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This blog is written by Malou van Nieuwkoop. She is a Project Team Assistant at 1%CLUB.
On the 29th of June the Open Data for Development camp 2012 took place in Amsterdam. This meeting followed up on the Open Data for Development Camp in Nairobi (27 & 28 June). In Nairobi, presentations and discussions focussed on local and international perspectives on Open Data and Development (check out short mo
At the AmLab in Amsterdam the connection with the ODDC in Nairobi inspired the participants to take the discussion to the next level. With 125 participants coming from diverse professional backgrounds it was a busy and vibrant day.
Mariken Gaanderse (Open for Change) and Jasper Konings (VPRO and Netherlands from Above) started with an inspiring introduction. The day continued with presentations, workshops and Open Spaces spreading throughout AmLab, which is the home of 1%CLUB, Text to Change and Akvo.
Simon Parrish en Joni Hilman discussed IATI and the implementation of these standards in England. DFID made the open standards compulsory for partner organisations. After lunch these open standards were considered by representatives of Dutch NGO’s and Ton Lansink, who is working for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Ophileon, Akvo, TNO and Fronteer Strategy showed their successful stories of Open Data and explained the possibilities of this new concept. They spoke of new ways of organisation, visualisation, communication and augmented reality made possible by Open Data.
The ODDC Amsterdam 2012 brought a lot of people together and warmed them up for Open Data and its innovative opportunities for Open Development. To get an impression of the meeting in Nairobi 2012 you can watch the video on YouTube.
Curious about the presentations and interviews at ODDC Amsterdam?
You can watch them here:
It’s done! Thanks to six 1%PROJECTS in Nairobi we’ve been able to test four M&E 2.0 tools: a smartphone application, participatory video, texting and blogging. In a pilot of just four days, between June 25th and June 28th, twelve highly committed participants have provided us with valuable insights into the (possible) value of M&E 2.0 and the challenges that still lie ahead.
Inspired by the thought that ‘change is good’, we’d hereby like to share our four most significant insights and changes of opinion based upon this pilot:
1. Using M&E 2.0 tools encourages enthusiasm for M&E in general. Based upon the fact that a lot of our colleagues tend to see M&E as dull, boring and complicated, we were surprised to meet a group of motivated staff members, all eager to learn more about M&E. And the use of 2.0-oriented tools definitely increased their enthusiasm. In itself, being able to work with smartphones and flip-cams stimulated participants to carry out M&E, it actually became fun!
2. M&E 2.0 improves the appreciation and perception of organizations. The pilot-organizations received a lot of positive feedback from actors around them, simply because of using our M&E 2.0 methodologies. In the case of Amani Kibera for instance, several community members were impressed by the fact that the organization was able to carry out a real sms campaign! Other CBO’s working in the same area approached staff members of the organization to find out how they had managed to organize this. Making use of these tools is regarded as something reserved to big NGO’s and corporations, not as a playing field for small CBO’s.
3. Availability of required M&E 2.0 technologies is still limited. For successful implementation of the piloted M&E 2.0 tools in the long run the presence of technological hardware like smartphones, flipcams and laptops is required. This is a challenge for all of the involved organizations. The phones required for the use of texting as an M&E tool are readily available and widespread, However, this tool unfortunately has high percentages of errors and drop-outs in the process of data collection.
4. A lot of work remains to be done. To enable organizations to keep on implementing M&E 2.0 a lot of work remains to be done increasing the usability and scalability of 2.0-tools. The front-end, but mainly the back-end of tools like a smartphone application and a texting campaign are still highly inaccessible for tech-dummies. It requires too much expertise and needs to be simplified. This will encourage project owners to continue using M&E 2.0.
As highlighted above he pilot in Nairobi has provided us with some first answers to the questions ‘Which tools (mobile, video, photo) can be used best for data collection and how?’ and ‘How can we motivate and engage project owners to use this tool?’. Now we need more input regarding the question ‘How can the input generated through these tools be visualized (e.g. a dashboard, through mapping) and which software is needed to do this?’.
