On Saturday 6th March 2021, the eleventh Open Data Day took place with people around the world organising over 300 events to celebrate, promote and spread the use of open data. Thanks to the generous support of this year’s mini-grant funders –Microsoft, UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, Mapbox, Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery, Latin American Open Data Initiative, Open Contracting Partnership and Datopian – the Open Knowledge Foundation offered more than 60 mini-grants to help organisations run online or in-person events for Open Data Day. We captured some of the great conversations across Asia/the Pacific, Europe/Middle East/Africa and the Americas using Twitter Moments. Below you can discover all the organisations supported by this year’s scheme as well as seeing photos/videos and reading their reports to help you find out how the events went, what lessons they learned and why they love Open Data Day:

Environmental data

• Code for Pakistan
  • A hack day to open and publish the block coordinates of the plantation conducted during the billion tree tsunami in Pakistan
  • Read event report
• DRM Africa (Democratic Republic of the Congo)
  • Preventing vulnerable communities from river floods through risk data collection, analysis and communication
  • Read event report
• Escuela de Fiscales (Argentina)
  • Our goal is to show the community and other civil society organizations the importance of open data in preserving and caring for the environment, and the urgency of taking action against climate change and pollution, and how open data can improve public politics with the participation of citizens
  • Read event report
• Government Degree College Bemina,J and K Higher Education (India)
  • Make the community aware about the availability and benefits of environmental data for addressing environmental concerns in Kashmir Valley
  • Read event report
• Future Lab (Mexico)
  • Engage with the local community and enable citizen participation through the use of open data for the proposal of cleaner and more sustainable public policies
  • Read event report
• Mijas Multimedia (Democratic Republic of the Congo)
  • Strengthen the community resilience to the rapid rise of Lake Tanganyika through the use of open data
  • Read event report
• Niger Delta SnapShots (Nigeria)
  • Use open data to uncover hidden threats damaging Nigerian mangrove and demonstrate the necessity for urgent action to save Nigerian Mangrove
  • Read event report
• Open Knowledge Nepal
  • Organise a datathon that will bring open data enthusiasts to work on the real-time air quality data and Twitter bot enhancement, so that people can use the service and get informed with the recent situations of air quality in their surroundings
  • Read event report
• PermaPeople (Germany)
  • Present and discuss the importance and challenges of collecting and sharing open source data on plants and growing to assist in the growth of the regenerative movement
  • Read event report
• Zanzibar Volunteers for Environmental Conservation (Tanzania)
  • The main goal is to contribute to open data initiatives by helping the students understand more about open data and environmental issues
  • Read event report

Tracking public money flows

• Afonte Jornalismo de Dados
  • Brazilian are tired of corruption, and Open Data Day Porto Alegre 2021 will provide relevant and open-access information to show the path to investigate public expenses and how they are connected to politicians and even companies
  • Read event report
• Dataphyte
  • Train participants on how to track Covid-19 spending using open government data to unearth malpractices and corruption in the management of the pandemic
  • Read event report
• Datos Concepción (Argentina)
  • Show companies and organizations that received contracts related to COVID-19
  • Read event report
• Equity Watch Initiative (Nigeria)
  • Using data to ensure that various gender equality and women empowerment projects in Nsukka Local Government Area deliver on promises
  • Read event report
• HackBo / Grafoscopio
  • To intertwine mini wikis, chatbots and public oversight of public expenses, starting with a particular project in the neighborhood, to showcase how grassroots developed civic tech and open government could be bridged, as an empowering alternative to the opaque extractivist social media where such interaction is happening (Facebook) beyond the reach and real interest of civic communities
  • Read event report
• Ojoconmipisto (Guatemala)
  • Teaching local journalists data visualisation techniques
  • Read event report
• Open Knowledge Estonia
  • Estonian procurement registry doesn’t use OCDS, but the common European standard (TED). Our goal is to cross-match the datasets concerning donations and business registries, in order to automatically detect potential conflict of interests
  • Read event report
• Universidad Latinoamericana de Ciencia y Tecnología (ULACIT)
  • Data Challenge: take advantage of the first dataset published under the OCDS in the country and improve the data literacy of university students
  • Read event report
• Water With Development Initiative (Nigeria)
  • Increase transparency and accountability discussing the use of existing WASH data
  • Read event report

