Open data can be a powerful tool for green activists, journalists, researchers, civil society organisations and citizens to build the evidence for climate change and fuel poverty campaigns, projects and funding tenders. The problem is often knowing where to start.
Open data often has a corporate or technical image, which puts a lot of people off seeking it out, let alone using it. But it doesn't have to be complicated. It’s time to have a conversation about open data and how to make it more accessible to change makers. The best way to do this is to bring change-makers together with data experts for an open discussion on open data.
Please join us on Wednesday 7th September at the University of Birmingham Campus for Birmingham’s first maker festival, where we’ll learn about open data and how it can be framed to support evidence and fact-based decision making. There will also be participative activities to develop tools to make it easier to access, visualise and use open data.
A maker festival brings together people from different disciplines, with different thinking to to have conversations and work collaboratively to find new solutions. This event will be fully accessible to people of all skill sets and experience levels. If you want to have a say and share learning on how open data can be better communicated, there is a place for you.
All you need is a passion for making our communities greener, more resilient and fairer with an interest in innovation and using digital platforms to build capacity around climate change, energy efficiency and fuel poverty.
Anybody is welcome, but we would particularly love to see:
- Local residents
- Students and University staff
- Activists
- Third sector officers (volunteers and staff members)
- Developers interested in civic tech
- Data scientists interested in learning about crafting more third sector outreach strategies and getting a different perspective to open data
What we’ll cover:
- What is open data, what does it looks like, how and why to release it, and how to licence it
- What are the data sharing barriers on the route to net-zero by 2030 in Birmingham
- Global open data activists’ perspectives
- Local partners open data projects and data sets
- Examples of how we can use climate change, energy and fuel poverty data
What do we want to get out of the day:
The event will help us to develop a tool to help activists, researchers, citizens and service providers to understand, find, and use open data within their work. The tool will be released with an open-source license and promoted as designed. You’ll even be credited within the tool.
Please join us for a day of making change. If you have any questions, please email nathan@new-union.org.