Therefore, at this point we challenge you: programmers, communicators and designers, to come up with relevant solutions to this puzzle. Feel free to use our findings, analyze our raw data or ask for our opinion. We remain committed to developing M&E 2.0. At your service!
This is a guestblog by Josje Spierings. She is project assistant at Akvo.
It’s been almost two weeks since the Open Data for Development Camp (ODDC) 2012 took place in Nairobi and Amsterdam. With over 250 participants in Nairobi and 125 in Amsterdam, it exceeded our expectations.
The event kicked of on the 27th of June in Nairobi. The day started with keynote presentations about open data and open development. Bart Lacroix, founder of the 1%CLUB, made everybody shout out: “We want Open Data Now!” As a call to all organisations to open up their data and work on open development.
The first day ended with Ignite Talks. During this session seven Ignite Speakers provided five Ignite Talks. To clarify this, the speakers scattered around the room, and five minutes after they started their talk a buzzer went off, whereupon the audience continued to the next talk. The idea was for the speakers to keep their inspiring stories at a high energy level. In addition, it was a nice way to network and share experiences. If you want to view highlights of the ODDC 2012, watch the following video thich the 1%CLUB has made.
At the start of the two-day camp, we challenged the visitors to share their ideas on open data. Forms were handed out on which people could fill in their ideas. By the end of the first day, we had received over 60 forms, of which we selected nine ideas. Visitors were able to pitch their ideas at the end of the second day. Out of those pitches, one was selected as “the winner” and received a ticket to attend and speak at the Open Knowledge Festival in Helsinki. The winner of the ‘Pitch Your Idea’ was chosen by a jury consisting of: Pieter Dorst (Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs), Sam Gichuru (NaiLab), and Caroline Kitenge (Microsoft).
Dr. Edward Omete won this challenge. He pitched about eliminating wastage of public resources in hospitals and improving accuracy of medical data via smart phones, tablets and/or PCs, thereby reducing the work burden of health workers.
Another ticket was handed out to someone from a Co-Creation group. Co-Creation is an open innovation methodology that brings together professionals from different organisations/companies from various sectors in order to reach creative solutions that would never have been created without the Co-Creation. In a set time period they worked in multi-disciplinary groups to come up with a creative solution for a challenge. During this session there were four challenges, focussed on open data in different thematic areas: 1.Water 2.Health 3.Education 4.IFMIS (a county perspective).
After a difficult deliberation the jury decided that the Health Co-Creation group had the best idea and presentation. The group chose Janet Maranga to represent their group in Helsinki.
In addition to a ticket to Helsinki, the winners received a towel to attend the “Open Sauna” Session at OKFestival. After the award ceremony there were drinks and cake to celebrate the first year anniversary of the Kenya Open Data Initiative.
The event was a big success, with over 250 participants connecting and exchanging ideas and knowledge.
This is a guestblog by Crosbond Boera Moseti. Research assistant on the M&E 2.0 pilot and student at Multimedia University College of Kenia.
Hey! Howdy there? Hope everyone is well. Fantastic!
Just a bite to chew on here: Would 1%CLUB partners in Kenya be able to measure the effectiveness and the in-depth performance of their projects? Well they would, but (here is the catch) not only in a M&E 1.0 kind of way. This is a rather bureaucratic and top down approach of gathering and collecting data. Project managers would be the ones who lead the project team in the fact-finding mission, supported by the project team and expensive external experts.
Accountability to the donor wouldn’t be guaranteed though. In terms of venues of disseminating this information or the tools used, you would find that there was a rather hard way of relaying the data or providing a singular source of info. So much about the disadvantages of the M&E 1.0. It expresses the need for a dynamic more advanced and user friendly way of finding these facts and measuring the impact of projects in Kenyan communities. A pilot project was hence commissioned by 1%CLUB (Marianne), EyeOpenerWorks (Henrik, Martijn) and an external eye with the name Crosbond. The aim of this pilot was to find out whether new methodology would help in finding out the ‘most significant changes’ through projects. Guess what? The project was a success story! Local communities were ecstatic about being directly involved in the impact evaluation.