Open mapping

• DIH Slovenia
  • Disseminating existing open mapping solutions, sharing best practices and discussion of possibilities for improving life in communities through open mapping
  • Read event report
• Federal University of Bahia (Brazil)
  • Strengthen a global network of community data collectors from communities, organisations, as well as academic institutions by 1) focusing on sharing experiences from specific cases where particular mapping tools were used as part of strategies of community empowerment and 2) using the insights to subsequently co-design a platform to empower data collectors globally
  • Read event report
• Geoladies PH (Philippines)
  • Since March is International Women’s Month and 31st March is International Transgender Day of Visibility, we would like to hold an event that empowers and engages women (cisgender and transgender) to map out features and amenities (women support desks, breastfeeding stations, gender-neutral comfort rooms, and LGBT safe spaces) and feature lightning talks to highlight women in mapping
  • Read event report
• GEOSM (Cameroon)
  • Host a “geo-evangelisation”, workshop in the use of JOSM (Java OpenStreetMap ) and GEOSM (the first 100% African open source geolocation platform)
  • Read event report
• iLabs@Mak Project (Uganda)
  • To understand and value the need of Farmers’ Live Geo Map across food value chain in Africa to better food traceability and security
  • Read event report
• LABIKS – Latin American Bike Knowledge Sharing
  • To promote and stimulate the sharing of open data about the bike-sharing systems in Latin America and to promote and discuss our online open map, aiming to improve it
  • Read event report
• Monitor de Femicidios de UTOPIX (Venezuela)
  • Monitoring of femicide cases in Venezuela
  • Read event report
• Periféria Policy and Research Center
  • Learn about the relevance of open data in collective/critical mapping of gentrification in Hungary
  • Read event report
• PoliMappers (Italy)
  • Host an introductory mapping event on OpenStreetMap so that students and people interested in collaborating gain the basic skills needed to tackle more advanced tools later in the year
  • Read event report
• SmartCT (Philippines)
  • Launch the MapaTanda Initiative (a portmanteau of Mapa — which means a map — and Tanda — which can mean an older adult but can also mean remember); which is an initiative that seeks to improve the number and quality of data in OpenStreetMap that are important and relevant to older adults (senior citizens) and the ageing population (60+ years old) in the Philippines
  • Read event report
• SUZA Youthmappers
  • Create awareness on open data data use, and how the students can use the data in developing innovative web and mobile applications to solve existing challenges in the society
  • Read event report
• TuTela Learning Network in collaboration with local activists and researchers
  • Start a debate on alternative, community-managed forms of housing in the city of Lisbon based on the model of grant of use and raising awareness on the importance of accessible data on available real estate resources owned by the city
  • Read event report
• Unificar Ações e Informações Geoespaciais – UAIGeo – Universidade Federal de São João del-Rei (UFSJ) 
  • Disseminate the use and importance of open data to support the solution of territorial tension points, the use of water and the preservation of cultural heritage, as well as providing participants with contacts with collaborative mapping applications
  • Read event report

Data for equal development

• 254 Youth Policy Cafe (Kenya)
  • Undertake a webinar via the Zoom Platform themed “Leveraging Open Data as an Asset for Inclusive & Sustainable Development in Kenya”
  • Read event report
• ACCESA (Costa Rica)
  • Explore, map, visualize and disseminate key data about the projects being implemented by the Territorial Councils of Rural Development, the main participatory bodies for fostering rural development in Costa Rica, and assess their progress, the money being spent on them, the results obtained, and their impact in narrowing the many social gaps that currently affect the different rural regions of the country
  • Read event report
• Afroimpacto
  • Discuss the importance to the black community of the open data discussion
  • Read event report
• CoST Honduras
  • Present how we can promote sustainable infrastructure by using data disclosed under the Open Contracting for Infrastructure Data Standard and engage citizens and civil society organisations to demand government accountability by using a tool called InfraS
  • Read event report
• Dados Abertos de Feira (Brazil)
  • Promote and discuss the open data knowledge to our local community (city of Feira de Santana, countryside of Brazil), bringing together the academy, government agents and the society itself
  • Read event report
• DataFest Tbilisi (Georgia)
  • Highlight and promote the use of data and data-driven products as an effective way to tackle pressing social issues and inequality
  • Read event report
• Demokrasya (Democratic Republic of the Congo)
  • Raise awareness of the Congolese community especially the women’s rights community on the use of open data in defending the women’s accessibility to employment
  • Read event report
• Fundación Eduna (Colombia)
  • Develop activities to address the issue of strengthening the capacity for creative thinking of children and young people in the central region of Colombia making use and taking advantage of open data
  • Read event report
• Gênero e Número (Brazil)
  • Explore open data to get a comprehensive landscape on the labour market for women in Brazil during the pandemic
  • Read event report
• Girls’ Tech-Changer Community (Cameroon)
  • Show the benefits of open data (such as an increase in efficiency, transparency, innovation, and economic growth) and to encourage the adoption of open data policies in various government bodies, businesses, and civil societies
  • Read event report
• Hawa Feminist Coalition (Somalia)
  • Advance the production, dissemination and openness of sex-disaggregated data in Somalia in support of evidence-based planning and policy-making as well as tracking of progress by the government and other stakeholders to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
  • Read event report
• Hope for Girls and Women Tanzania
  • Teaching community about the benefit of using data for development
  • Read event report
• International Youth Alliance for Family Planning- TOGO (IYAFP-TOGO)
  • Develop an open map of contraceptive methods and service availability in Agbalepedo area
  • Read event report
• IPANDETEC (Panama)
  • Train Panamanian women on their current position, role and future in the world of open data
  • Read event report
• iWatch Africa
  • Demonstrate how equal development within the digital ecosystem in Africa can be improved by leveraging data on online abuse and harassment of female journalists
  • Read event report
• Kiyita Foundation
  • Encourage local women to get access to data about economic development
  • Read event report
• Madagascar Initiatives for Digital Innovation
  • Make participants understand the value of data for development
  • Read event report
• Nepal Open Source Klub
  • We will create a glossary of technical terms and words that are commonly used on websites/in software and translate those into Nepali
  • Read event report
• Nukta Africa (Tanzania)
  • Maximizing the use of open data to increase accountability through data journalism
  • Read event report
• Programming Historian (Chile)
  • Walk participants through the process of visualising qualitative and quantitative development open data for equal development in Latin America, using open access tools
  • Read event report
• Punch Up (Thailand)
  • Emphasise what would be lost if we don’t have open data in our country
  • Read event report
• Rausing Zimbabwe
  • Create a platform and outlet for information distribution, updates and discussion with communities on the issues surrounding peace and security in the age of the pandemic
  • Read event report
• Vilnius Legal Hackers (Lithuania)
  • Implement more transparency into funeral business of Lithuania
  • Read event report

