member of the Open Data Working Group established by the Office for IT and E-government and tasked with drafting a proposal for EU open data regulations implementation in Serbia.

Isidora Gatarić is a long-term researcher and data analyst, especially focused on the data used for business purposes. She gained her first professional experience as a researcher in the Laboratory for Experimental Psychology at the University of Novi Sad, and as a lecturer at the Petnica Research Center. After that, she started her career in the Data Science industry in 2017, first at Banca Intesa Belgrade, then at Infostud grupa, and today she works as a data analyst on projects of strategic importance for the company at JAGGAER. In addition, she is currently attending PhD study at the University of Belgrade and holds trainings/workshops in the field of data analysis.

Milan Tešić is a road safety specialist with over ten years of experience in the field of road safety. He is employed as an assistant director for international cooperation in the Traffic Safety Agency of the Republic of Serbia. He is a member of the European Open Science Cloud Future User Group- within the Horizon 2020 project, and a member of professional bodies at European Union level, namely: the European Council for Traffic Safety (Belgium) and the European Platform for Traffic Sciences (Germany). The scientific model derived from his doctoral dissertation defended at the Faculty of Transport and Traffic Engineering Belgrade won second place at the European competition of project ideas of young researchers, held in Finland. The model is based on open data that are used to assess the driver’s behavior. He is well versed in the state of open data in road safety in the EU and the Western Balkans.

Katarina Kosmina returned to Serbia to do research on open data supply and demand in 2015, following 7 years of education abroad (Northwestern university, Sciences Po Paris, Central European University). Since then, she has intensively worked on open data and the community created around it in Serbia – as a Program Coordinator in Startit, a Project Coordinator at UNDP, and a co-organizer of R-Ladies Belgrade. She is one of the authors of the Open Data Guide and has created numerous educational programs related to data analysis and visualization.