In Kibera myself, facilitating the process of the NGO Amani Kibera, I got a culture shock here. I was completely mesmerized about how this NGO organize their football teams, how they were friendly, welcoming and homely and how they were able to feel the urge to emotionally, passionately and proudly involve their members in interviews, receiving conclusive and personal feedback. The work that Amani Kibera has done here!!! Can be compared to the focus that ants do have to build their castle in readiness for the tough times ahead, this was just so awesome!!)
In Tetra Park village (where the NGO Kamane operates), Henrik and I got to be invited with open arms, even with sodas. It was evident that there was an issue of language barrier but I came in handy as a translator. We walked around for a short while and we got to see the informal settlement almost similar to Kibera but sort of smaller. The fact finding, follow-up, selection process of the stories, conversations from multiple sources, trust, and learning were all real-time and with this we could be able to find multiple sources of data that were synched together.
The Most Significant Change methodology for me was how the smooth transition from the old version of evaluation to the new dynamic method of monitoring. The participating NGOs were able to relate and adapt to the system quite much faster than I expected. They conducted the process all by themselves with minimal glitches!
Did you know, a simple retweet on twitter, or a comment on a Facebook post can simply Make It Work?
Imagine this, Safaricom Foundation, a registered charity funded by Safaricom Limited and the Vodafone Group Foundation have been requesting the Twitter and Facebook community to nominate a charity they would love to see win Ksh. 100,000 that is up for grabs. The Foundation provides a formal process for charitable contributions to communities, community groups and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in Kenya who are key partners in responding to social and economic development issues in the country.
Two projects currently under the My1PC campaign from the 1%CLUB relied on their online friends, one on Twitter and the other on Facebook, and each won Ksh. 100,000. All it took was to get their friends talking about the initiative online.
The first project is the Maisha Mapya initiative which is raising funds to set up a factory to reproduce re-usable sanitary towels was the first to win via Twitter. All people had to do was to nominate the project representative on twitter @Kamaitha and tag the Safaricom Foundation, and it went trending. We appreciate all the retweets and nominations! You Made it Work with a retweet!
The second project was initiated by Kwea Milele, a group of hikers that is fundraising funds to go plant trees at Mt. Kenya. They decided to replicate Kamaitha’s efforts on Facebook, and immediately Safaricom Foundation put their Facebook post up. Kwea Milele friends decided to dominate the post, and Kwea Milele stood out on the comments sections. Their efforts were rewarded 24 hours later, when they were announced winners, a perfect closure of the week.
With fundraising Friday happening this Friday, these two significant wins will indeed boost the efforts made by the project owners. A third project, Fanya Mambo which works with over 300 school going children is looking forward to keep the fundraising bar moving. Fanya Mambo helps to recycle plastic waste by collecting empty plastic bottles and building structures at the school where these children learn. They are fundraising, not only to buy materials for these structures, but also to drive a clean-up exercise and provide mentorship to these children, converting them to brand ambassadors at a tender age. They are counting on you to Make It Work!
All these three projects will on this Friday looking forward to your 1% support. Why 1%? Picture how much impact 1% of your income has on your lifestyle and spending patterns. Now take that same 1% and combine it with 1% from a friend, and another friend and their friends. Picture how much impact that 1% from you and your friends will have on a community project. It makes a world of difference.
You can learn more of how your 1% works via this link, and remember, the projects are open for donation from any person, yes, YOU make it work!
How about getting 10 friends, to each get 5 other friends and donate towards a project via MPESA? It’s as simple as ABC. Below are instructions on how to do it.
Start by choosing the project you would like to support