Thanks to everyone who organised or took part in these celebrations and see you next year for Open Data Day 2022! Need more information? If you have any questions, you can reach out to the Open Knowledge Foundation’s Open Data Day team by emailing opendataday@okfn.org or on Twitter via @OKFN.

Every year, hundreds of Open Data Day events take place to celebrate open data in communities across the world and it is fantastic to see all the photos and videos shared. So this year, we are giving away prizes for the best Open Data Day 2021 photographs and videos as well as making sure that all the winners are published under an open license for anyone to use to promote Open Data Day in the future. Thanks to the generous support of our funding partners, we are able to offer:

• 10 prizes of $50 USD each for the best Open Data Day 2021 photographs
• 5 prizes of $100 USD each for the best Open Data Day 2021 videos (max length = 60 seconds)

Open Knowledge Foundation wants more openly licensed images and video of Open Data Day in order to better communicate and share more about all the activities which happen annually to celebrate open data.  All entries must be submitted by 12pm GMT on Saturday 13th March 2021 via this form and winners will be announced shortly afterwards. If you are organising an event, please do tell your participants about the prizes. Anyone attending any Open Data Day event or online session anywhere in the world can submit photographs and/or videos to this competition. 

The Open Knowledge Foundation is happy to announce the list of organisations from all over the world who have been awarded mini-grants to help them celebrate Open Data Day on Saturday 6th March 2021. Thanks to the generous support of this year’s mini-grant funders –Microsoft, UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, Mapbox, Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery, Latin American Open Data Initiative, Open Contracting Partnership and Datopian – the Open Knowledge Foundation will be giving out a total of 61 mini-grants to help organisations run great online or in-person events on or around Open Data Day. We received hundreds of mini-grant applications this year and were greatly impressed by the quality of the events being organised all over the world. Learn more about Open Data Day, discover events taking place online or in your country and find out how to connect with the global open data community by checking out the information at the bottom of this blogpost. Here are the organisations who will receive mini-grants for each of this year’s four themes:

Environmental data

• Code for Pakistan
  • A hack day to open and publish the block coordinates of the plantation conducted during the billion tree tsunami in Pakistan
• DRM Africa (Democratic Republic of the Congo)
  • Preventing vulnerable communities from river floods through risk data collection, analysis and communication
• Escuela de Fiscales (Argentina)
  • Our goal is to show the community and other civil society organizations the importance of open data in preserving and caring for the environment, and the urgency of taking action against climate change and pollution, and how open data can improve public politics with the participation of citizens
• Government Degree College Bemina,J and K Higher Education (India)
  • Make the community aware about the availability and benefits of environmental data for addressing environmental concerns in Kashmir Valley
• Future Lab (Mexico)
  • Engage with the local community and enable citizen participation through the use of open data for the proposal of cleaner and more sustainable public policies
• IUCN (Switzerland)
  • We will talk about the PANORAMA initiative and web platform, which allows conservation practitioners to share and reflect on their experiences, increase recognition for successful work, and to learn with peers how similar challenges have been addressed around the globe
• Mijas Multimedia (Democratic Republic of the Congo)
  • Strengthen the community resilience to the rapid rise of Lake Tanganyika through the use of open data
• Niger Delta SnapShots (Nigeria)
  • Use open data to uncover hidden threats damaging Nigerian mangrove and demonstrate the necessity for urgent action to save Nigerian Mangrove
• Open Knowledge Nepal
  • Organise a datathon that will bring open data enthusiasts to work on the real-time air quality data and Twitter bot enhancement, so that people can use the service and get informed with the recent situations of air quality in their surroundings
• PermaPeople (Germany)
  • Present and discuss the importance and challenges of collecting and sharing open source data on plants and growing to assist in the growth of the regenerative movement
• Zanzibar Volunteers for Environmental Conservation (Tanzania)
  • The main goal is to contribute to open data initiatives by helping the students understand more about open data and environmental issues

