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Open Data Use Cases

The use cases below are highlighted examples from the Open Data Impact Map across sectors and regions.

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Use Cases - Alphabetical

Aidin

A website that improves the patient-placement process in choosing a post-acute provider
 http://www.myaidin.com/

Country: United States

Sector: Health

Impact: Reduces asymmetric information between patients and post-acute care providers

Data Used: Health data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services:  Nursing Home Compare, Home Health Compare, Patient Outreach and Hospital Integration

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Aidin

A website that improves the patient-placement process in choosing a post-acute provider
 http://www.myaidin.com/

Country: United States

Sector: Health

Impact: Reduces asymmetric information between patients and post-acute care providers

Data Used: Health data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services:  Nursing Home Compare, Home Health Compare, Patient Outreach and Hospital Integration

Description: In the current post-care provider environment in the US, patients have little to no information on whether a provider matches their needs, other than word-of-mouth or the occasional internet review; most patients end up choosing the provider nearest to their house. Aidin aims to stop this practice, and instead create choice based on the quality of service and care, generating business for  high-quality providers and moving patients away from low performers.  The website that gives detailed information on different nursing homes and other post-acute care providers to patients who are in the process of choosing between a multitude of options.

Aidin presents patients with a 1-page profile for every PAC that offers admission. These profiles are created by combining the diagnosis and demographics of a patient with open datasets such as “Nursing Home Compare,” from the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Additional information on the profile is formed from Aidin’s own tracking of readmission rates for PACs, patient reviews, and photos of each PAC.

Out of the patients presented with Aidin’s profiles of providers in their area, 80% will choose a high-performing PAC. By reducing the amount of asymmetric information between patients and providers, Aidin is making an impact on readmission rates to PACs, as well as directing PAC focus to quality of care instead of advertisements and airtime.

BRE

Advisory services for the built environment sector through research, testing, and training practices
 http://www.bre.co.uk/

Country: United Kingdom

Sector: Housing, construction and real estate

Impact: Provides cost effective and regulation certified resources for building construction

Data Used: Code for Sustainable Homes Certificates from the UK Department for Communities and Local Government , number of permanent new dwellings completed in the UK from the Office for National Statistics

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BRE

Advisory services for the built environment sector through research, testing, and training practices
 http://www.bre.co.uk/

Country: United Kingdom

Sector: Housing, construction and real estate

Impact: Provides cost effective and regulation certified resources for building construction

Data Used: Code for Sustainable Homes Certificates from the UK Department for Communities and Local Government , number of permanent new dwellings completed in the UK from the Office for National Statistics

Description: For the UK where construction constitutes 7% of its GDP, demands continue to grow considering climate change and sustainability issues BRE, formerly the Building Research Establishment, provides advisory services through research, testing, and certifications for the built environment sector. Founded in 1917 by the UK Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR), BRE is now an independent group, working in 77 countries, with over two million registered buildings, and 500,000 certificates.

One of the BRE services, BREEAM, or the Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method, analyzes buildings and projects to make cost effective and regulation certified decisions through open data. Services include access lists of BREEAM assessors and assessments, maps of BREEAM certifications, data visualizations on projects. Sources of government data include for example the Department for Communities and Local Government; BRE verifies the total number of Code for Sustainable Homes certificates. BREEAM plans to create a comprehensive BRE Data Lab and databases such as the GreenBookLive and Red Book, which lists environmental products and services.

Budget Stories

Budget and government transparency in Moldova
 http://www.budgetstories.md/

Country: Moldova

Sector: Governance

Impact: Provides analyses and tools accessible to a political layperson on Moldova’s budget and policies

Data Used: Budget data from Moldova’s Ministry of Finance; economic, energy and environment data from the National Bureau of Statistics

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Budget Stories

Budget and government transparency in Moldova
 http://www.budgetstories.md/

Country: Moldova

Sector: Governance

Impact: Provides analyses and tools accessible to a political layperson on Moldova’s budget and policies

Data Used: Budget data from Moldova’s Ministry of Finance; economic, energy and environment data from the National Bureau of Statistics

Description: Budget Stories, created by Expert Grup in Moldova, is a website providing budget information made available from the Moldovan government, as well as from a number of other sources such as the World Bank. Expert Grup produces reports on economic, environmental, and energy forecasts in Moldova. They have made several projects on these topics, focusing on ways to visualize large datasets and information taken from Moldova’s open data portal. The website’s  Budget Calendar and OpenSpending budget treemap projects both visualize this data in visual ways more accessible to an average citizen. They also provide the data in an online data portal.

The Budget Calendar project is a grid including the time of the year on the y axis and the steps towards approving a budget on the x axis. Within each cell, Expert Grup links the user to government reports relevant to that specific piece of the budget process, streamlining what could be a tedious search through multiple government sites to find this information. Expert Grup’s OpenSpending budget treemap also uses this open data, compiling it into a colorful visualization that gives the viewer a comparative understanding on where Moldova fits in comparison to other countries’ parliaments.

Calcbench

Conducts financial data research and analysis on public companies
 https://www.calcbench.com/

Country: United States

Sector: Finance and insurance

Impact: Provides standardized financial data in machine-readable formats for public use

Data Used: Corporate financial data and records from the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC)

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Calcbench

Conducts financial data research and analysis on public companies
 https://www.calcbench.com/

Country: United States

Sector: Finance and insurance

Impact: Provides standardized financial data in machine-readable formats for public use

Data Used: Corporate financial data and records from the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC)

Description: Over the years, the U.S. government has sought to standardize its data, including in the financial sector. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) publishes corporate reports on their publicly accessible database, known as EDGAR. For corporations, they are required to file parts of these reports in electronic and machine-readable formats. Calcbench, a financial services company, turns financial statements received from the SEC and uses algorithms to convert them into machine-readable formats through their XBRL algorithm, known as ‘eXtensible Business Reporting Language’.

Calcbench's data are derived from over 9,000 public companies and are made available for investors, auditors, and academics to manipulate and conduct their own analysis. Their data derives from primary financial statements and footnotes section of annual and quarterly filings, and more recently, the earnings press releases and proxy statements. While performing these services, Calcbench is able to track industry and economic trends, as well as monitor the quality of data, in real-time and accurate.

Centre for Governance and Public Accountability (CGPA)

Civil society organization working for promotion of public accountability and good governance in Pakistan
 http://www.c-gpa.org/

Country: Pakistan

Sector: Governance

Impact: Promotion of citizens’ voices on key governance issues and strengthening state response to citizens’ grievances

Data Used: District level education budget of various districts in Pakistan; Municipal budget data of Peshawar District; Education, health, police, legal data from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa District

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Centre for Governance and Public Accountability (CGPA)

Civil society organization working for promotion of public accountability and good governance in Pakistan
 http://www.c-gpa.org/

Country: Pakistan

Sector: Governance

Impact: Promotion of citizens’ voices on key governance issues and strengthening state response to citizens’ grievances

Data Used: District level education budget of various districts in Pakistan; Municipal budget data of Peshawar District; Education, health, police, legal data from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa District

Description: The Centre for Governance and Public Accountability (CGPA) was established in 2011 to improve the levels of trust between state and society in Pakistan. CGPA’s work can be grouped into 6 main areas: open governance, rule of law, democratic governance, decentralization and devolution, promotion of pluralism, and social accountability. Since the enactment of the Freedom of Information (FOI) legislation in 2013, the CGPA has focused on the implementation of this law and published extensive research on the response by government agencies in different districts in Pakistan to information requests.

As a promoter of open governance and open data, the CGPA has produced several studies on education budgeting, municipal budgeting, and others which have contributed with analyses on areas such as public education governance and service delivery, the right to drinking safe  water and sanitation, and public accountability at the local level. . The CGPA is also dedicated to making public data, such as data from the School Census, available in machine-readable format for everyone to access and use. To do so, it has plans to build its own data portal to make more data available to the citizens of Pakistan.

Chequeado

A fact-checking service that monitors political activities in Argentina
 http://chequeado.com/

Country: Argentina

Sector: Media and communications

Impact: Enforces accountability in political discourse

Data Used: Public safety data from the Ministry of Public Safety and Attorney General of the Province of Buenos Aires; Legal data from Argentina’s Ministry of Justice; Demographics and social data from Argentina’s Census; Economics statistics from Argentina’s National Directorate of External Sector Statistics

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Chequeado

A fact-checking service that monitors political activities in Argentina
 http://chequeado.com/

Country: Argentina

Sector: Media and communications

Impact: Enforces accountability in political discourse

Data Used: Public safety data from the Ministry of Public Safety and Attorney General of the Province of Buenos Aires; Legal data from Argentina’s Ministry of Justice; Demographics and social data from Argentina’s Census; Economics statistics from Argentina’s National Directorate of External Sector Statistics

Description: Chequeado is a nonpartisan group that verifies the claims of politicians, opinion leaders, entrepreneurs, media and other institutions, using reliable sources and data. The services is intended to help reduce the margin of intellectual impunity in the political discourse, and to contribute to more democratic transparency in Argentina. It relies heavily on open data for its investigations of political activity and fact-checking.

In this context, Chequeado created an online course on fact-checking and data journalism as an attempt to train more journalists in using data as a valuable tool in their work. Importantly, Chequeado also developed “Dato Chequeado” http://datochq.chequeado.com which is a collaborative platform to which anyone can upload datasets that are then verified, cataloged and published. This platform hosts a variety of open datasets, which provide users with reliable information that can be accessed easily, and ultimately contributes to more data being available, as well as the improvement of the quality of public debate.

Cultural Routes

App which helps users plan walking and biking routes, linking routes to historical and cultural sites in Moscow
 http://culturalroutes.ru/

Country: Russia

Sector: Arts, culture and tourism

Impact: Reduces time spent browsing tourist information sites

Data Used: Bicycle parking, museums, and city taxi parking datasets from the Department of Information Technology of the Government of Moscow

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Cultural Routes

App which helps users plan walking and biking routes, linking routes to historical and cultural sites in Moscow
 http://culturalroutes.ru/

Country: Russia

Sector: Arts, culture and tourism

Impact: Reduces time spent browsing tourist information sites

Data Used: Bicycle parking, museums, and city taxi parking datasets from the Department of Information Technology of the Government of Moscow

Description: Cultural Routes is an app that plans walking and biking routes around historical and cultural sites in Moscow. The app takes the location of taxicab stands and bike share locations into account, and tracks which museums are accessible to visit for people with disabilities.

