Alternative narratives: telling stories through open data (en)

Gilberto Vieira, Denise Karunungan, Offray Luna The production and
use of digital data have increased dramatically in recent years due
to the expansion of Internet access and the migration of many
services and ways of interaction to the online environment.
However, there is still a large gap between those with
technological skills for using such data, restricted to a very
privileged social group, and those who do not have any. This
knowledge gap imposes social challenges because having the ability
to use the data produced by public and private actors is a
determinant factor that allows the most vulnerable groups to
understand their context and seek changes towards more just
society. Civil society today brings together technology, knowledge
and creativity, but when isolated from the database and information
held by public organizations it can only play an underwhelming role
far from the innovative potential that it has. The generation of
new services and processes, more open and democratic, in close
connection with the needs of their interlocutors, could be greatly
enhanced by the availability of database and information collection
from the government and by the appropriate incentive to the use of
that information by civil society organizations. The panel's idea
is to raise these issues and recognize initiatives that centralize
this debate. Panelists will share examples from Indonesia, Brazil
and Colombia on how to use public data to create counter-narratives
about the cultural, economic and social problems and opportunities
of southern populations? What is the real capacity of collectives
and organizations to generate data that confront official data?
What technologies have contributed to this?