Go Global Open Data Index
| Name: | Go Global Open Data Index |  |
| Contributor: | Leonardo Alberto Dal Zovo | |
| Organisation: | ||
| Edition: | 2015 |
Project Description
Extract from the results of the Open Data Index 2014 by Open Knowledge.
Results
How much data is actually being released? What kind of data is it, and in what format is it published? Which countries are the most advanced and which are lagging behind in relation to Open Data? All these questions are important to answer if we want to understand the state of Open Data in the world of the game of Go. As a benchmarking tool, the Go Global Open Data Index will help to answer these questions. It will allow people to compare the state of Open Data between countries and to measure progress year upon year. This will encourage National Go Organizations, Go clubs and Go players to work towards improving the quality and increasing the quantity of Open Data. Key possible effects by opening and re-using Open Data in the context of the game of Go can be various:
- For the National and International Go Organizations:
- efficiency: it can help increase management effectiveness and efficiency in operations - for instance, putting data and information online helps save service time
- transparency and accountability: there is a direct link between Open Data and transparency - the more Open Data there is online, the more factual transparency there is. This, of course, affects large number of actors: data activists, journalists, organization, organization's officials, players and many other can benefit from an increased transparency directly in their actions
- balance of knowledge: having effectively implemented Open Data policies and engaged other stakeholders into re-using data whenever possible, the asymmetry of knowledge between organizations and their officials in one side and go players in the other may diminish
- For the Go Community:
- increased inclusion, participation, engagement and empowerment: it is a widespread presumption, that empowering a community with information may strengthen their capacity to participate in a decision-making process. The main challenge is to empower players and journalists so that they can re-use the data to enable better-informed participation
- access to information: Go communities can have an easy way to learn about their and other countries
- support decision-making capabilities: with Open Data being presented in an understandable manner, Go communities can build up their own understandings and interpret actions of key issues
- For the whole Go Ecosystem:
- new services: it stimulates creation of new opportunities to provide useful (innovative) services
- international visibility: with more Open Data available, it is easier to obtain visibility and let stakeholders have access to information related to the game of Go
- better informed monitoring: putting players and organizations in a better position to monitor actions and provide with new tools to engage players
Public Exposure
Contacts with Open Knowledge, the foundation responsible for the Global Open Data Index, has been established in May-June 2015 to open new opportunities and channels. The promotion plan is still in progress, but as the project is global the exposure will be mainly through online media: the project website, national and international go channels, personal messages to go players in social media. A promotion also in person will be carried out in the contributors and reviewers' recruit phase at the European Go Congress 2015 and a paper (covering more technical aspects of the project) will be presented at the 2nd IGGSC. After the publication of the final result of the 2015 survey in Spring 2016, various dissemination activities will be organized to spread the word about the result of the survey in the following channels to maximize the public exposure: project website, social media, social networks, Go tournaments/events, National Go Associations, worldwide and national foundations/associations on Open Data.
Human Resources
Human resource is the key to the success of the project. The main roles in the project are:
- Software Developer: taking care of the development/deployment of the software infrastructure and the web application, and monitoring the functionality of the platform, it should work around one month until the publishing of the result of the 2015 survey. The starting point is the platform realised by Open Knowledge and available as free software. The proponent will be in charge of this activities, but assistance is welcome
- Contributors: any person who volunteers and submit information about the availability of one of the key datasets in their place - it should take on average around one hour to answer to the nine evaluation questions per dataset per place, but of course the time can vary depending on specific cases
- Reviewers: any person who volunteers and examine the information submitted by the contributors, it is not easy to estimate the time to review the data as it depends on the working methodology decided by the teams but a single live meeting or online audio-video conference should be sufficient to validate most of the reviews
- Go Global Open Data Index Committee: it appoints both horizontal and vertical reviewers if available or find a solution if problems arise
- Marketing and Media manager: he/she identifies and perform strategic and operational actions in the marketing and media management
Financial Resources
Given the early stage of the project, only human time has been invested so far. The main future expenses will be:
- hosting the website and the application of the project
- present the accepted paper at the IGGSC during the European Go Congress in July 2015
- travel to other tournaments and event in September-November 2015 to spread the word about the initiative and find contributors, reviewers and partners
- dissemination activities of the result of the first survey in Spring 2016
The proponent will cover the initial costs of the project, but a more sustainable model will be put in place as the projects evolve. The main ideas to generate an income to sustain the project are:
- users donations
- sell a book of the results of the first survey (but available also for free on the website)
- sponsorship
- partnership with stakeholders
Perspective
The time line already presented what happened so far and the plan until the publication of the results of the first edition of the Index. The long term perspective is to evolve the Index to better reflect the needs and interests of the Go players to increase their awareness and involvement in national (and international) matters. Thanks also to Open Data and the Index, players will have an easy tool to access information and this will lead to better transparency and hopefully help generational change in national and international organizations.
Wishes
As the early stage of the project, cooperation is crucial for its success. The project is looking for contributors, reviewers, partners of simply people interested to know more about the project or simply curious about its objectives. The project can live without a lot of volunteers and cover only the most active and important go countries, but to make it a real and worldwide index people from all around the Go world must be involved. Iwamoto awards 2015, giving space to the project in its section, will be certainly of help to promote the initiative, and we hope for a recognition of the innovative nature of the project to really boost the impact worldwide.
Additonal Comments
Please feel free to contact me anytime and I'm looking forward to meeting you all at the Second International Go Game Science Conference during EGC 2015 in Liberec, Czech Republic. The provided illustrative images are taken from the Open Data Index website of Open Knowledge: index.okfn.org/ The provided paper is still draft even if it is very close to the final version.
