Paraguay
Juan Pane is a Lecturer and researcher for Open Data at the National University of Asunción, Paraguay. He is also researcher of the Latin American Open Data Initiative (ILDA) and a consultant for the Democracy and Governance Program for the Paraguayan Government funded by USAID and implemented by CEAMSO, Paraguay. His current research and development activities focus on ICT based Innovations for Open Data and Open Government initiatives by applying Semantic technologies and on designing automatic tools for Software Quality Assurance.
Paraguay ranked #50 in the 2014 Open Data Index / Other stories from Americas
Earlier this year I proposed to the teach an Open Data course, lasting the whole semester, for the Computer Science (Informatics Engineering) curriculum at the National University of Asunción, in Paraguay. I was already the editor for Paraguay of the Global Open Data Index (GODI) Survey, but only few of the datasets were being populated, I believe mainly due to the lack of knowledge about the Index.
While preparing the lessons I was trying to come up with a story that could tell the students that we, as a country, are not as bad as in many other places in the world, and that this Open Data movement was not a lost cause or impossible for us. This is when it occurred to me that the GODI was the tool for the job, and by the way, I would solve two things in the process:
- Teach about Open Government Data to the students, and the position of Paraguay with respect to the world
- Have the GODI filled in, so that Paraguay can be put in the map of Open Data in the world
Since I was collaborating with many government agencies, I knew where to look for the datasets so I could give the students pointers to where to search for the datasets, that in many cases meant making calls to check whether the datasets even existed.
The result of the process was very satisfactory, the students got a grip on what it means to look for datasets in very different situations (the easy and the hard ones), and how easy the task would have been if there was an Open Government Data Catalogue for Paraguay (we are in the process of building one now). The students were also very enthusiastic about the fact that we, as a country, are not in such a bad situation with respect to many other realities. This is always a confidence booster that translates into more civic actions and awareness about transparency issues in Paraguay. Overall, it was a win/win situation.