Cultural Routes, one of several apps built by BNet, a Russian app developer company, takes all of its data from the Russian government’s open data portal. Currently, the application uses bicycle parking, museum, and city taxi parking datasets from data.mos.ru, and overlays this information onto a map. In addition to Cultural Routes’ original route function, BNet has added three other route recommendation functions: the first shows popular routes, the second takes the user’s location and finds nearby museums, the third lists museums most recommended by Cultural Routes users.

By mapping existing museum, bike, and taxi information from Russia’s government data portal, the app reduces the time spent for tourists and museum-goes looking through multiple websites and planning their day along bikeshare apps, google maps, and taxi services.

De Olho nas Metas

Platform for monitoring the progress of municipal projects in São Paulo, Brazil
 http://deolhonasmetas.org.br

Country: Brazil

Sector: Governance

Impact: Helps civil society monitor municipal projects in their community

Data Used: Education data from the Brazilian Ministry of Education and Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), government operations data from the municipality of São Paulo

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De Olho nas Metas

Platform for monitoring the progress of municipal projects in São Paulo, Brazil
 http://deolhonasmetas.org.br

Country: Brazil

Sector: Governance

Impact: Helps civil society monitor municipal projects in their community

Data Used: Education data from the Brazilian Ministry of Education and Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), government operations data from the municipality of São Paulo

Description: According to Brazilian law, in every mandate the mayor of a municipality is obliged to submit a plan describing the goals that will be implemented during his administration. These goals cover various topics ranging from environment to education, or any other areas of intervention in the city. In 2013, a new legislation enabled the creation of Participatory Councils, civil society groups that , among other things, monitor the execution of the municipal budget, public services performance indicators, and the implementation of the proposed plan within their geographical area.

Relying on data pulled from the municipality of São Paulo website, the platform “De Olho nas Metas” was created to facilitate monitoring of the progress of municipal projects. The tool also aims to  improve communication between citizens, Participatory Councils, and public officials. For a more complete and transparent view of projects, the platform also incorporates data from the Treasury Court of São Paulo and displays information on the companies that were contracted for the execution of each project.

“De Olho nas Metas” has also produced reports providing recommendations for the improvement of the Brazilian education system supported by the analysis of open education data (e.g. literacy rates, education budgeting) from the Ministry of Education, and the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE).

Economics Association of Zambia (EAZ)

Undertaking research, training, education, publication and consultancy in the field of economics and related disciplines
 http://eaz.org.zm

Country: Zambia

Sector: Governance

Impact: Recommendations and advocacy on economic policies to reduce poverty in Zambia

Data Used: Economic indicators, health indicators, household surveys, living conditions survey, demographic survey, economic census, population census, agriculture census from Zambia’s Central statistical office (CSO) and the Central Bank of Zambia

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Economics Association of Zambia (EAZ)

Undertaking research, training, education, publication and consultancy in the field of economics and related disciplines
 http://eaz.org.zm

Country: Zambia

Sector: Governance

Impact: Recommendations and advocacy on economic policies to reduce poverty in Zambia

Data Used: Economic indicators, health indicators, household surveys, living conditions survey, demographic survey, economic census, population census, agriculture census from Zambia’s Central statistical office (CSO) and the Central Bank of Zambia

Description: While Zambia’s economy has continued to grow at an average annual rate in recent years, global headwinds and domestic pressures have strained the Zambian economy. Since the 1960s, the Economics Association of Zambia (EAZ), a non-partisan body established in the 1960s, has promoted the socio-economic development of Zambia by undertaking research, training, education, publication and consultancy in the field of economics and related disciplines.

In its role of political advisor, the EAZ takes advantage of public economic data to conduct policy research. Complementary to its own primary data collection, EAZ sources open data mainly from the Zambian Central statistical office and the Central Bank of Zambia. The type of data being used covers a wide range - economic and health indicators, population and economic census, health demographic surveys, and others. For example, in its website, which also serves as an advocacy platform, the EAZ has contributed to the dissemination of the results of 2015 Living Conditions Monitoring Survey, a poverty assessment study conducted by the Central statistical office to monitor and highlight the living conditions of the population of Zambia. In this way, the EAZ seeks to help the Government of Zambia achieve its objectives towards poverty reduction and strengthening the linkages between budgeting and planning.

Eduweb

Centralized portal of open education data (schools, colleges and universities) in Kenya
 http://www.eduweb.co.ke

Country: Kenya

Sector: Education

Impact: Provides a simple interactive mechanism to identify, locate, and evaluate schools

Data Used: Education data (name of schools, location, contact, facilities, differentiating information) in Kenya’s Ministry of Education

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Eduweb

Centralized portal of open education data (schools, colleges and universities) in Kenya
 http://www.eduweb.co.ke

Country: Kenya

Sector: Education

Impact: Provides a simple interactive mechanism to identify, locate, and evaluate schools

Data Used: Education data (name of schools, location, contact, facilities, differentiating information) in Kenya’s Ministry of Education

Description: Developed in 2012 by Rivercross Technologies Eduweb is an online platform that helps citizens explore schools in Kenya. Eduweb provides  an online centralized portal where users can easily access information on relevant education institutions (schools, colleges and universities) country-wide. The portal, which is also available on mobile phones, aims to help parents looking for schools for their children, graduates looking for post-secondary opportunities, or others generally seeking to further their education. While making use of open education data, such as the names, locations, contacts of schools in Kenya, Eduweb offers a simple tool to effectively identify and compare different schools, so that parents, students, or others, can make informed decisions about their education.

ENOVA

Seeks to bridge the digital divide in education through open technology platforms
 http://enova.mx/

Country: Mexico

Sector: Education

Impact: Providing free online platforms students and educators to advance adaptive and accessible learning

Data Used: Social and demographic data (population density, income, level of education), transportation and environmental data (public transportation systems, green areas, and access to roads), education data (public schools) from the Government of Mexico

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ENOVA

Seeks to bridge the digital divide in education through open technology platforms
 http://enova.mx/

Country: Mexico

Sector: Education

Impact: Providing free online platforms students and educators to advance adaptive and accessible learning

Data Used: Social and demographic data (population density, income, level of education), transportation and environmental data (public transportation systems, green areas, and access to roads), education data (public schools) from the Government of Mexico

Description: Enova, a social entrepreneurship company based in Mexico City, seeks to bridge the digital divide amongst both students as well as educators. In a population where 69% lack access to computers or the Internet, such communities have a wide array of educational and technological needs. The Government of Mexico worked jointly with ENOVA to achieve digital inclusivity in establishing a “Network of Innovation and Learning” (Las redes de innovación y aprendizaje - RIA) centers. ENOVA utilized open data to determine areas of greatest need and most potential impact.

Through a method characterized as “urban acupuncture”, several indicators taken from publicly accessible databases were examined, including population density, income, level of education, public schools, commercial areas, public transportation systems, green areas, and access to roads. With 70 centers across 34 municipalities in the State of Mexico, government data was maximized to assess local needs within educational capacity building. Since each institution has specific needs, Enova focuses on the importance of adaptability in addition to the accessibility of their products.

Excel Geomatics

Open geographical data for information solutions to private and public organizations
 http://www.excelgeomatics.com/

Country: India

Sector: IT and geospatial

Impact: Maps open geographical data with data from the 2011 Census and NASA to target industry-specific needs

Data Used: Village and district boundary maps from India’s Census, Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS) from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), ASTER database from NASA and Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI)

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Excel Geomatics

Open geographical data for information solutions to private and public organizations
 http://www.excelgeomatics.com/

Country: India

Sector: IT and geospatial

Impact: Maps open geographical data with data from the 2011 Census and NASA to target industry-specific needs

Data Used: Village and district boundary maps from India’s Census, Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS) from the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), ASTER database from NASA and Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI)

Description: Excel Geomatics is a consultancy that uses open geographical data to provide services within a number of  technology domains including remote sensing, spatial and topographical analysis, and photogrammetry. Through National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) programming, Excel Geomatics uses their Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS) to develop their services. This Earth Observation data is integrated into the organization’s specialized GIS services which analyze 2011 Census data: ward maps for over 700 towns and cities, village and district boundary maps, and population distribution maps.

Excel Geomatics seeks to address pressing needs from mineral exploration to flood mapping. For instance, Excel Geomatics has evaluated gold potential in the Bukambe District of Tanzania. Data was sourced from the ASTER database, free high resolution imaging run by NASA and Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), as well as Google Earth Imaging. With these images, Excel Geomatics identified clients needs and provided recommendations for potential investments in the mining industry. Expert geologists analyzed Excel Geomatics findings and further identified gold prevalent areas through GIS.

Factly

A data journalism platform that seeks to integrate public information for informed reporting
 https://factly.in/

Country: India

Sector: Media and Communications

Impact: Creates fact-based reporting through articles and infographics

Data Used: Indian census data, crop data from the Ministry of Agriculture, pension data from the Planning Commission and Department of Rural Development, communal violence data from the Ministry of Home Affairs

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Factly

A data journalism platform that seeks to integrate public information for informed reporting
 https://factly.in/

Country: India

Sector: Media and Communications

Impact: Creates fact-based reporting through articles and infographics

Data Used: Indian census data, crop data from India’s Ministry of Agriculture, pension data from the Planning Commission and Department of Rural Development, communal violence data from the Ministry of Home Affairs

Description: Factly, an independent data journalism platform. To reduce information asymmetry, Factly reports news with verified public information and government data. Policy-makers, researchers, and general audiences benefit from its data-based news platform, visualizations and infographics. The organization collects data both through public domain sources and through Right to Information (RTI) requests.

For example, one article used data from the Ministry of Home Affairs to count the total number of communal incidents that occurred in India from 2011 to 2015. It revealed that 85% of the 3365 incidents took place in eight specific states: Bihar, Gujarat, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. Within the remaining states, seven failed to report a single incident of communal violence. Publishing this article enhanced a dialogue on the subject of law and order within state governments, shedding light on systemic issues.

Factly sources information from a number of from government data sources, such as the Census from the Ministry of Agriculture, Annual Reports with The Planning Commission, Department of Rural Development, and more. Delivering public information through three mediums - articles, infographics, and videos, Factly seeks to 'make public data meaningful.'

