Open Steps is currently touring South-East Asia and is pleased to invite you to its workshop in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, on the 13th January 2014 (3-5pm, free entrance).

This event is organised with the support of Transparency International Cambodia and takes place at its office, #9 , st. 466, Phnom Penh. Please register your participation on this URL: http://www.eventbrite.com/e/visualizing-open-data-to-bring-out-global-issues-tickets-9720543407

Open Steps is an initiative from two young berliners Alex (spanish, software developer) and Margo (french, european politics) who decided to leave their daily lives and travel around the world for one year. On this journey, they are meeting people and organisations working actively in open knowledge related projects, documenting them on their website. Also, open data is the area where their both backgrounds converge and that’s why they run a workshop entitled:

Visualising Open Data to bring out global issues

Thanks to the large amounts of Open Data being released for free on the internet, we can take a quick glimpse at current issues characterizing our world. Although, this complex data is sometimes difficult to be understood in its initial form.

By going from theory to practice, we will show where data can be quickly gathered from, and by using open source technologies, put it in a visual context to make relevant issues easy to understand. In addition, attendees will be encouraged to discuss topics involving each of us.

The goal of this workshop is also to increase awareness of the importance and benefits of making information available for everybody and how sharing knowledge is one of the steps towards making our planet better.

Table of contents:

1. Introduction to Open Knowledge and Open Data

1.1 What are Open Knowledge and Open Data? Why do they matter?
1.2 Examples of administrations and organisations releasing information to the public domain.
1.3 Transparency in politics as a way to achieve real democracy.

2. There is so much data out there, and its free!

2.1 Online sources where you can get open data.
2.2 World Bank as major data hub.
2.3 Tools for crowdsourced data collection.

3. Why visualisation matters

3.1 Understanding complex problems by looking at simple graphs.
3.2 Examples of data visualisation for social improvement.

4. Practical session

4.1 How to build a data visualisation in 5 minutes using free online tools.
4.2. Technical questions related to the tools used.

5. Open debate

5.1 What is the situation of Open Data in your country? Which data would I like to visualise? Attendees have the opportunity to propose topics and relevant data they would consider interesting to explore and discuss about the status of Open Knowledge initiatives in their own country.

Target groups:

individuals or collectives:
– interested in Open Source technologies and the philosophy behind Knowledge Sharing.
– searching for data sources for research and journalistic purposes.
– working with data visualisations.
– developing a conscious approach to global topics.
– having general interest in the topic.

You can find the original post here on Open Steps homepage.

Thank you!