Tracking public money flows

• Afonte Jornalismo de Dados
  • Brazilian are tired of corruption, and Open Data Day Porto Alegre 2021 will provide relevant and open-access information to show the path to investigate public expenses and how they are connected to politicians and even companies
• Dataphyte
  • Train participants on how to track Covid-19 spending using open government data to unearth malpractices and corruption in the management of the pandemic
• Datos Concepción (Argentina)
  • Show companies and organizations that received contracts related to COVID-19
• Equity Watch Initiative (Nigeria)
  • Using data to ensure that various gender equality and women empowerment projects in Nsukka Local Government Area deliver on promises
• HackBo / Grafoscopio
  • To intertwine mini wikis, chatbots and public oversight of public expenses, starting with a particular project in the neighborhood, to showcase how grassroots developed civic tech and open government could be bridged, as an empowering alternative to the opaque extractivist social media where such interaction is happening (Facebook) beyond the reach and real interest of civic communities
• Ojoconmipisto (Guatemala)
  • Teaching local journalists data visualisation techniques
• Open Knowledge Estonia
  • Estonian procurement registry doesn’t use OCDS, but the common European standard (TED). Our goal is to cross-match the datasets concerning donations and business registries, in order to automatically detect potential conflict of interests
• Society for the Improvement of Rural People (SIRP)
  • An increase in the knowledge of participants about their rights to track the government’s budget through the Freedom of Information Act
• Universidad Latinoamericana de Ciencia y Tecnología (ULACIT)
  • Data Challenge: take advantage of the first dataset published under the OCDS in the country and improve the data literacy of university students
• Water With Development Initiative (Nigeria)
  • Increase transparency and accountability discussing the use of existing WASH data

Open mapping

• DIH Slovenia
  • Disseminating existing open mapping solutions, sharing best practices and discussion of possibilities for improving life in communities through open mapping
• Federal University of Bahia (Brazil)
  • Strengthen a global network of community data collectors from communities, organisations, as well as academic institutions by 1) focusing on sharing experiences from specific cases where particular mapping tools were used as part of strategies of community empowerment and 2) using the insights to subsequently co-design a platform to empower data collectors globally
• Geoladies PH (Philippines)
  • Since March is International Women’s Month and 31st March is International Transgender Day of Visibility, we would like to hold an event that empowers and engages women (cisgender and transgender) to map out features and amenities (women support desks, breastfeeding stations, gender-neutral comfort rooms, and LGBT safe spaces) and feature lightning talks to highlight women in mapping
• GEOSM (Cameroon)
  • Host a “geo-evangelisation”, workshop in the use of JOSM (Java OpenStreetMap ) and GEOSM (the first 100% African open source geolocation platform)
• HTW Dresden – University of Applied Sciences (Germany)
  • Explore how to leverage open geodata to create content for virtual worlds in conferencing and collaboration platforms
• iLabs@Mak Project (Uganda)
  • To understand and value the need of Farmers’ Live Geo Map across food value chain in Africa to better food traceability and security
• LABIKS – Latin American Bike Knowledge Sharing
  • To promote and stimulate the sharing of open data about the bike-sharing systems in Latin America and to promote and discuss our online open map, aiming to improve it
• Les Libres Geographes (Senegal)
  • This event which combines outreach, sensitization, demonstration and presentation of results will take place within the Open Science, Citizen Sciences component of the Public Health Geography Cohesion project which studies malaria risk in Bouaké (Ivory Coast) using FOSS Open Data (OpenStreetMap) within an capacity building community approach and with the view of building an Open Geographical Observatory of the city
• Monitor de Femicidios de UTOPIX (Venezuela)
  • Monitoring of femicide cases in Venezuela
• Periféria Policy and Research Center
  • Learn about the relevance of open data in collective/critical mapping of gentrification in Hungary
• PoliMappers (Italy)
  • Host an introductory mapping event on OpenStreetMap so that students and people interested in collaborating gain the basic skills needed to tackle more advanced tools later in the year
• SmartCT (Philippines)
  • Launch the MapaTanda Initiative (a portmanteau of Mapa — which means a map — and Tanda — which can mean an older adult but can also mean remember); which is an initiative that seeks to improve the number and quality of data in OpenStreetMap that are important and relevant to older adults (senior citizens) and the ageing population (60+ years old) in the Philippines
• Society of Young Social Innovators (Thailand)
  • Soft launch ‘Change Maker Community Platform’ to potential user (Changemaker in Thailand)
• SUZA Youthmappers
  • Create awareness on open data data use, and how the students can use the data in developing innovative web and mobile applications to solve existing challenges in the society
• TuTela Learning Network in collaboration with local activists and researchers
  • Start a debate on alternative, community-managed forms of housing in the city of Lisbon based on the model of grant of use and raising awareness on the importance of accessible data on available real estate resources owned by the city
• Unificar Ações e Informações Geoespaciais – UAIGeo – Universidade Federal de São João del-Rei (UFSJ) 
  • Disseminate the use and importance of open data to support the solution of territorial tension points, the use of water and the preservation of cultural heritage, as well as providing participants with contacts with collaborative mapping applications

Data for equal development

• 254 Youth Policy Cafe (Kenya)
  • Undertake a webinar via the Zoom Platform themed “Leveraging Open Data as an Asset for Inclusive & Sustainable Development in Kenya”
• ACCESA (Costa Rica)
  • Explore, map, visualize and disseminate key data about the projects being implemented by the Territorial Councils of Rural Development, the main participatory bodies for fostering rural development in Costa Rica, and assess their progress, the money being spent on them, the results obtained, and their impact in narrowing the many social gaps that currently affect the different rural regions of the country
• Afroimpacto
  • Discuss the importance to the black community of the open data discussion
• CoST Honduras
  • Present how we can promote sustainable infrastructure by using data disclosed under the Open Contracting for Infrastructure Data Standard and engage citizens and civil society organisations to demand government accountability by using a tool called InfraS
• Dados Abertos de Feira (Brazil)
  • Promote and discuss the open data knowledge to our local community (city of Feira de Santana, countryside of Brazil), bringing together the academy, government agents and the society itself
• DataFest Tbilisi (Georgia)
  • Highlight and promote the use of data and data-driven products as an effective way to tackle pressing social issues and inequality
• Demokrasya (Democratic Republic of the Congo)
  • Raise awareness of the Congolese community especially the women’s rights community on the use of open data in defending the women’s accessibility to employment
• Fundación Eduna (Colombia)
  • Develop activities to address the issue of strengthening the capacity for creative thinking of children and young people in the central region of Colombia making use and taking advantage of open data
• Gênero e Número (Brazil)
  • Explore open data to get a comprehensive landscape on the labour market for women in Brazil during the pandemic
• Girls’ Tech-Changer Community (Cameroon)
  • Show the benefits of open data (such as an increase in efficiency, transparency, innovation, and economic growth) and to encourage the adoption of open data policies in various government bodies, businesses, and civil societies
• Hawa Feminist Coalition (Somalia)
  • Advance the production, dissemination and openness of sex-disaggregated data in Somalia in support of evidence-based planning and policy-making as well as tracking of progress by the government and other stakeholders to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
• Hope for Girls and Women Tanzania
  • Teaching community about the benefit of using data for development
• Intellectual Property Hub Zambia
  • Promote innovation through instilling the value of creativity and protection of ideas in young creators, originators, writers and inventors in Zambia
• International Youth Alliance for Family Planning- TOGO (IYAFP-TOGO)
  • Develop an open map of contraceptive methods and service availability in Agbalepedo area
• IPANDETEC (Panama)
  • Train Panamanian women on their current position, role and future in the world of open data
• iWatch Africa
  • Demonstrate how equal development within the digital ecosystem in Africa can be improved by leveraging data on online abuse and harassment of female journalists
• Jokkolabs Banjul (Gambia)
  • Show the benefit of open data to the Gambia community and what we as an organisation have been doing with open data through our involvement in the International Open Data Charter
• Kiyita Foundation
  • Encourage local women to get access to data about economic development
• Madagascar Initiatives for Digital Innovation
  • Make participants understand the value of data for development
• Nepal Open Source Klub
  • We will create a glossary of technical terms and words that are commonly used on websites/in software and translate those into Nepali
• Nukta Africa (Tanzania)
  • Maximizing the use of open data to increase accountability through data journalism
• Programming Historian (Chile)
  • Walk participants through the process of visualising qualitative and quantitative development open data for equal development in Latin America, using open access tools
• Punch Up (Thailand)
  • Emphasise what would be lost if we don’t have open data in our country
• Rausing Zimbabwe
  • Create a platform and outlet for information distribution, updates and discussion with communities on the issues surrounding peace and security in the age of the pandemic
• Vilnius Legal Hackers (Lithuania)
  • Implement more transparency into funeral business of Lithuania