Farmerline

An SMS-based service that provides small-scale farmers with up-to-date agricultural information and advisement.
 http://farmerline.co/

Country: Ghana

Sector: Agriculture

Impact: Helps farmers increase crop yield and encourage new farming practices.

Data Used: Agricultural data from Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA), weather data from a number of sources

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Farmerline

An SMS-based service that provides small-scale farmers with up-to-date agricultural information and advisement.
 http://farmerline.co/

Country: Ghana

Sector: Agriculture

Impact: Helps farmers increase crop yield and encourage new farming practices.

Data Used: Agricultural data from the Ghanaian Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA), weather data from a number of sources

Description: Farmerline, an SMS-based service, provides small-scale farmers with up-to-date agricultural information and advisement based in Ghana. Farming accounts for over a fifth of the country’s GDP, and 42% of the workforce. However, many farmers in Ghana operate small-scale farms and face an uphill battle for agriculture information due to a lack of internet access and the diversity of local languages.

Farmerline addresses both these issues, providing local farmers access to accurate, up-to-date weather forecasts and market prices. In turn, the farmers gain immediate knowledge of competitive pricing and if not larger, steadier yields due to the agronomic tips and support.

Open government data is at the heart of this effort. Launched in 2013, Farmerline gathers open data on weather and market prices, and then repackages the information into outbound text and voice SMS messages, servicing over 5000 farmers in Ghana and available in nine different local languages. Fully incorporating voice messages in its service, Farmerline has expanded to farmers in rural areas, where literacy rates remain under 50%.

Farmlogs

Supporting farmers through technology to enhance crop production and reduce waste
 https://farmlogs.com/

Country: United States

Sector: Agriculture

Impact: Creates tools to measure crop management and environmental factors such as rainfall and soil composition

Data Used: Weather and rainfall data from U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) National Climatic Data Center, soil data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture

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FarmLogs

Supporting farmers through technology to enhance crop production and reduce waste
 https://farmlogs.com/

Country: United States

Sector: Agriculture

Impact: Creates tools to measure crop management and environmental factors such as rainfall and soil composition

Data Used: Weather and rainfall data from U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) National Climatic Data Center, soil data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture

Description: FarmLogs provides farmers with a free software and mobile application to map and analyze crop yields and environmental conditions for crop growth through government data. Their Farmlogs free Standard includes several features: Field Mapping, Scouting and Notes, Activity Tracking, Rainfall Tracking, GDD Accumulation, Soil Composition Maps, Growth Stage Analysis, Yield Maps, Input Planning. They also empower farmers to coordinate with the government to request data for their lands. On their website, FarmLogs details instructions on how to contact the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Farm Service Agency for field boundary data. Upon receipt, FarmLogs interprets the data and creates field boundaries on mapping systems for farmers to demarcate their lands.

Utilizing publicly accessible data remains essential to building its database of information. FarmLogs also tracks rainfall activity with data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Department of Agriculture datasets to analyze soil health. Incorporating real-time data from the government easily connect farmers to focus on crop production and avoid unnecessary waste. This free feature also monitors GDD accumulation, or heat accumulation, over a plot of land as well as color coded yield maps.

GeoPostcodes

Provides a search engine for zip/postal codes for over 250 countries
 http://www.geopostcodes.com/

Country: United Arab Emirates

Sector: IT and geospatial

Impact: Utilizes open geographical data to create accurate reports on geocoding through a map and databases

Data Used: Codes and administrative levels from national statistics offices from all countries, and the U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics

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GeoPostcodes

Provides a search engine for zip/postal codes for over 250 countries
 http://www.geopostcodes.com/

Country: United Arab Emirates

Sector: IT and geospatial

Impact: Utilizes open geographical data to create accurate reports on geocoding through a map and databases

Data Used: Codes and administrative levels from national statistics offices from all countries, and the U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics

Description: GeoPostcodes collects, manages and publishes geographical information on geographical information. For clients that rely on distributing information to large user bases, reliable geographical information is critical to effective marketing. GeoPostcodes operates off of datasets covering almost 10 million postcodes and over 18 million streets. These datasets detail geographic coordinates, time zones, reference codes, ZIP codes or postcodes, and administrative divisions. Commercial services include geocoding addresses, distance calculations, and geo-mapping.

In their data catalog, the index of postal and ZIP codes includes 253 countries and territories, allowing for greater reach. Data is available for up to four administrative levels, such as region, province, district, and town/village. An interactive map demonstrates a visual representation of their collected data with a synopsis of the ISO Code, Postcodes format, and numbers of administrative levels, regions, and postcodes. Data is sourced from each country’s National Statistical Offices (NSOs) and coded into the regional datasets, including ISO, country, language, and other classifications. Other information is sourced from the United Nations Geographic Information System for country codes, Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) Time Zones Database, and International Organization for Standardization for currencies and official languages.

GoodGuide

A platform which provides users with health, environmental, and social performance information of consumer products and companies.
 http://www.goodguide.com/

Country: United States

Sector: Consumer

Impact: Increase consumer knowledge of purchased products and manufacturer accountability

Data Used: Toxic Release Inventory (and many other datasets) from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

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GoodGuide

A platform which provides users with health, environmental, and social performance information of consumer products and companies.
 http://www.goodguide.com/

Country: United States

Sector: Consumer

Impact: Increase consumer knowledge of purchased products and manufacturer accountability

Data Used: Toxic Release Inventory (and many other datasets) from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

Description: In an ever-expanding market of consumer products and goods whose origins are often completely unknown to the buyer, information on where and under what conditions was a product made is hard to come by. GoodGuide works to provide consumers with this kind of information through its searchable consumer product database, ranking products such as candy, coffee and tea, food, and household chemicals, by their health, environment, and social performances.

GoodGuide draws its information from a wide variety of sources, from scientific institutions to NGOs to open government data sources. Its algorithm takes these datasets and ranks products correspondingly. For example, if a user were to look up Teas, they would find Frontier’s and Twinings’ Green Teas, as well as 4,831 other tea products, all ranked with an aggregate GoodGuide score as well as company, environment, and social scores. These scores are associated with indicators such as the amount of recycled content in their packaging for their environmental score, or whether a product is certified fair trade for its social score.

GoodGuide improves the ability for consumers to not only learn what they are buying in terms of work conditions and company environmental and social efforts, but also to gain a level of collective purchasing power based on increased information symmetry.

Green Patrol

Advocates for environmental protection through regional investigations and civil society accountability measures
 http://greenpatrol.ru/ru

Country: Russia

Sector: Energy and climate

Impact: Hold environmental violators accountable through an open platform

Data Used: Environmental data from regional data portals and Russia’s Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, including main air polluters and surface water bodies, environmental protection expenditures; mortality and population data from the Federal State Statistics Service

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Green Patrol

Advocates for environmental protection through regional investigations and civil society accountability measures
 http://greenpatrol.ru/ru

Country: Russia

Sector: Energy and climate

Impact: Hold environmental violators accountable through an open platform

Data Used: Environmental data from regional data portals and Russia’s Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, including main air polluters and surface water bodies, environmental protection expenditures; mortality and population data from the Federal State Statistics Service

Description: Established in 2007, Green Patrol, an environmental protection advocacy group seeks to create a more ecologically-oriented civil society. Green Patrol leads investigations using citizen-based self-reporting systems, regional data from the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, regional open data portals, and Green Patrol investigations. Through a network of 53 branches throughout Russia, they collect data and integrate findings on environmental governance issues onto the online database. Green Patrol has investigations completed on 85 regions in Russia.

To support these investigations, Green Patrol uses geographic information system (GIS) to create accurate environmental rankings of the entities within Russia. These rankings rely on indicators such as water, land resources, bioresources and more, along with environmental indexes. In order to use this data, Green Patrol seeks information from regional data portals and Russian Ministries; they include mortality data, environmental protection expenditures, and air polluters and surface water bodies. Through these mediums, Green Patrol created for the Sakha Republic, for example, a 2014 regional report and up-to-date assessments to evaluate environmental policy violations. Subsequently, the Sakha Republic was marked in 73rd place of 85.

Haezoom

An online platform that calculates potential energy savings from installing solar panels on a user’s residence
 http://www.haezoom.com/

Country: South Korea

Sector: Energy and climate

Impact: Offers common standard for solar panel industry and reduces asymmetric information between small solar panel brokers and consumers

Data Used: Building, solar radiation, air temperature data from South Korea’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transportation, Ministry of Environment, the National Academy of Sciences, and Korea Meteorological Administration

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Haezoom

An online platform that calculates potential energy savings from installing solar panels on a user’s residence
 http://www.haezoom.com/

Country: South Korea

Sector: Energy and climate

Impact: Offers common standard for solar panel industry and reduces asymmetric information between small solar panel brokers and consumers

Data Used: Building, solar radiation, air temperature data from South Korea’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transportation, Ministry of Environment, the National Academy of Sciences, and Korea Meteorological Administration

Description: Solar is a burgeoning industry in South Korea. Yet, as solar panel sales continue to rise yearly, they continue to be driven by small brokers, the majority of whom claim their product is the best on the market. Haezoom attempts to equalize the market playing field, by providing consumers with accurate estimates of savings from installing solar panels in their homes.

Haezoom is one of many companies that have sprung up from the South Korean government’s 2013 public data act, and Haezoom itself relies on building, geographical, solar radiation, air temperature, as well as a number of other datasets provided by several Ministries in the government, the National Academy of Sciences, and the Korea Meteorological Administration. It analyzes these datasets alongside the user’s monthly electrical bill to predict expected energy savings, installation costs, and CO2 emission reductions. The service then suggests which solar energy installation best suits the user’s needs.

Haezoom fills two essential, yet previously vacant, roles within the South Korean solar industry. First, it provides an impartial cost-benefit analysis of solar panel installation to clients. Second, it suggests credible manufacturers to purchase solar panels from based on its user’s needs. In doing so, Haezoom promotes the adoption of solar energy by increasing the amount of information available to customers.

