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Best Practices/Getting Journalists Involved In the Process Of Opening Up Data

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OUTLINE OF THE BEST PRACTICE

Open Data Albania (ODA, http://open.data.al/en) is an ongoing project implemented by the Albanian Institute of Science, a non-profit, nonpartisan organization established in 2011 Albania. The mission of AIS is to promote research activities that offer solutions to socio-economic problems, increase transparency and strengthen civic engagement. Since its beginning and continuing in the present year, the institute has successfully executed Open Data Albania as its most prominent project on transparency through Open Data usability in the country.

One of the criteria for Open Data Albania success was the active involvement of journalists in the process of opening up data.

MANAGEMENT SUMMARY

CHALLENGE

ODA has accomplished to publish hundreds of datasets in open data formats, deliver more than 300 analyses and studies on socio-economic topics, and launch numerous activities with the goal of creating an Open Data movement. Journalists, students, and civil society activists not only have profited from it, but also became part of AIS activities establishing in this way a form of eParticipation network.

The main concern on the reusability of public data in Albania is the presentation of datasets from the public offices. Data, statistics and other primary content are rarely found in a reusable format that could be stored and analyzed. During the implementation the ODA project, additional work is performed in many cases to extract data from public reports. The sources for the media are primary institutions (Government, Ministries etc.), Albanian secondary public institutions (Municipalities, Local Government Institutions, etc.) and foreign organizations such as OSCE, UNICEF, UNDP, USAID, etc.

Open Spending Albania (OSA, http://spending.data.al/en) is a subproject of ODA, which has established a platform consisting of five new applications that provide information through several user-friendly tools. These applications include: MoneyMapping, DailyBread, Fund Diversion, Economic Damage, and State Treasury Monitoring. The Albanian public is empowered through this platform with exhaustive information about everything related to taxation and public money. This platform has already had a very positive impact on social and political processes, like participatory budgeting and accountability.

Thanks to several years of work and coordination between the civil society and the public administration, as well as incentives of the OGP framework, the Albanian government is making the data related to state treasury transactions available. However, these data are published only temporarily online in PDF representations, which are not easily understandable by the general public. AIS is offering tools to collect, process, and store the state treasury transactions automatically. Additionally, AIS provides a user-friendly Web interface to easily search these data based on various criteria. AIS has carefully collected and makes available online all the treasure transaction data for the period 2012-105. In order to access the data, which risked of being censured at a point in time, ODA exercised public pressure through the media and organizations engaged in protecting the right to information.

Finally, the Albanian state budget is also open, and AIS offers tools for filtering information based on: how public administration spends the Money; where do the funds go; how much is paid for different services; how much Money specific companies receive from specific institutions over a certain period of time; how much Money was spent in a short period of time.


SOLUTION

The data and articles of the Open Data Albania project are published in a Web platform, which is online since January 8th, 2011. The scope of ODA is inclusive and multi-thematic: the goal is to release data and analyses from many sectors and branches of the economy extending to phenomena such as the poverty level, standard of living, the demographic trend, crime and social issues. In order to disseminate the data and analytical findings, ODA has targeted the media, academia and the general public not only with the online platform, but also through various channels, such as workshops with journalists, activities (datathons, hackathons, workshops) with the academic community comprising lecturers and students, and various online social networks.

AIS has established a close and high-quality collaboration with the media inside and outside the country. The data published by ODA are cited in the front pages of newspapers and headlines of news editions. Every domestic media organization has published or quoted at least once the reports released in the Open Data Albania or Spending Data Albania platforms. The work of ODA has continuously enriched with arguments and recommendations many public debates in radio and television. The data have also been reflected in the international media, particularly in those with broader audience in the Western Balkans, e.g. Voice of America, Radio Free Europe, Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN). The moderators of the public debate or public information channels regularly voice their request for more information and findings to be delivered in the form of reports.

