Shaun Russell has written an article regarding the Open Knowledge Foundation’s first Open Data and Democracy Initiative hackathon in South Africa. Russell writes, “If knowledge is power then data are the individual watts; one by itself is aesthetically pleasing, but functionally useless. It’s only when we add all the watts together that we produce enough power to move forward. Constitutionally we own this power, but the trickle of information provided to the public is practically useless – and so the Open data and Democracy Initiative was born: Not to fight against government and the private sector, but to aid them in data liberation; something that has helped empower citizens in other African countries.”

He goes on, “We came together as a group of concerned technologists, civil society activists, journalists, data analysts and computer programmers; to find a way to open more important data to the public (like SDAs), and also to show what can be done with this open data, because from anecdotal evidence we found that the power of Open Data is lost on the man in the street. By holding a Hackathon and creating software applications that facilitate social change, we could free ourselves from a common South African problem of talking about solutions without acting, and instead create something tangible and therefore more meaningful. The results of the hackathon far exceeded my expectations and vindicated our faith in the idea of getting people with problems together with people who can solve them using technology. So what exactly do we have to show for our good intentions? Looking at 3 of the apps that were created you can judge for yourself.”

Learn about the apps here.

Image: Courtesy OKF