IAG Ltd

The parent company of a general insurance group with operations in Australia, New Zealand, Thailand and Vietnam
 http://www.iag.com.au/

Country: Australia

Sector: Finance and insurance

Impact: Identifies areas of greatest vulnerability to natural disasters through data mapping applications

Data Used: Census data from Australian Bureau of Statistics, Cyclone Track Maps from the Bureau of Meteorology and New South Wales Rural Fire Service

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IAG Ltd

The parent company of a general insurance group with operations in Australia, New Zealand, Thailand and Vietnam
 http://www.iag.com.au/

Country: Australia

Sector: Finance and insurance

Impact: Identifies areas of greatest vulnerability to natural disasters through data mapping applications

Data Used: Census data from Australian Bureau of Statistics, Cyclone Track Maps from the Bureau of Meteorology and New South Wales Rural Fire Service

Description: IAG is an insurance company that provides customer protection plans from environmental disasters and advocates for the expansion of government data. As a founding member of the Australian Business Roundtable for Disaster Resilience & Safer Communities, IAG works to create a national approach toward investing in disaster mitigation efforts through big data applications. IAG relies on government statistics to price and issue policies, process claims, create predictive modeling, and pursue risk management. These data sources include the Geoscience Australia, the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the Bureau of Meteorology for Cyclone Track Maps, and the New South Wales Rural Fire Service RSS Feed.

Subsequently, IAG was tasked by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) to lead the second phase, Global Risk Map, of the Principles of Sustainable Insurance (PSI) Global Resilient Project, looking at risk reduction in natural disasters. This project’s virtual tools track national-level vulnerability to natural hazards, national-level resilience, the economic and social impacts, exposure to natural hazards, and country-level natural hazard events. Under the approval of the UNEP, data sources are EM-DAT database, INFORM, World Bank Database, PreventionWeb. Along the data catalogue, users may narrow down disaster types and download feature information in CSV formatting.

InstaVIN

App that provides access to vehicle history and title reports
 https://www.instavin.com

Country: United States

Sector: Transportation and logistics

Impact: Providing consumers with complete vehicle history and title report

Data Used: Vehicle information from the U.S. National Motor Vehicle Title Information System (NMVTIS) and State Departments of Motor Vehicles; Police records from local Police datasets

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InstaVIN

App that provides access to vehicle history and title reports
 https://www.instavin.com

Country: United States

Sector: Transportation and logistics

Impact: Providing consumers with complete vehicle history and title report

Data Used: Vehicle information from the U.S. National Motor Vehicle Title Information System (NMVTIS) and State Departments of Motor Vehicles; Police records from local Police datasets

Description: Vehicle history reporting provides detailed information about a vehicle’s past and can help uncover hidden negative history. Accordingly, information on a vehicle’s history is therefore seen as an essential help for shoppers to make better purchase decisions when buying cars. InstaVIN addresses this by providing a vehicle history reporting service that looks up information on a Vehicle identification number (VIN) instantly when it is submitted by a consumer, and then sends the information back to the consumer.

The service runs an immediate background check on the vehicle, grabbing information from state and federal government sources, like the National Motor Vehicle Title Information System, police reports, as well as from private sources like car dealers and insurance records. This information, which may include theft, towing, impound, lien data, vehicle specifications, is then sent right back to the consumer. Taking advantage of this combination of data sources, consumers can get the title and salvage history of a vehicle thus reducing the risk of making a costly decision when purchasing it.

Katadata

An economics and business publication in Indonesia
 http://databoks.katadata.co.id

Country: Indonesia

Sector: Business, research and consulting

Impact: Publish data, articles, reports and visualizations for economic and business analysis

Data Used: Economic, demographic, business and financial data from Indonesia’s Central Statistics Agency (BPS), Financial Services Authority (OJK), Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, Agency Plantation Fund Management (BPDP), Regulatory Agency for Upstream Oil and Gas (BPH Migas), Ministry of Finance - Directorate General of Taxation (DGT), Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM)

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Katadata

An economics and business publication in Indonesia
 http://databoks.katadata.co.id

Country: Indonesia

Sector: Business, research and consulting

Impact: Publish data, articles, reports and visualizations for economic and business analysis

Data Used: Economic, demographic, business and financial data from Indonesia’s Central Statistics Agency (BPS), Financial Services Authority (OJK), Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, Agency Plantation Fund Management (BPDP), Regulatory Agency for Upstream Oil and Gas (BPH Migas), Ministry of Finance - Directorate General of Taxation (DGT), Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM)

Description: Katadata offers an analytical news and research portal which provides economic and business data, news and investigations. The portal builds on Indonesia’s Internet growth, mobile and social media usage, as well as the country’s economic growth, which justify the need for the dissemination of more economic and financial information.

Katadata makes extensive use of open data while combining journalism and analysis, i.e. news and research, in its day-to-day business. In this context, Katadata created Databoks, a data portal that hosts business and economic statistical data from Indonesia. Considering the fragmentation of Indonesian economics and business data, Databoks was created with the goal of facilitating the use of data by companies, business people, researchers, students, government and media for various purposes, such as presentations, report creation and strengthening of media coverage.

La Nacion

Argentine daily newspaper covering national and international news
 http://www.lanacion.com.ar

Country: Argentina

Sector: Media and communications

Impact: Investigative journalism and making government information accessible in an open format

Data Used: Many including macroeconomic data, consumer indices, monthly industrial data, weather data, CO2 emissions, consumer complaints, tourism statistics, transportation data, political contributions in Argentina, and Buenos Aires census data

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La Nacion

Argentine daily newspaper covering national and international news
 http://www.lanacion.com.ar

Country: Argentina

Sector: Media and communications

Impact: Investigative journalism and making government information accessible in an open format

Data Used: Many including macroeconomic data, consumer indices, monthly industrial data, weather data, CO2 emissions, consumer complaints, tourism statistics, transportation data, political contributions in Argentina, and Buenos Aires census data

Description: La Nacion newspaper has been engaged in using and disseminating open data in various ways. In 2010, the newspaper started a project on data visualization where journalists, graphic designers and computer scientists worked together to understand how visualization tools can be used for reporting. The first delivery of this initiative, a report on Argentina’s Subsidies System for Transportation, relied on combining open transportation data from two government agencies ( Secretary of Transportation, and National Commission for Transport Regulation). The investigation discovered that the subsidies (gas and cash) grew dramatically (up to $34 billion) during the past ten years, and revealed the 20 companies that received more money from this system.

However, getting the public data in the first place poses a significant challenge. Since Argentina doesn’t have a law that allows citizens access public documents, like Freedom of Information Act in the U.S, all the information used in this investigation had to be converted from PDF’s documents to CSV and Excel files. In this context, making public data available in an open format is another goal of La Nacion. In march 2012, the newspaper launched an open data portal. In this portal, users can access official data in the domains of legislation and policy-making, general indicators, environment, sports, and economics.

Lebanese Association for Democratic Elections (LADE)

Website that features visualizations of past elections according to voter trends based on gender, voter representation in Parliament, etc.
 http://www.lade.org.lb/

Country: Lebanon

Sector: Governance

Impact: Promotes electoral transparency and reform in Lebanon

Data Used: Demographic and electoral data from the Ministry of the Interior and Municipalities (MoIM), the Directorate General of Personal Services (DGPS), and www.elections.gov.lb website

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Lebanese Association for Democratic Elections (LADE)

Website that features visualizations of past elections according to voter trends based on gender, voter representation in Parliament, etc.
 http://www.lade.org.lb/

Country: Lebanon

Sector: Governance

Impact: Promotes electoral transparency and reform in Lebanon

Data Used: Demographic and electoral data from the Ministry of the Interior and Municipalities (MoIM), the Directorate General of Personal Services (DGPS), and www.elections.gov.lb website

Description: For Lebanon’s 2017 general elections, the Lebanese Association for Democratic Elections (LADE) and Lamba Labs have created a data platform that visualizes voter trends in past elections to help foster discussions, reform, and participation in the Lebanese election process. The Lebanese Elections Data Analysis project features visualizations such as voter trends based on gender, voter representation in the Parliament, and citizen involvement in the political system.

These visualizations are based on data collected by the LADE as well as from government data published by the Ministry of the Interior and Municipalities (MoIM), the Directorate General of Personal Services (DGPS), and the www.elections.gov.lb website. Additionally, during the election, LADE is prepared to monitor electoral violations and map them on its website. It will also create maps similar to those on its website in order to delineate voting patterns and proportionality of the election. LADE’s project will help ensure transparency in the upcoming general elections and provide vital information informing citizens and legislators on how to move forward with legislative and electoral reforms.

Mandi Trades

A location-based social network fostering business directly between local farmers and buyers
 http://www.manditrades.com/

Country: India

Sector: Agriculture

Impact: Increases efficiency in the agriculture market and reduces information asymmetry for small-scale farmers

Data Used: Commodity Prices from India’s data portal and AgMarknet.gov.in

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Mandi Trades

A location-based social network fostering business directly between local farmers and buyers
 http://www.manditrades.com/

Country: India

Sector: Agriculture

Impact: Increases efficiency in the agriculture market and reduces information asymmetry for small-scale farmers

Data Used: Commodity Prices from India’s data portal and AgMarknet.gov.in

Description: Mandi Trades is a location-based social network and mobile application that connects farmers, transporters, traders, shop owners, and retail managers to one another. Under the services of Farmobi Technologies Pvt Ltd, Mandi Trades allows buyers and sellers to bypass the middlemen often involved in the Indian food industry. Instead, this platform creates an environment where buyers can purchase crops directly from local farmers, which reduces transportation costs and increases profit margins for both parties. These services also automatically incorporate the locations of sellers upon uploading datasets.

The Farmobi Technologies' app levels the agricultural market in two ways. First, it features agricultural market price data from the government of India’s data portal, data.gov.in, to make public information access a key component to competitive pricing. Second, the app lets farmers directly post details about their crops, making purchasing decisions transparent to both suppliers and buyers. These two features in Mandi Trades not only decreases information asymmetry but also leverages existing government data to encourage public data use within the agriculture sector for fair and competitive pricing.

MapYourProperty

Website that automates zoning and land use information collection and compiles the data into a single report for clients
 http://www.mapyourproperty.com/

Country: Canada

Sector: Housing and real estate

Impact: Streamlines information gathering for urban planners and developers

Data Used: Zoning, regulatory, environmental, and land use datasets from the City of Toronto, Region of York, and Ontario Government of Canada

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MapYourProperty

Website that automates zoning and land use information collection and compiles the data into a single report for clients
 http://www.mapyourproperty.com/

Country: Canada

Sector: Housing and real estate

Impact: Streamlines information gathering for urban planners and developers

Data Used: Zoning, regulatory, environmental, and land use datasets from the City of Toronto, Region of York, and Ontario Government of Canada

Description: MapYourProperty gives clients instant access to zoning, land use, and environmental information about a specific location, eliminating the tedious process of cross-checking a property with the land regulations and restrictions pertaining to that location.