Similarly, The Committee of Nationwide Reconciliation on their 2011 report to OSCE/ODIHR Albania entitled “The two-month expedition of reconciliation missionaries during the election campaign of Local Elections in Albania” quote indicators published by Open Data Albania on certain decisions reached by the Albanian Courts in cases of murder motivated by blood feuds. The report quotes also other indicators from our project in relation to justice and social issues.

ODA has continuously released datasets related to infant mortality rates in Albania, comparing those to the data from other countries in the region. The data and related articles were further published in the written and online media in Albania. This incentivized citizens’ reaction and initiated civic movements. In March 2011, the Eurosocialist Youth´s Forum in cooperation with the union of the students of the Faculty of Medicine organized a protest in front of the building of the prime minister. After this protest, the Albanian Ministry of Health and Albanian Institute of Statistics INSTAT were not publishing anymore data on infant mortality rates. An NGO in Albania, ResPublika, driven by the team of ODA initiated a legal process, demanding the Ministry of Health to fulfill its legal duty of information access related to the activity of the institution and the public health.

A club of journalists for healthcare has organized two conferences in 2010 and 2011 requesting transparency on healthcare reforms in Albania. They have consistently used data released by ODA in their actions for more transparency in the healthcare sector. The indicators and visualizations published by ODA were published on several occasions in their website and their newspaper “Shendeti” (Health). Based on the data published by ODA related to the healthcare budget, journalists of this union interviewed the former Albanian Minister of Healthcare, Mr. Petri Vasili, and other policy decision- makers requesting more attention to this sector, as well as a higher budget and finances.


BEST PRACTICE IDENTIFICATION

WHY IS THIS A BEST PRACTICE? WHAT'S THE IMPACT OF THE BEST PRACTICE?

It is not sufficient to just make the data open. As a basis to publish high-quality and relevant Open Data, ODA recommends to get in contact early with journalists, raise their awareness on the Open Data culture, train them with the tools and applications that make it possible to use the data easily, and collaboratively create stories (narrative) around published data. These insightful narratives help the general public to understand the data and the statistics.

LINK TO THE PSI DIRECTIVE

WHY IS THERE A NEED FOR THIS BEST PRACTICE?

Open Data publishers risk to make data available that is not interesting or not reliable. Without promotion of released data, it will not be discovered and used. A continuous usage of the data, including feedback cycles, e.g., in round tables, trainings and workshops with journalists is necessary to make the exploitation of the tools, use of data, and publication efforts sustainable. Continuous contact and collaboration with journalists is crucial to promote further Data journalism and investigative journalism, which is already becoming more and more important.

WHAT DO YOU NEED FOR THIS BEST PRACTICE?

If member states want to adopt this Best Practice they will have to:

  • A basic website (has not to be perfect right from the beginning if journalists are to be involved in the evolution of the application).
    • Most important: Stable URIs and citeable content.
    • If possible: well-structured data using standards (RDF, XML, CSV with metadata).
    • User-friendly tools to make the data searchable and exportable
    • Tools to generate graphics from the data
  • Target journalists possibly interested in the published data, maintain contact with them and update frequently on new releases, e.g., an open mailing list that journalists can subscribe to.
  • A self-describing interface for the usage of released open data
  • Training capacities for journalists (datathons, hackathons, workshops).
  • Processes to receive and implement feedback from journalists. In particular, react on requests by journalists for access to specifically interesting open data (e.g., infant mortality rates).

APPLICABILITY BY OTHER MEMBER STATES?

In general yes. Open Data Albania makes most data available according to the Open Definition (http://opendefinition.org/, except when stated otherwise on the website). Depending on the country and open data domain, other licenses may be needed.

CONTACT INFO - RECORD OF THE PERSON TO BE CONTACTED FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION OR ADVICE

  • Julia Hoxha – Albanian Institute of Science, Tirana, Albania.
  • Aranita Brahaj – Albanian Institute of Science, Tirana, Albania.
  • Benedikt Kämpgen – Institute AIFB, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany.