NGO IDFI Presents New Open Data Platform
By Levan Khutsishvili
Friday, March 2
The platform is an easily accessible online source that contains public information collected from 161 public institutions from Georgia. Information is systematized through various categories of public policy and finance topics.
On the web page, among the several categories, those interested can find data on local government, economy, social issues, crime statistics, environment and etc. In total 250 databases covers the data’s from 1994 – 2017 years and according to Levan Avalishvili, the programs Director of IDFI, datasets on www.datalab.ge will be periodically updated by IDFI.
“This initiative empowers the general public, enables one critically follow the government, check information and use it for the common causes. I hope this platform will be used by all generations, students and professionals” – stated H.E.Johannes Douma, Ambassador of the kingdom of Netherlands to Georgia.
www.datalab.ge is a multifunctional web page and enables to explore, analyze, visualize and publish datas. The page also allows to create new apps using open data. Free access to the public information is vital for increasing accountability, transparency and public participation of the society in decision-making processes.
“Allowing people to receive public documents held by state institutions, is an important tool for fighting corruption, making governments more efficient and accountable to the society, encouraging investment, and helping persons exercise their fundamental human rights. Therefore, I think that the new platform – www.datalab.ge is a significant step forward for the Georgian people to have easy access to the public information from state institutions” – said Giorgi Kldiashvili, Executive Director of IDFI.
To popularize www.datalab.ge and encourage using open data in order to prepare analytical articles, IDFI is organizing Contest on Analytical Articles – Data for Change, which was presented by the Head of E-governance Direction at IDFI – Teona Turashvili.
Turashvili spoke about the terms of participation and selection criteria, among which is inevitability of usage of database published on Datalab – www.datalag.ge.
According to the description of the contest information, total 3 winners will be selected and awarded monetary prizes: I Place – 1,600 GEL; II Place – 1.200 GEL; and III Place - 900 GEL; Also best 3 articles will be published on IDFI website (www.idfi.ge) and social media pages (Facebook and Twitter) with copyright protection.
DataLab was created and is run by the Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI), with financial support of international Visegrad Fund and Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.