The Canadian startup relies almost entirely on open municipal and federal datasets, such as land use and zoning policies, the Toronto Bylaw 569-2013, or the Oak Ridge Moraine Plan. The information from these datasets is incorporated in two places: first, when a client visits MapYourProperty’s website, information such as environmental laws and flooding areas are overlaid on a Google maps search of the client’s location of interest. Information on the map is categorized into five tabs: land use, zoning, environmental, and water and provincial regulations. Second, when the client is satisfied with the map, MapYourProperty compiles this visual data and more into a single, detailed Word document.

The startup has enhanced Ontario’s real estate market, streamlining a previously time-consuming process that involved browsing through city hall binders and physical maps.

Medicat.io

A website that provides information on medication and pharmacies for the general public
 http://medicat.io

Country: France

Sector: Health

Impact: Helps consumers make more informed decisions about the medication/drugs they take

Data Used: Public database of medicines and National file of Health and Social Institutions (FINESS) from France’s Ministry of Social Affairs, Health and Women's Rights; National repository drug interactions and Official list of medication drugs in allopathy, homeopathy and herbal from France’s National Agency for the Safety of Health Products (ANSM); Drugstores on duty and emergency in Paris from the Regional Health Agency - Ile de France

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Medicat.io

A website that provides information on medication and pharmacies for the general public
 http://medicat.io

Country: France

Sector: Health

Impact: Helps consumers make more informed decisions about the medication/drugs they take

Data Used: Public database of medicines and National file of Health and Social Institutions (FINESS) from France’s Ministry of Social Affairs, Health and Women's Rights; National repository drug interactions and Official list of medication drugs in allopathy, homeopathy and herbal from France’s National Agency for the Safety of Health Products (ANSM); Drugstores on duty and emergency in Paris from the Regional Health Agency - Ile de France

Description: The goal of Medicat.io is to make information about medication in France more accessible to teh public, and allow people to be better informed when they discuss medications with doctors or pharmacists. Where there there is higher medication consumption in France than in its neighbouring countries, Medicat.io aims to raise awareness about the risks of taking multiple medications simultaneously. By analyzing crossing and comparing the components of different medications, and highlighting relevant information using reliable sources, the website allows users to explore the different treatment options available, and discuss the best options with pharmacists.

The service provided by Medicat.io is built on publicly available data. It uses data from France’s public database of medicines (Ministry of Social Affairs, Health and Women's Rights), the its National repository drug interactions (Agence française de sécurité sanitaire des produits de santé), which is updated every month. Similarly, the directory of pharmacies integrates public data from the Regional Health Agency, and the National file of Health and Social Institutions.

Michael Culture Association

A nonprofit that promotes digital cultural content and creates a network among cultural institutions throughout Europe
 http://www.michael-culture.eu/

Country: France

Sector: Arts, culture and tourism

Impact: Consolidates and fosters growing digital cultural content from museums and libraries across Europe

Data Used: Cultural data and inventories from public museums, libraries and archives across Europe

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Michael Culture Association

A nonprofit that promotes digital cultural content and creates a network among cultural institutions throughout Europe
 http://www.michael-culture.eu/

Country: France

Sector: Arts, culture and tourism

Impact: Consolidates and fosters growing digital cultural content from museums and libraries across Europe

Data Used: Cultural data and inventories from public museums, libraries and archives across Europe

Description: As the world increasingly moves towards digital formats, Michael Culture Association, commissioned in 2007,  provides members with access to digital cultural resources. The nonprofit encompasses over 150 cultural institutions across Europe, and its main project is the Michael Culture portal, which allows users to browse through European digital cultural heritage material online.

The Michael Culture portal builds its content from public and private, museums, libraries, and archives. The content itself ranges from art to archaeology and spans all periods of European history, and is searchable by subject, author, date, as well as a number of other identifiers. Michael Culture Association also links users to national portals of digital cultural collections, thus consolidating a number of scattered resources within a single portal. Through its support for multiple languages and large collection, the Michael Culture portal is able to deliver a searchable digital database of cultural content that supersedes the traditional linguistic and physical barriers of European cultural institutions.

MobileContent.com Ltd

Mobile content provider in Ghana
 http://mobilecontent.com.gh

Country: Ghana

Sector: Media and communications

Impact: Improves organization’s market and pricing strategy

Data Used: Demographic, consumer and mobile penetration data from Ghana’s Census; Education data from Ghana’s Ministry of Education

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MobileContent.com Ltd

Mobile content provider in Ghana
 http://mobilecontent.com.gh

Country: Ghana

Sector: Media and communications

Impact: Improves organization’s market and pricing strategy

Data Used: Demographic, consumer and mobile penetration data from Ghana’s Census; Education data from Ghana’s Ministry of Education

Description: MobileContent primarily uses open data to inform the organization’s strategic decisions. For instance, the organization uses various types of consumer data on mobile use (e.g. value of mobile services, how much consumers spend per month on average, mobile penetration), complemented with demographic data, to determine whether a specific target market is likely to be profitable, and the optimal pricing for the organization’s products and services.

MobileContent designs a number of mobile-based services, providing information ranging from ways to prevent diseases to jokes and horoscopes. In addition to using open data to inform pricing, marketing and product development, the organization also hosts a platform with information about educational institutions throughout Ghana.

Navut

Provides online tools identify user preferences to facilitate relocation in Canada
 http://www.navut.com/

Country: Canada

Sector: Housing, construction and real estate

Impact: Customizes and cuts down the cost of housing searches

Data Used: Demographic data from Canada Census and U.S. Census Bureau, education data at the province level from Canadian Ministries of Education, U.S. Geological Survey

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Navut

Provides online tools identify user preferences to facilitate relocation in Canada
 http://www.navut.com/

Country: Canada

Sector: Housing, construction and real estate

Impact: Customizes and cuts down the cost of housing searches

Data Used: Demographic data from Canada Census and U.S. Census Bureau, education data at the province level from Canadian Ministries of Education, U.S. Geological Survey

Description: Relocating to a new area comes with its own challenges, but for the founders of Navut, relocating to Canada as immigrants inspired them to create a website breaking down information barriers in the housing market. Designed for enhanced user operability, Navut was founded in 2012 and seeks to generate data-driven decision-making. Navut provides online tools for users to specify relocation preferences depending on selection criteria, such as lifestyle and budget, and feeds the data through a personalized search engine called The Neighborhood Finder. Information collected from government and private sources address the criteria and allow users to narrow their real estate options.

Users examine property locations and assess factors such as distance to schools or commute to work. Additional information provided includes statistics on public and private schools, sourced from the Ministry of Education from each province, and demographics from the 2016 Canadian census. Providing access to census or education demographics creates opportunities for future homeowners and renters to make quality decisions while avoiding high real estate agent fees generally associated with the process.

New Zealand Institute of Economic Research

Consultancy advancing independent economic analyses
 http://nzier.org.nz/

Country: New Zealand

Sector: Business, research and consulting

Impact: Supports a database that breaks down national economic analysis into user friendly datasets

Data Used: Statistics New Zealand Official Yearbooks (1893-2012), Budget data and economic statistics from the Treasury and Reserve Bank of New Zealand

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New Zealand Institute of Economic Research

Consultancy advancing independent economic analyses
 http://nzier.org.nz/

Country: New Zealand

Sector: Business, research and consulting

Impact: Supports a database that breaks down national economic analysis into user friendly datasets

Data Used: Statistics New Zealand Official Yearbooks (1893-2012), Budget data and economic statistics from the Treasury and Reserve Bank of New Zealand

Description: The New Zealand Institute of Economic Research (NZIER) is a consultancy that encourages independent analyses on economic issues within the country. Their Public Good program endeavors to empower individuals in making data-driven decision-making in business and policy-making. NZIER focuses on data management and provides the tools for different data interpretation. To strengthen existing government data, NZIER incorporates information from The Treasury, New Zealand’s Official Yearbooks (1893-2012) from Statistics New Zealand, Government at a Glance database from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and the Reserve Bank of New Zealand.

These sources then develop their database called Data1850, which bridges data from five sectors: government, economic activity, prices, international linkages, and people. With the lack of statistics data available prior to 1850, the platform was coined Data1850. Their services include datasets or other information on economic or statistics based history, spanning from 1850 to present day. Easily operable and downloadable, the data is available for free on the website. Users choose among economic activity, people, and prices to begin, and then narrow down data options. For example, employment may be first narrowed down by industry or by occupation, then the types of services or professions.

Odekro

A website that provides makes public information from the Parliament of Ghana more easily accessible
 http://www.odekro.org/

Country: Ghana

Sector: Governance

Impact: Promotes government accountability and citizen participation by making parliamentary proceedings accessible to the public

Data Used: Ghanaian Parliamentary and election data

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Odekro

A website that provides makes public information from the Parliament of Ghana more easily accessible
 http://www.odekro.org/

Country: Ghana

Sector: Governance

Impact: Promotes government accountability and citizen participation by making parliamentary proceedings accessible to the public

Data Used: Ghanaian Parliamentary and election data

Description: Ghana’s legislature is composed of 275 Members of Parliament (MPs) that are elected to serve their single-member constituencies. However, while the majority of the activities in parliament, such as votings, motions, and committees, take place in the open, too often, information is difficult to find, access and use. Created in 2012, Odekro is an online platform that aims to promote transparency and citizen participation in Ghana by providing public access to Bills, Motions, and Parliamentary proceedings (Hansards).

Mainly, the work of Odekro is to extract the data from different public sources, such as the Parliament of Ghana, the Electoral commission, and Ghana statistical service. While some of the data is available in excel formats, often Odekro has to convert data from paper or PDF to a machine-readable format. Making this information open allows media organizations to contribute to a more evidence-based public discussion, and increased public accountability of Members of Parliament. An example of this was the attention recently drawn to the country’s non-attending MPs after a letter sent by Odekro to the Speaker of Parliament based on this data. The Odekro platform also provides tools that allow users to discuss online while discussions are taking place in the Parliament, as well as to report issues affecting their constituencies, or follow the specific issues the MPs for their constituencies are contributing to. In this way, Odekro aims to enable communities and marginalized populations to leverage this information to engage with government agencies.