About Open Data Day

Open Data Day is the annual event where we gather to reach out to new people and build new solutions to issues in our communities using open data. The eleventh Open Data Day will take place on Saturday 6th March 2021. If you have started planning your Open Data Day event already, please add it to the global map on the Open Data Day website using this form. Our new events listing pages on opendataday.org will help you to discover online and in-person events by country, theme or region. You can also connect with others and spread the word about Open Data Day using the #OpenDataDay or #ODD2021 hashtags. Alternatively you can join the Google Group to ask for advice or share tips. To get inspired with ideas for events, you can read about some of the great events which took place on Open Data Day 2020 in our wrap-up blogpost. Need more information? If you have any questions, you can reach out to the Open Knowledge Foundation team by emailing opendataday@okfn.org or on Twitter via @OKFN.

For Open Data Day 2021 on Saturday 6th March, the Open Knowledge Foundation is offering support and funding for in-person and online events anywhere in the world via our mini-grant scheme.  Today we are pleased to announce an additional partner for the Open Data Day 2021 mini-grant scheme: the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR) through the GFDRR Labs and its Open Data for Resilience Initiative (OpenDRI).  GFDRR will be supporting mini-grants in the Environmental Data track, with a particular focus on ‘data for resilience’.  If you need inspiration for your event using data for resilience,  some useful resources to check out include: GFDRR Labs, OpenDRI, Open Cities Project, ThinkHazard, Open Data for Resilience Index and the Risk Data Library.  We are extremely grateful to GFDRR and all our partners who have provided funding for this year’s mini-grant scheme. These include Microsoft, UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, Mapbox, Latin American Open Data Initiative (ILDA), Open Contracting Partnership and Datopian.

For Open Data Day 2021 on Saturday 6th March, the Open Knowledge Foundation is offering support and funding for in-person and online events anywhere in the world via our mini-grant scheme. Open Data Day normally sees thousands of people getting together at hundreds of events all over the world to celebrate and use open data in their communities but this year has not been a normal year. With many countries still under lockdown or restricted conditions due to the Covid-19 pandemic, we recognise that many people will need to celebrate Open Data Day by hosting online events rather than getting together for in-person gatherings. To support the running of events, anyone can apply to our mini-grant scheme to receive $300 USD towards the running of your Open Data Day event whether it takes place in-person or online. Applications must be submitted before 12pm GMT on Friday 5th February 2021 by filling out this form. If you’re applying for a mini-grant for an online event, we will accept applications where the funds are allocated to cover any of the following costs:

• Fees for online tools needed to help with the running of your event
• Essential equipment needed to help with the running of your event
• Reimbursing speakers or participants for mobile data costs incurred during event
• Paying for the printing and posting of physical materials to event participants
• Other costs associated with running the event

It might feel challenging to plan a great online event if you are used to running events in the real world. But many people and organisations have overcome these challenges this year, and there are many tools that can help you plan your event. Here are some tips and tools that we use for remote events that we think will help with your preparations. Open Knowledge Foundation is a remote working organisation with our team spread around the world. We use Zoom, Google Meet or Slack to host our internal and external video meetings and rely on Google Docs, Github, Gitter and Discourse to allow us to share documents and talk in real-time. Many of these tools are free and easy to set up.  Two members of our team are also on the organisation team of csv,conf, an annual community conference for data makers which usually hosts several hundred people for a two-day event. For csv,conf,v5 in May 2020, the team decided to make their event online-only and it proved to be a great success thanks to lots of planning and the use of good online tools. Read this post – https://csvconf.com/2020/going-online – to learn more about how the team organised their first virtual conference including guidance about the pros and cons of using tools like Crowdcast, Zenodo, Zoom and Spatial Chat for public events.  Other organisations – including the Center for Scientific Collaboration and Community Engagement and the Mozilla Festival team – have also shared their guidebooks and processes for planning virtual events.  We hope some of these resources will help you in your planning. If you have any further questions relating to an Open Data Day 2021 mini-grant application, please email opendataday@okfn.org.

