CALL FOR OPEN DATA SUBMISSION

Mekong Environment Forum – MEF 2017

Building Community Capacity in Response to Mekong Delta Environmental Changes

Can Tho University, 28 December 2017

Overview

As part of the MEF and Can Tho University upcoming workshop on Building Community Capacity the East-West Management Institute Open Development Initiative is sponsoring a call for data submission to engage young and innovative citizen scientist to develop, implement and produce data driven research that can help to inform policy from the bottom up.

The EWMI initiated an open data platform called the Open Development Mekong (ODM) which aggregates data and information across the 5 Lower Mekong Countries including Vietnam to provide a space for open data sharing. It recognises the need for a paradigm shift for engaging in public dialogue, where decision making needs to be fact based and driven by affected constituents. The Mekong Delta is undergoing significant environmental change as a result of climate change and new research is needed to help inform policies that have positive impacts upon the millions of livelihoods that depend upon its natural resources. The ODM is offering a chance to publish data and data visualisations that compellingly raise awareness of the pressing issues affecting the Mekong Delta.

The organizer reserves the right to publish only datasets which conform to ODM standards. All dataset which are submitted and meet these criteria will be published, however awards will only be provided for the best submissions.

Why share your data?

The data you contribute from your area of interest and expertise to this one-of-a-kind expanding information ecosystem within the Mekong region will literally help to shape the ongoing discussions around these important issues. It helps to:

• Contribute to the research community and sustainable development
• Expand the impact of your or your organization’s project activities/ survey/research
• Connect to a wide network of regional and international partners and potential donors
• Help build the information ecosystem of the Lower Mekong Region

Criteria for data set submission

The following criteria is outlined as requirements of a response to this call for data submissions and should be addressed prior to submission:

Theme: The dataset must:

• Be related to the Mekong Delta or Mekong River and their surroundings.
• Make linkages to Sustainable Development Goals SDG 14 Life Underwater or SDG 13 Climate Action

Features:

• Contributors must have permission to submit and share the dataset upon an open platform. All permissions and access should be clarified prior to submission.
• Each dataset must ensure that free-prior and informed consent has been obtained from all information relating to participants and not violate any rights or pose security risks to the participants. These are all principles of the Responsible Data handbook.
• Datasets must be accompanied by good metadata and clearly outline, source, process, completeness and accuracy. For further details on metadata standards please review the ODM Wiki.

Expected outputs:

• The data should be clean and aggregated at an appropriate level to ensure principles of responsible data, and made available upon the ODM datahub.
• All data stories, data visualisations and tools produced must be developed with the intent of being published upon in an online format.

Time Frame and Schedule:

Data submission  are due by 15th of December 2017. Successful candidates have 1 weeks to finalise their datasets and deliver products for review by the committee. All data products and tools will be supported by the ODI team to ensure that they are able to be loaded upon the database and in the ODM platform.

Who can apply?

We encourage a broad spectrum of people to apply including students, employees of organizations, NGOs and CSOs working within SE Asia, Vietnam or on water issues more broadly. Citizens of the Global South with specific priority given to residences of the Mekong Delta.

Prizes

A total of US $1,200 will be awarded with the structure as follows:

• 1 first prize –  $ 500
• 2 second prizes – $ 200 each
• 3 third prizes –  $ 100 each

Judging

Voting will be based upon:

• Data used and cited in the reach.
• Analysis performed to be able to draw viable and sound conclusions.
• Usefulness of data and information provided.
• Presentation of finished data product.

Points will be awarded based upon:  

• Audience vote (at the presentation): 50% of the total points
• Points of the jury board: 50% of total points

Conditions

This initiative is intended to promote the use of Open Data within the region by using the facilities provided by Open Development Mekong and its associated country sites. The platform strives to generate dialogue within the community on pressing development issues affecting the region, however we aim to deliver these messages neutrally and without a bias agenda. All data and supporting materials must respect this mandate of the platform to be considered.

All data and data products should be made available in English and Vietnamese, if support is required a request to the committee can be made.

Instruction for Dataset submission

Register an account with ODM by filling in the form in this link: https://pp.opendevelopmentmekong.net/contribute-data/

Once you have registered you should receive details for creating a user account in our Datahub. An administrator will notify you of your membership once it’s been approved.  

Some complete datasets for reference: https://pp.opendevelopmentcambodia.net/profiles/community-forestry/

https://pp.opendevelopmentcambodia.net/profiles/fisheries-conservation-areas/

https://pp.opendevelopmentcambodia.net/profiles/community-forestry/

For technical issue, please follow instruction for uploading data 

For all other queries please contact: Ms. Lan Nguyen at: lannguyen@ewmi-odi.org or data@opendevmekong.net.