The City’s Open Data initiative has caught the attention of a group of 70 Masters Students from the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom. The group has undertaken a study tour to Cape Town to learn more about the City’s Open Data Portal and other Smart City initiatives. Read more below:
The study tour, which runs from 16 – 25 January 2015, will see 70 Masters Students not only learning about the City’s initiatives, but also sharing their ideas and knowledge.
The students are studying towards an MSc in Management and Information Systems, focusing on information and communication technology (ICT) for socio-economic development. The Masters programme combines an understanding of key socio-economic and development issues with information systems development and management. As such, the group was interested in the real-world issues and opportunities that arise when ICT is used.
‘The world is indeed getting smaller. An online article on the Open Data Policy sparked the interest of the Head of the Centre for Development Informatics at the University of Manchester, and that led to the study tour. While South Africa is viewed as a developing economy, we are proud that our policies are seen to be progressive and are comparable with those of advanced economies,’ said the City’s Mayoral Committee Member for Corporate Services, Councillor Xanthea Limberg.
The group is made up of students from a number of different developing or transitional economies, with a particularly significant contingent from China and to a lesser extent Indonesia. Others in the group are from a number of Asian countries, Europe, Mexico, and a few are from Africa. All of them have at least one year of work experience.
Alongside a foundational understanding of the governance of the Western Cape and the City of Cape Town in particular, the group is interested in the technology and systems involved, the methods used to analyse and design information systems, the impact of these systems, and the costs and benefits of new information systems such as the Open Data Portal. They were also curious about the real-world issues that arose, including the politics, around this initiative.
‘This is where the synergy between their field of study and the City’s open data initiative was picked up, along with other similar initiatives that are aimed at widening participation and strengthening democracy. The students’ overall aim is to understand the realities that they will face in introducing and managing information systems, as opposed to the textbook ideas.
‘As a well-run administration that is committed to open and transparent governance, we are proud to be seen as a leader in implementing the Open Data Portal. As we work towards the launch of the Open Data Portal later this month, we are confident that it will continue to spark further interest among administrations globally,’ added Councillor Limberg.
About the Open Data Policy
The City of Cape Town generates a significant amount of data that is potentially useful to residents. In the Information Age, making public sector data available for anyone to use as they wish allows us as government to tap into the creativity and innovative thinking of business and society to assist us in building a better city. This allows us to truly make progress possible together. Providing access to our data underscores our commitment to being an open, transparent and accountable government.
After a public participation process and a number of engagements with international counterparts, as well as the Western Cape Government, the City this year decided to take this unprecedented step in South Africa. Through the Open Data Policy, the City aims to establish and incrementally populate a single online open data portal for information and data generated by the organisation that would be free and accessible to members of the public. Data will be made available free of charge and, as far as possible, in open data format as per the policy. There will be categories of information for release that will be considered in terms of their applicability to service delivery and matched against legislative requirements, including privacy laws. Full details relating to this are contained in the policy.
An Open Data Steering Committee – which will include members of the public – will monitor the implementation of the policy as well as approve requests for additional data sets. In time, considerable streamlining of the institutional arrangements around open data will make the City’s records a powerful resource for all.