We are thrilled to announce that once again the Open Knowledge Foundation is giving out mini-grants to support people hosting Open Data Day events across the world. Open Data Day is an annual celebration of open data taking place for the eleventh time on Saturday 6th March 2021. Everyone can take part as groups from around the globe create local events to show how they use open data in their communities. We are extremely grateful to our partners who have provided funding for this year’s mini-grant scheme. These include Microsoft, UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, Mapbox, Latin American Open Data Initiative (ILDA), Open Contracting Partnership and Datopian. How to apply?  The deadline to submit your mini-grant application is midday GMT on Friday 5th February 2021. Use this form to make your application. Who can apply?  Anyone can apply for a $300 USD mini-grant.  This year we are providing mini-grants to both:

• Real world events in your location, and 
• Online events to connect with community members and people around the world virtually

We understand that many people sadly will not be able to meet in person for this year’s Open Data Day due to local/national restrictions relating to the Covid-19 pandemic. But we want to help you and open data communities around the world by supporting online events and celebrations. As well as providing mini-grant funds to those running online events, we will be sharing tips and advice for running great virtual sessions. What are the criteria?  Your event or online session must fit into one of the four tracks laid out below to be in with a chance of receiving a mini-grant:

• Environmental data: Use open data to illustrate the urgency of the climate emergency and spur people into action to take a stand or make changes in their lives to help the world become more environmentally sustainable.
• Tracking public money flows: Expand budget transparency, dive into public procurement, examine tax data or raise issues around public finance management by submitting Freedom of Information requests.
• Open mapping: Learn about the power of maps to develop better communities.
• Data for equal development: How can open data be used by communities to highlight pressing issues on a local, national or global level? Can open data be used to track progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals or SDGs?

What is a mini-grant? You can only make one application for one event/online session in just one track.   A mini-grant is a small fund of $300 USD to help support groups organising Open Data Day events and online sessions. The mini-grants cannot be used to fund government events, whether national or local.  We can only support civil society activities.  We encourage governments to find local groups and engage with them if they want to organise events and apply for a mini-grant. The funds will only be delivered to the successful grantees after:

• The event or online session has taken place, and 
• We receive a written report on your event/online session which must be delivered within 30 days of your event  

In case the funds are needed before 6th March 2021, you can email opendataday@okfn.org and we will assess whether or not we can help on a case-by-case basis. Photography and video competition  This year, we will be giving away prizes for the best Open Data Day photographs and videos. These will be used to help promote Open Data Day in the future. Check back soon for more information about how to enter the competition. About Open Data Day Open Data Day is the annual event where we gather to reach out to new people and build new solutions to issues in our communities using open data.  The eleventh Open Data Day will take place on Saturday 6th March 2021. If you have started planning your Open Data Day event already, please add it to the global map on the Open Data Day website using this form. If you are running a free online session open to anyone in the world, we will publish a timetable to promote your online session.  Connect with others and spread the word about Open Data Day using the #OpenDataDay or #ODD2021 hashtags.  Alternatively you can join the Google Group to ask for advice or share tips. To get inspired with ideas for events or online sessions, read about some of the great events which took place on Open Data Day 2020 in our wrap-up blog post. Need more information? If you have any questions, you can reach out to the Open Knowledge Foundation team by emailing opendataday@okfn.org or on Twitter via @OKFN. There’s also the Open Data Day Google Group where you can connect with others interested in taking part, share ideas for your event or ask for help.

  On Saturday 7th March 2020, the tenth Open Data Day took place with people around the world organising over 300 events to celebrate, promote and spread the use of open data. Thanks to the generous support of this year’s funders – Datopian, the Foreign & Commonwealth Office, Hivos, the Latin American Open Data Initiative (ILDA), Mapbox, Open Contracting Partnership and Resource Watch – the Open Knowledge Foundation was able to give out more than 60 mini-grants this year. Sadly several events had to be cancelled or delayed as the COVID-19 pandemic affected countries around the world but some of our grantees were able to swiftly adapt their plans in order to deliver engaging virtual Open Data Day celebrations. The community registered a total of 307 events on the Open Data Day map with events taking place in every timezone and the Open Knowledge Foundation team captured some of the great conversations across Asia/Oceania, Africa/Europe and the Americas by using Twitter Moments.

Mini-grant scheme

This year’s tracks for the Open Data Day 2020 mini-grant support scheme were:

• Environmental data: Using open data to illustrate the urgency of the climate emergency and spurring people to take a stand or make changes in their lives to help the world become more environmentally sustainable.
• Tracking public money flows: Expanding budget transparency, diving into public procurement, examining tax data or raising issues around public finance management by submitting Freedom of Information requests.
• Open mapping: Learning about the power of maps to develop better communities.
• Data for equal development: How can open data be used by communities to highlight pressing issues on a local, national or global level? Can open data be used to track progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals or SDGs?

