In June we celebrated the 10th edition of the annual Forum of Opendata.ch – Swiss chapter of Open Knowledge – for the first time fully online due to the COVID-19 global crisis.
We talked about new data narratives and our visions for the data future. During the forum we held workshops based on data visions to find concrete action points that we can do today to create a better (data) future. The results are posted on our blog, while here you will find some brief impressions of the event.
„Citizen Generated Data would need to be used to grasp the new normal.“ – presiding the association and bringing together a lot of loose threads, Andreas Kellerhals opens the Forum with a forward looking speech. This excerpt reflecting the interest in CDG outlined in an earlier proposal.
„Our vision is that Wikimedia will provide essential infrastructure for free knowledge“ … „If we better want to understand our impact, we need to better understand how data is used and misused … including the potential [of scams, fake news, etc.] for harm.“ In a superb keynote, the recently instantiated president of Wikimedia Switzerland Muriel Staub summarizes the new vision of Wikimedia – see https://2030.wikimedia.org
„We are fighting for a fair, free and open future – and in that fight, we are making progress.“ – Hannes Gassert’s full speech was shared previously on this thread and in his blog.
„Let’s go for a critical and constructive elaboration of the kind of data society we want to live in“ – Maud Châtelet, who has been running Hackdays and developing projects in the association, kicked off the interactive part of the event with an overview of how the Data Visions workshops will run. Based in part on themes of last year’s unconference and crowdsourced submissions, in this „collaborative decision framework“ we sought to connect diverse responses to key questions with action points for the community.
Here are the 7 sessions that took place, with their facilitators:
| Title | Summary |
|---|---|
| Filling Female Data Gaps Nikki Böhler |
A world where data is available without gender bias and gaps |
| Research Data Connectome Sebastian Sigloch |
To connect and organize (meta)data for research sustainably across disciplines, in order to make it widely accessible, interoperable and valuable. |
| Serving, not Spying Maud Châtelet |
In ten years from now, I don’t feel observed and manipulated through the Data being collected about me but i can rely on being served by data for better services, better policies and a better environment. |
| Better use of data in Switzerland André Golliez |
Public and private sector data is open, shared, and used for public and private good within a trustworthy data ecosystem (“Swiss / European DataSpace“). |
| Better use of data in Switzerland Florian Wieser |
Public and private sector data is open, shared, and used for public and private good within a trustworthy data ecosystem (“Swiss / European DataSpace“). |
| Solid basis for committed debate and innovation Andreas Kellerhals |
Data create a critically discussable basis for political analysis and joint shaping of our future just as they enable innovations in everyday life – free access and responsible use are indispensable for an enlightened information society. |
| Open decentralized data storage Lukas Hess |
Data is a new form of currency: It is too powerful to be controlled by centralized private entities – let’s build a decentralized system to store, share and use data. |
| Shared ecosystem of energy data in Switzerland Emilie Boillat |
Data about energy production and consumption is shared openly by Swiss utility companies, promoting open innovation and helping to reach the „Agenda 2030“ climate goals. |
The notes and summaries are available on our online forum. Here is a glimpse of how those workshops ran, with a shared document in which we collaborated on compiling futuristic outlooks, situational analysis, and pragmatic recommendations:
In the afternoon keynote, we heard an update from Ruth Meier from the Federal Statistical Office about Switzerland’s current Open Government Strategy. These were stories from the front lines of data publication, the stunned silence after the rapid sharing of information followed by a peppering of questions from our audience. I thought this was the highlight of the conference.
We were blown away by the high standards of the 
Open Data Student Award nominees. One after another, the projects and presentations were an array of inspiring results.
Our sincere congratulations to Ueli, Anian, Janik, and Severin, students at the ETH 1 and winners of the 2020 Student Award with their visualization of @vbz_zueri_linie public transport flows via @OpenDataZurich.
Closing thoughts and the gritty challenges ahead were offered by data journalist Nikolai Thelitz, who spoke of the monumental efforts that have gone into aggregating usable Covid-19 Case Data, though the larger issues and learnings from this still-evolving crisis will probably be only visible clearly at Opendata.ch/2021.
The complete results of our Action Points voting, award nominees are available here. Additional commentary at forum.opendata.ch
