Oladotun Fadeyiye
Connected Development (CODE) brought together professionals and experts such as journalists, researchers, computer analysts, Data Analysts, Tech savvys and others from various fields across the country yesterday Saturday 21st February 2015, on its Open Data Day event, to learn, teach and share new skills amongst themselves.
CODE which is one of the leading non-profit organisations that has been pioneering Open Data event and activities toward the entrenchment of transparency and accountability policies in Nigeria in the last couple of years, had consistently organised series of Open Data events supported by School of Data and Open Knowledge Foundation Network (OKFN) with the aim of creating enabling environments for professionals and experts alike to learn new skills, teach and share new skills amongst themselves thereby enhancing the capacities of one another.
According to Oludotun Babayemi, Lead Consultant and Monitoring and Evaluation Expert, CODE, said Open Data is intended to promote learning, teaching and sharing culture particularly of new expertises, skills and working tools or even novelties and ideas amongst professionals, which is one the ways to promoting transparency and accountability among the citizens.
Oludotun, who represented Nigeria in Berlin, Germany in 2014 School of Data Fellowship added that there are significant number of professionals out there who may never have opportunities of going back to the classroom to learn new working tools, however they have been able to enhance their capacities by attending Open Data activities since its inception.
New working tools and skills such as Data Coding, Using Data to tell stories, Data Analysis using Spreadsheets/Excel, Writing Creative and Effective Blogs, Data Visualisation and scrapping Using Google Drive for Collaboration and Creating Maps with QGIS and Tile Mill amongst others are working tools that all professionals especially those in the development and private sectors should endeavour to know how to use them for their various result oriented/based projects and programmes, all these are being shared and taught among the participants, he explained.
Collin Nyong, Regional Manager, RB Magazine, a Publishing outfit with several other branches across Nigeria, was one participant out of the huge turn out at the event said “I have been attending open data events with CODE since last year. “It has indeed changed my perception towards knowledge and skill sharing, I have equally gained lots of new skills, that ordinarily If It wasn’t for an event like this I wouldn’t know them” he remarked.
Esther Agbarakwe, Programme Officer, Association for Reproductive and Family Health (ARFH) Abuja said Open Data is a wonderful platform for capacity building for professionals, it feels so great to be part of a development such as this, she alluded.
More Photos at the event:
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