Below you can read reports from all of the events which took place thanks to these mini grants:

Environmental data

• Escuela de Fiscales – Open data for environmental activism in Argentina
• Adamawa Agricultural Development Programme – Managing fisheries in Nigeria using open data
• Afonte Jornalismo de Dados (Afonte Data Journalism) – Connecting environmental politics and data in Brazil
• Department of Agriculture at the Asuogyaman District Assembly in Ghana – Discussing agriculture, rainfall and climate data in Ghana
• Tangaza University College – Opening up data to counter climate change in Kenya
• University of Dodoma – Teaching girls about environmental data in Tanzania
• iWatch Africa – Tracking deforestation in West Africa with satellites and drones
• Africa Open Data and Internet Research Foundation – Raising awareness of open data in Ghana
• Sustenta – Sustainable development, climate change and podcasting in Mexico
• Grafoscopio / HackBo – Creating the Coronapedia, a COVID-19 information site for Colombia
• Youth for Environmental Development – Mapping waste dumping locations in Malawi
• WikiRate – A climate data sprint in Germany focused on renewable energy
• Open Cities Lab – Creating open air quality data with low-cost sensors in South Africa
• ACCESA – Exploring climate change data in Costa Rica
• Young Volunteers for the Environment – Promoting the use of data for environmental protection in Togo
• Técnicas Rudas – Designing a zine about environmental data in Mexico

Tracking public money flows

• Spotlight for Transparency and Accountability Initiative – Transparency, accountability and freedom of information in Nigeria
• EldoHub – Tracking spending by Kenya’s county governments
• FollowTheMoney Kaduna – Freedom of information and open contracting in Nigeria
• Alliance of Independent Journalists – Improving journalists’ data literacy in Indonesia
• Afroleadership – Exploring budget data in Cameroon
• Construction Sector Transparency Initiative (CoST Malawi) – Empowering grassroots organisations to demand infrastructure data in Malawi
• Bareedo Platform – Spreading awareness of open contracting in Somalia
• Perkumpulan Inisiatif – Analysing open budget data in Indonesia
• Dataphyte – Using budget and contract data to strengthen democracy in Nigeria
• Diálogos – Data scouting on public procurement in Guatemala
• 1991 Open Data Incubator – Celebrating open data users in Ukraine
• LEAD University – Examining public procurement data in Costa Rica
• Infoculture – Bringing together the open data community in Russia 
• Kikandwa Rural Communities Development Organisation – Raising awareness of budget information in Uganda
• Centre for Information, Peace and Security in Africa – Open data for accurate information in Tanzania
• CONSTRUIR Foundation – A public contracting data camp in Bolivia
• Ojoconmipisto – Teaching students to tell stories with budget data in Guatemala

Open mapping

• Exegetic Analytics – Empowering R users to work with open spatial data in South Africa
• OpenMap Development Tanzania – Open mapping data for development in Tanzania
• TuTela Learning Network – Migrant women, housing activism and collective mapping in Spain
• Open Data Institute Leeds – Playing with air quality, land ownership and climate data in the UK
• Girolabs – Celebrating open data initiatives in Paraguay
• Open Knowledge Belgium – Mapping street names in Belgium by gender
• BloGoma – Promoting open data to journalists and artists in the DRC
• Map Kibera – Teaching open mapping skills in Africa’s largest urban slum
• University of Pretoria – Open mapping minibus routes in South Africa
• Federal University of Bahia – Mapping to support the fight against COVID-19 in Brazil
• Youth Innovation Lab – Crowdsourcing streetlights data for Kathmandu
• Transparência Hackday Portugal – Hacking, learning and open mapping in Portugal

Data for equal development

• Footprints Bridge International – Generating jobs for young people in Ghana
• Bangladesh chapter of Creative Commons – Bringing the benefits of open resources to Bangladesh
• Nigeria’s National Institute for Freshwater Fisheries Research – Agricultural data for equal development in Nigeria
• MapBeks – Mapping HIV facilities and LGBT-friendly spaces in the Philippines
• Khumbo Bangala Chirembo – Sharing the benefits of open data with librarians in Malawi
• Future Lab – Raising visibility of women and the LGBT community in Mexico
• Zimbabwe Library Association – The importance of libraries and access to information in Zimbabwe
• Young Professionals for Agricultural Development (YPARD) – Harnessing open data for agricultural business opportunities in the DRC
• Datasketch – Lightning talks on data projects in Colombia
• Youths in Technology and Development Uganda – Embracing the FAIR data principles in Uganda
• Ligalab – Celebrating community data projects in Mexico
• Association SUUDU ANDAL – Open data for accountability in Burkina Faso
• Fundación Conocimiento Abierto – Exploring gender and diversity data in Argentina
• NaimLab – Exploring open data and digital transformation in Peru
• YWCA Honduras – Collecting data in Honduras on female migration and gender-based violence
• We Are Capable Data for Good Namibia (WACDGN) – Discussing the lack of public data in Namibia

Thanks to everyone who organised or took part in these celebrations and see you next year for Open Data Day 2021!