Ojoconmipisto.com

Monitors the spending of municipal funds in Guatemala
 http://ojoconmipisto.com/

Country: Guatemala

Sector: Media and communications

Impact: Promoting civic-minded journalism and citizen participation

Data Used: Procurement data (Guatecompras) from Guatemala’s Ministry of Finance

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Ojoconmipisto.com

Monitors the spending of municipal funds in Guatemala
 http://ojoconmipisto.com/

Country: Guatemala

Sector: Media and communications

Impact: Promoting civic-minded journalism and citizen participation

Data Used: Procurement data (Guatecompras) from Guatemala’s Ministry of Finance

Description: Ojoconmipisto.com is a project developed by Laboratorio de Medios, an organization that trains journalists and others in various aspects of accessing and using public data in Guatemala. It is designed to allow reporters, social organizations and citizens to use open data to better understand municipal council spending, political affiliations and public contracts.

Started in 2013, the project made use of initial funding by the United States Agency for International Development to train journalists in working with GuateCompras, a database containing municipalities’ procurement information of the national government of Guatemala. The training also includes an overall understanding of the legal framework pertaining to public procurement and freedom of information in Guatemala. Empowered with this knowledge, local journalists are expected to be better equipped to monitor and report on the spendings of municipalities.

Open Budget

A visualization tool that helps local municipalities publish and present their budgets in a user-friendly interactive format
 http://www.openbudget.in.ua/?locale=en

Country: Ukraine

Sector: Governance

Impact: Helps citizens understand budget information through visualizations

Data Used: Budgets from the Ukraine Open Data Portal

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Open Budget

A visualization tool that helps local municipalities publish and present their budgets in a user-friendly interactive format
 http://www.openbudget.in.ua/?locale=en

Country: Ukraine

Sector: Governance

Impact: Helps citizens understand budget information through visualizations

Data Used: Budgets from the Ukraine Open Data Portal

Description: Open Budget is a visualisation tool that helps local municipalities publish and present their budgets in a user-friendly interactive format. It is built by Center Eidos, an institution that trains journalists and NGOs for data-driven reporting and analytics. The goal of Center Eidos is raise public awareness in political consciousness and citizen’s proactive role in the development of Ukrainian society.

Open Budget offers three types visualizations: City Budget, Repairing Map and City programs based on data sources provided by DKAN, the Ukraine open data portal. These visualizations offer intuitive insights into complex government operations. City budget visualization supports instant understanding in how budgetary expenses are distributed across different sectors. Repairing map maps out which part of the city is under construction, and informs citizens to experience less inconvenience. City programs yields comprehensive overview as to the current progress for any budget-spending program. It not only shows remaining spendings for a program but also trends in budgetary planning for the same program during the past years. This attempt empowers citizens to hold governing body accountable for executing any city program.

Open Oil

Publishes on the extractive industries and provides multiple platforms to browse oil contracts and oil companies’ corporate filings globally
 http://openoil.net

Country: Germany

Sector: Energy and climate

Impact: Decrease opaque-nature of the oil industry and by doing so, increases oil companies’ accountability

Data Used: Monthly energy reviews from U.S. Energy Information Administration

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Open Oil

Publishes on the extractive industries and provides multiple platforms to browse oil contracts and oil companies’ corporate filings globally
 http://openoil.net

Country: Germany

Sector: Energy and climate

Impact: Decrease opaque-nature of the oil industry and by doing so, increases oil companies’ accountability

Data Used: Monthly energy reviews from U.S. Energy Information Administration

Description: While transparency has been positively affected by the movement towards opening private and government data, oil contracts have remained largely unreachable. OpenOil seeks to change this, by compiling oil contracts and information on oil companies  from around the world and making this information easily accessible on its platform.

OpenOil draws its information from a large number of sources, ranging from government sources such as the U.S. Energy Information Administration, from non-governmental organizations such as the BP Statistical Review of World Energy or World Bank Extractive Industries Handbook, or from a plethora of filings all part of the public domain and voluntarily shared information from oil companies themselves. After ensuring these datasets are in a machine-readable format (many of them are originally in PDF format, OpenOil includes them in their Aleph search engine, one of the nonprofit’s several services. OpenOil also applies this publically available data and visualizes corporate oil company networks as well as creates financial models of upstream oil, gas, and mining projects.

By creating the Aleph search engine for public domain corporate filings, network visualizations, and financial models, OpenOil is bringing transparency, through previously unread, unsorted publically available data on oil contracts, to the forefront of the global conversation on oi and energy.

Otthonterkep

An online portal that provides real estate property search
 http://otthonterkep.hu/

Country: Hungary

Sector: Housing, construction & real estate

Impact: Provides home buyers with information to better search properties

Data Used: Housing market transactions from the Hungarian National Tax and Customs Office; National Crime Map from http://police.hu; Census data from Hungary’s Central Statistical Office

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Otthonterkep

An online portal that provides real estate property search
 http://otthonterkep.hu/

Country: Hungary

Sector: Housing, construction & real estate

Impact: Provides home buyers with information to better search properties

Data Used: Housing market transactions from the Hungarian National Tax and Customs Office; National Crime Map from http://police.hu; Census data from Hungary’s Central Statistical Office

Description: In light of the thriving real estate market in Hungary, the company Mapsolutions Zrt. developed the website Otthonterkep in 2013 with the goal of providing home buyers an interactive home search interface. Via its real estate property search portal, Otthonterkep provides users with information on Hungarian real estate, including average house prices, parking prices , green spaces or even a criminal and demographic information. The website also includes a map that gives an overview of the housing market in Hungary. Otthonterkep constructed this map using data provided by public sources, including housing market transactions, census data, and national crime statistics.

Since 1990, Budapest underwent a construction boom, which was fuelled not only by local demand but also by the rising interest of international investors in the real estate. Additional analysis of Otthonterkep‘s  map conducted by index.hu offers valuable insights into the Hungarian housing stock, such as the aging of the buildings, the decline in new building permits issued in recent years, and the variation in price per square meter. The analysis also concludes that, in Hungary, there is a strong correlation of price per square meter and the age of the building, in particular for those that were built after 1990.

Päästöt.fi

A website that allows a user to examine and compare pollution emissions throughout Europe
 http://Paastot.fi

Country: Finland

Sector: Energy and climate

Impact: Bypasses local companies unwilling to disclose pollution emissions for a country-wide visualization.

Data Used: Environmental data from the European Pollutant Release and Transfer Register (E-PRTR)

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Päästöt.fi

A website that allows a user to examine and compare pollution emissions throughout Europe
 http://Paastot.fi

Country: Finland

Sector: Energy and climate

Impact: Bypasses local companies unwilling to disclose pollution emissions for a country-wide visualization.

Data Used: Environmental data from the European Pollutant Release and Transfer Register (E-PRTR)

Description: The idea for Päästöt.fi came about when its creator ran into a roadblock while looking into greenhouse gas emissions statistics of a local energy company. In order to circumvent this issue, he came across the European Pollutant Release and Transfer Register (E-PRTR) database, which was established in July 2000 to collect the annual emissions numbers from industrial facilities across Europe. Päästöt.fi emerged was created in 2010 to allow users to compare emission levels from industrial facilities across Europe.

Päästöt.fi visualizes some 30,000 industrial facilities, from mining sites to coal-fired plants. These facilities are all mapped on the platform, and information such as CO2, heavy metal, or another 89 other kinds of industrial emissions are overlaid on this map; the magnitude of each site’s emissions is shown through circles of varying sizes, and a box to the right relates the numerical figures associated with the selected site.

Päästöt.fi manages to effectively communicate important information that was previously stored within a huge dataset that a layperson would otherwise not engage with. Through its visualization, citizens are now able to gain the necessary information to lobby and create change.

Prosper Daily

A personal finance analytics company utilizing crowdsourcing and big data analytics for consumer financial protection and savings
 http://databoks.katadata.co.id

Country: United States

Sector: Consumer

Impact: Identifies fraudulent merchants using consumer complaint data

Data Used: Consumer Complaint Database from the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB)

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Prosper Daily

A personal finance analytics company utilizing crowdsourcing and big data analytics for consumer financial protection and savings
 https://www.prosper.com/daily

Country: United States

Sector: Consumer

Impact: Identifies fraudulent merchants using consumer complaint data

Data Used: Consumer Complaint Database from the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB)

Description: Prosper Daily, formerly known as BillGuard, uses big data analytics for consumer financial protection and savings. Combining data from banks, online commentary, and government databases, Prosper Daily monitors consumer complaints concerning payment cards and bank accounts. With a base of over a million users, Prosper Daily then identifies trends of fraudulent financial activity or wrongful charges. The goal is to narrow down the sources of fraudulent activity, whether it be a merchant or individual. Specific complaint trends considered include issues of overcharges, fraud, deceptive advertising or billing practices.

The U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) open Consumer Complaint Database aggregates consumer responses and directs them to companies for potential resolution. With CFPB open data services, Prosper Daily uses publicly available datasets to resolve credit card transactions issues. These datasets combined with their algorithm help users identify sources of fraudulent activity and directly contact merchants through their mobile application. In 2014, Prosper Daily (then BillGuard), claims to have flagged $60 million in suspect charges.

QEdu

A portal that displays public information on the quality of learning in each school, county and state in Brazil
 http://www.qedu.org.br

Country: Brazil

Sector: Education

Impact: Provides reliable data for educational managers to plan changes and improvements to education systems

Data Used: Education data (E.g. Prova Brasil, Censo Escolar, Ideb, and Enem) from the Ministry of Education in Brazil

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QEdu

A portal that displays public information on the quality of learning in each school, county and state in Brazil
 http://www.qedu.org.br

Country: Brazil

Sector: Education

Impact: Provides reliable data for educational managers to plan changes and improvements to education systems

Data Used: Education data (E.g. Prova Brasil, Censo Escolar, Ideb, and Enem) from the Ministry of Education in Brazil

Description: By monitoring the performance results of national education institutions, QEdu aims to make education data simple and accessible to anyone, whether student, teacher, manager, journalist, researcher or secretary. QEdu makes use of various datasets from the Ministry of Education in Brazil, particularly the ones related to the assessment of the quality of the Brazilian educational system, to offer a website in which users can explore the data intuitively.

The numbers provided by QEdu have also resulted in studies such as the “Excelência com Equidade” held by the Lemann Foundation in partnership with Itaú BBA Bank, whose focus was public schools that host students of low socioeconomic status. In this study, 215 schools were identified throughout Brazil as successful case studies in which students of low socioeconomic status performed with distinction.

Quandl

An open data platform that gathers real-time market data
 https://www.quandl.com/

Country: Canada

Sector: IT and geospatial

Impact: Provides free access to a repository of financial economic, and social datasets to over 100,000 users

Data Used: Economic data and indices, industry, currency, commodity and interest rate data from multiple countries’ agencies, including: U.S. Agency for International Development, Bank of Israel, Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics, Central Bank of Argentina, Ministry of Finance and Bank of Japan, France’s National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies, Russian Federation Statistics Service, UK Office of National Statistics, Bank of England Official Statistics, Deutsche Bundesbank Data Repository, Bank of France, Bank of Russia, U.S. Federal Reserve economic data, Federal Reserve Banks of New York and Cleveland,  U.S. Treasury Financial Management Service, Puerto Rico Institute of Statistics, U.S. National Center for Education Statistics, U.S. Social Security Administration, U.S. Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service, U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S> Census Bureau, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office

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Quandl

An open data platform that gathers real-time market data
 https://www.quandl.com/

Country: Canada

Sector: IT and geospatial

Impact: Provides free access to a repository of financial economic, and social datasets to over 100,000 users

Data Used: Economic data and indices, industry, currency, commodity and interest rate data from multiple countries’ agencies, including: U.S. Agency for International Development, Bank of Israel, Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics, Central Bank of Argentina, Ministry of Finance and Bank of Japan, France’s National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies, Russian Federation Statistics Service, UK Office of National Statistics, Bank of England Official Statistics, Deutsche Bundesbank Data Repository, Bank of France, Bank of Russia, U.S. Federal Reserve economic data, Federal Reserve Banks of New York and Cleveland,  U.S. Treasury Financial Management Service, Puerto Rico Institute of Statistics, U.S. National Center for Education Statistics, U.S. Social Security Administration, U.S. Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service, U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S> Census Bureau, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office

Description: Founded in 2012, Quandl provides a repository for financial, economic, and social datasets, maintaining free and commercial data for public consumption to download and analyze. With a user base of over 100,000 people, Quandl allows users to maximize their use of financial market data by manipulating accurate and real-time datasets, which aid users to track industry trends for free or at a low cost. Databases are divided into sections: stocks, options, futures, forecasts, commodities, and economics. Each section contains government databases and alternative data sources, including information on consumer behavior, business intelligence, or industrial metrics, which predict changes to markets.

Through unlimited API use, Quandl permits users to access data from databases around the world from the Bank of Japan, containing 85,466 datasets, or even the U.S. Energy Information Administration Data, containing 1,498,336 datasets. This FinTech organization lends an accessible and free opportunity for investors and analysts to utilize technology platforms for data usability and access. Users benefiting from Quandl’s pursuits of big data include hedge fund managers, analysts, students, and investors.

RailYatri

A web and mobile application based platform providing comprehensive information on trains
 http://www.railyatri.in/

Country: India

Sector: Transportation and logistics

Impact: Simplifies train travel for thousands of passengers

Data Used: Train routes and schedules from Indian local government

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RailYatri

A web and mobile application based platform providing comprehensive information on trains
 http://www.railyatri.in/

Country: India

Sector: Transportation and logistics

Impact: Simplifies train travel for thousands of passengers

Data Used: Train routes and schedules from Indian local government

Description: Over 23.9 million passengers travel and commute daily by train in India. RailYatri’s goal is to simplify travel by providing search, plan and tracking capability to more than 80% of India's Travel base. The app uses open transportation data including public schedules and routes. Other functions include checking train status with confirmation probability, tracking live location of a train, seat availability, and ticket confirmation probability, pushing train alerts, and many more.

RailYatri also goes further than providing simple statistics of transportation data and offers own analytics, for example estimating the probability of on-time train arrival.

RainbowAgri

A mobile internet solution that connects farmers and help them communicate, collaborate and commerce
 http://databoks.katadata.co.id

Country: India

Sector: Agriculture

Impact: Helps farmers make better price their crops

Data Used: Commodity prices, environmental data (e.g. dam water levels), and weather data from India’s data portal

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RainbowAgri

A mobile internet solution that connects farmers and help them communicate, collaborate and commerce
 http://www.rainbowagri.com/

Country: India

Sector: Agriculture

Impact: Helps farmers make better price their crops

Data Used: Commodity prices, environmental data (e.g. dam water levels), and weather data from India’s data portal

Description: Rainbow Agri is a dashboard for farmers to gather news related to agriculture, prices of commodities, authorized pesticide and seed vendors in the locality, and dam water levels. India has 87 million rural mobile Internet users, making it the world’s second largest smartphone market, and a prediction of 6% growth for the agricultural sector. Still, manifold challenges lie ahead for the continuous growth of this sector. The current availability of data, in particular of open data, has an important role to play in overcoming some of these challenges.

RainbowAgri is a mobile internet solution that aims to broadly contribute to digitize agriculture, and in this way, empower farmers to increase their productivity and income. Many of the features in Rainbow, such as live market prices from various markets in India, the daily dam water level, and location based weather updates, rely on the use of open data. RainbowAgri fetches most of the data from India’s national open data portal, as well as from other government of India websites as means to enrich the agriculture ecosystem with more information, and help farmers making informed decisions throughout the life cycle of the crop.

RightShip

Provides a cost-effective online vetting tool for ships transporting dry bulk, petroleum, chemical and gas
 http://site.rightship.com/

Country: Australia

Sector: Transportation and logistics

Impact: Uses data to uphold international safety and environmental standards for shipping vessels

Data Used: Vessel information from the U.S. Coast Guard Maritime Information Exchange

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RightShip

Provides a cost-effective online vetting tool for ships transporting dry bulk, petroleum, chemical and gas
 http://site.rightship.com/

Country: Australia

Sector: Transportation and logistics

Impact: Uses data to uphold international safety and environmental standards for shipping vessels

Data Used: Vessel information from the U.S. Coast Guard Maritime Information Exchange

Description: Over 90% of the world's trade is conducted by maritime transport. As a result, risks associated with substandard ships such as casualties, delays, rising insurance costs all create a direct impact the global market and involved industries. RightShip uses open data sources to track whether international standards and codes of conduct are upheld in the maintenance and use of ships. The company created vetting tools to assess specifically ships transporting materials involving dry bulk, petroleum, chemical, and gas.

Their Existing Vessel Design Index (EVDI) has compiled information on over 76,000 in service vessels and tracks the Energy Efficiency Design Index (EEDI) through International Maritime Organization (IMO) databases. These services feed into RightShip Qi, also known as RightShip Quality Index. In addition, RightShip creates real-time diagnostics on data on relevant sources from satellite data to ship casualty history, which gathered from individual shipowners, government databases, and interest groups. Pulling together information from these sources develops accountability for individuals and companies to adhere to international standards for safety and environmental protection.

Sagaci Research

Providing market intelligence and data across key industries
 http://sagaciresearch.com/

Country: Kenya

Sector: Business, research and consulting

Impact: Market intelligence and data from African countries

Data Used: Census data and national statistics on the automotive and other markets in Kenya and Nigeria

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Sagaci Research

Providing market intelligence and data across key industries
 http://sagaciresearch.com/

Country: Kenya

Sector: Business, research and consulting

Impact: Market intelligence and data from African countries

Data Used: Census data and national statistics on the automotive and other markets in Kenya and Nigeria

Description: Open government data provides Sagaci Research with a valuable resource for undertaking research endeavors. Sagaci Research provides market research and intelligence dedicated to african markets on a number of industries. Its reports, databases and field research (quantitative/qualitative) provide an up-to-date in-depth understanding of the key sectors in the region (consumer goods, retail, telecommunications, financial services, construction and real-estate, and others).

In particular, census data is crucial for the process of sampling when collecting research data from different areas of the country. Other types of open government data are also used. For example, the report “Registered vehicles in Kenya and Nigeria”, which presents key facts and data on the automotive market in Kenya and Nigeria, providing a compelling overview of both markets by leveraging on national statistics, such as vehicle registrations.

SumoBrain

Provides intellectual property information for attorneys, corporate researchers and inventors
 http://www.sumobrain.com/

Country: United Kingdom

Sector: Business, research and consulting

Impact: Facilitates easy patent searching, data transferability, and up-to-date alerts on patent data changes

Data Used: Patent data from U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, European Patent Office, and Japan Patent Office

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SumoBrain

Provides intellectual property information for attorneys, corporate researchers and inventors
 http://www.sumobrain.com/

Country: United Kingdom

Sector: Business, research, & consulting

Impact: Facilitates easy patent searching, data transferability, and up-to-date alerts on patent data changes

Data Used: Patent data from U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, European Patent Office, and Japan Patent Office

Description: SumoBrain provides a database of multi-sourced patents and applications. In the realm of evolving intellectual property rights and the continual stream of new innovations, individuals and companies face the challenge of tracking legal developments. This platform facilitates easy information access by consolidating information from government patent websites. Databases and their contents are openly accessible and downloadable from this platform, including United States and European patents and applications, Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) documents, and Japanese abstracts.

An open platform for data storage and accessible usage such as SumoBrain expedites the patent search process for lawyers, investors, and researchers. While maintaining transparency, these efforts encourage greater competition and access to industry trends through government-based mechanisms, taking what already exists and interpreting the data for public use. Ultimately, the opportunity to build products off of open data lowers barriers for many entering or participating in an industry. For example, by placing government publications into one database, SumoBrain provides users around the world have immediate access to patent documents and references, all of which presented in a consistent and searchable format. Users maintain virtual tools to manage work files through annotations, exports to Excel, and editing access for colleagues.

Telefonica

Multinational telecommunications provider of broadband and mobile networks
 https://www.telefonica.com/es

Country: Spain

Sector: Media and communications

Impact: Creating an ecosystem of digital communications

Data Used: Economic data and population data from various countries’ census datasets, UK health data (hospital admissions, emergency services locations) and transportation data (bus, underground, bikes), satellite data

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Telefonica

Multinational telecommunications provider of broadband and mobile networks
 https://www.telefonica.com/es

Country: Spain

Sector: Media and communications

Impact: Creating an ecosystem of digital communications

Data Used: Economic data and population data from various countries’ census datasets, UK health data (hospital admissions, emergency services locations) and transportation data (bus, underground, bikes), satellite data

Description: With operations in 24 countries and an estimated 315.7 million customers, Telefónica is a diversified telecommunications group that delivers services based on information and communications technologies. In the last few years, Telefónica has been an active promoter of open data use, both internally and externally. In its own operations, Telefónica makes use of open economic data, as well as demographic data, to identify customer segments and adjust product offerings in accordance with economic forecast. The organization also leverages satellite and population data to inform decisions on where to build telecommunications infrastructure.

Telefónica engages a broad stakeholder network as well around open data use. For example, in 2013, in partnership with the Open Data Institute and the MIT Medialab, Telefónica hosted a “hackathon for big data” which promoted the integration of open transportation and health data with other proprietary data sets. to create value for social good. During the event, teams were encouraged to study how crowds move towards high streets during the busy Christmas shopping period in order to develop strategies for the emergency services to allocate their resources more effectively, or make recommendations of how to manage the flow of road traffic on London’s busiest routes. In its home country, Telefónica has also promoted the use of open data by hosting workshops on “Data Journalism and Open Data” to  encourage Spanish journalists, programmers and other professionals to create content using open data.

The Energy & Resources Institute (TERI)

Research institute working in the fields of energy, environment and sustainable development
 http://www.teriin.org

Country: India

Sector: Energy and climate

Impact: Raises awareness and provides policy recommendations on environmental policy matters

Data Used: India’s Census data, geospatial data (e.g. forestry maps, agriculture maps, land use maps), environmental data; satellite data from U.S. Geological Survey

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The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI)

Research institute working in the fields of energy, environment and sustainable development
 http://www.teriin.org

Country: India

Sector: Energy and climate

Impact: Raises awareness and provides policy recommendations on environmental policy matters

Data Used: India’s Census data, geospatial data (e.g. forestry maps, agriculture maps, land use maps), environmental data; satellite data from U.S. Geological Survey

Description: Founded in 1974, The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) focuses on technological innovations related to sustainable development. The organization provides research and analysis on areas such as clean energy, water management, pollution management, sustainable agriculture, and climate resilience. In light of its expertise in sustainability-related issues, TERI has helped the government of India deliver timely and sustainable environmental policy and practice outcomes.

At the core of its research endeavors, TERI relies on open data that relates mainly to the environment, but also data on demographics, as well as geospatial and satellite data such as forestry maps, agriculture maps, land use maps. Scientific publications published by TERI’s researchers comprise, for example, studies that make use of climate data to analyse the importance and status of open climate data, or to determine variability of rainfall, a parameter that is correlated with physical, social and economic changes. The use of LANDSAT TM satellite data, provided by the United States Geological Survey, has also been crucial for various studies investigating topics such as the land surface, or forests in India.

Thinknum

Web platform for financial analysis
 https://www.thinknum.com

Country: United States

Sector: Finance and insurance

Impact: Provides data and insights to investors and businesses on the factors that drive valuation

Data Used: U.S. zipcode data, demographic data from the U.S. Census, U.S. unemployment rates, weather data from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

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Thinknum

Web platform for financial analysis
 https://www.thinknum.com

Country: United States

Sector: Finance and insurance

Impact: Provides data and insights to investors and businesses on the factors that drive valuation

Data Used: U.S. zipcode data, demographic data from the U.S. Census, U.S. unemployment rates, weather data from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Description: Despite the increasing amount of data available online, it can be difficult for investors to access relevant information. Founded in 2013, Thinknum’s provides data access and insights to its users through its web platform. The organization aggregates and indexes data from government sources, companies’ websites and social media activity.

For example, Thinknum allows users to view the store locations of a given brand, overlay it with locations of a competitor, and then connect this information to demographic data such as median household income by county. This information can then be used to inform an organization’s strategy of where household income is increasing, and thereby identify the most profitable store locations. Other examples include the analysis of unemployment rates to discover outperforming businesses in the restaurant industry, and taking advantage of historical weather data to find market patterns. By creating connections between different data sources, Thinknum allows investors and companies to better understand the various factors that drive valuation.

TuvaLabs

A platform that engages students in data analysis and modelling using open datasets
 http://databoks.katadata.co.id

Country: United States

Sector: Education

Impact: Increases data literacy and skills

Data Used: Demographic data from the U.S. Census, environmental data from U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, health data from U.S. National Institute for Health, energy and environmental data from U.S. Environmental Information Administration

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TuvaLabs

A platform that engages students in data analysis and modelling using open datasets
 http://tuvalabs.com/

Country: United States

Sector: Education

Impact: Increases data literacy and skills

Data Used: Demographic data from the U.S. Census, environmental data from U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, health data from U.S. National Institute for Health, energy and environmental data from U.S. Environmental Information Administration

Description: Data literacy is becoming an ever-more essential skill that professionals need to have. Tuvalabs is a platform that helps students develop data literacy skills, providing datasets taken from a variety of sources and portals, graphing tools on their website, and open-ended questions to close out activities.

Tuvalabs splits its datasets into categories such as culture, energy, or sports, within which are a number of datasets containing social and demographic data, energy data, health data, and others taken from government sites like Census.gov, Data.gov. Learners can then navigate a series of lessons and activities teaching them how to visualize and analyze the dataset they chose. Students then have the option to send or embed their project, reaching an audience the size of their class, or to an audience of students around the world.

TuvaLabs fills a gap that exists in public school education, not only giving students the tools to improve their data literacy skills, but also guiding them along the way through lessons and activities.

Twaweza

A nonprofit promoting public accountability in Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda
 http://twaweza.org

Country: Tanzania

Sector: Media and communications

Impact: Creating effective public and policy engagement through media partnerships and global leadership

Data Used: Tanzanian economic data, census and household survey data, education data such as school enrollment rates, and budget data

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Twaweza

A nonprofit promoting public accountability in Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda
 http://twaweza.org

Country: Tanzania

Sector: Media and communications

Impact: Creating effective public and policy engagement through media partnerships and global leadership

Data Used: Tanzanian economic data, census and household survey data, education data such as school enrollment rates, and budget data

Description: Founded in 2009, Twaweza is a civil society organization that helps citizens exercise agency and governments be more open and responsive in Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda. Twaweza works to provide practical information to everyone, to foster quality independent media and citizen monitoring services. Via its Uwazi unit, Twaweza produces policy briefs on key issues, thus triggering public debate and fostering an ecosystem of change. In this context, Twaweza is an active promoter of open data, encouraging both the supply and use of public data.

In its own use, Twaweza draws on public data to conduct research across the fields of open government and basic education. For example, in the Tanzanian general elections in 2015, Twaweza organised televised debates between leading politicians from different parties, and used data from a range of different sources as a means of stimulating discussion, and of trying to guide the debate towards a greater focus on evidence. In part, the data that was used was sourced internally - from the Uwezo survey of basic learning outcomes and the Sautiza Wananchi mobile phone panel survey - but the remaining data, which included economic data, census and other household survey data, official data on public services (school enrolment rates, etc.) budget data and more, was pulled from official government sources. While some of the data was available in machine-readable formats, much had to be converted from pdfs and reports.

Yeleman

IT organization building data platforms for government and UNICEF
 http://yeleman.com

Country: Mali

Sector: IT and geospatial

Impact: Yeleman's dashboard has aided in pinpointing and reducing malaria outbreaks

Data Used: Health facilities registry from the Malian Ministry of Health

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Yeleman

IT organization building data platforms for government and UNICEF
 http://yeleman.com

Country: Mali

Sector: IT and geospatial

Impact: Its dashboard has aided in pinpointing and reducing malaria outbreaks

Data Used: Health facilities registry from the Malian Ministry of Health

Description: When MEASURE Evaluation, a USAID initiative, began to look for data-driven solutions to help reduce malaria outbreaks and other diseases, it contracted the programming team Yeleman to build its database. Yeleman built a comprehensive dashboard whose data is derived from a number of sources, and supports data entry from android phones.

The company built this dashboard from scratch using a combination of the Ministry of Health’s health facility registry dataset as well as its own crowd-based datasets. The dashboard provides health experts with monthly reports and weekly updates on health centers’ stocks data, such as initial stocks, quantity received, and quantity used during program implementation, as well as analysis on when each submission was received. Through Yeleman’s collection and analysis of continuously gathered health data, has been able to expand the program to the entire region of Mopti, and WHO Mali is considering implementing a similar system for other regions of Mali.

YoungInnovations

A technology company that creates solutions to global development problems
 http://databoks.katadata.co.id

Country: Nepal

Sector: IT and geospatial

Impact: Building partnerships and technology to assist development organizations

Data Used: Nepali census, finance, education, and health data; international development spending data

X

YoungInnovations

A technology company that creates solutions to global development problems
 http://younginnovations.com.np/

Country: Nepal

Sector: IT and geospatial

Impact: Building partnerships and technology to assist development organizations

Data Used: Nepali census, finance, education, and health data; international development spending data

Description: Co-founded in 2007 YoungInnovations develops software applications mainly for development organizations. YoungInnovations aims to help its clients improve data-driven policy and decision-making  through  automated data tools to collect, curate, and analyze data. As a result of their focus on open data solutions for civic engagement, YoungInnovations has developed platforms for opening data such as Aidstream and DevelopmentCheck.

YoungInnovations was also the co-creator of OpenNepal, a platform that hosts, among other types of data, public datasets, such as census data and data from various government agencies such as Ministry of Finance, the Department of Education, and the Ministry of Health and Population. With the goal of bringing together the community of practice in Nepal around topics open data, and access to information, Open Nepal is a platform that provides high quality data so that users can to make informed decisions on policy (planning and practice), monitor development progress, and support accountability.

Use Cases by Region
East Asia & Pacific

Haezoom

An online platform that calculates potential energy savings from installing solar panels on a user’s residence
 http://www.haezoom.com/

Country: South Korea

Sector: Energy and climate

Impact: Offers common standard for solar panel industry and reduces asymmetric information between small solar panel brokers and consumers

Data Used: Building, solar radiation, air temperature data from South Korea’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transportation, Ministry of Environment, the National Academy of Sciences, and Korea Meteorological Administration

X

Haezoom

An online platform that calculates potential energy savings from installing solar panels on a user’s residence
 http://www.haezoom.com/

Country: South Korea

Sector: Energy and climate

Impact: Offers common standard for solar panel industry and reduces asymmetric information between small solar panel brokers and consumers

Data Used: Building, solar radiation, air temperature data from South Korea’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transportation, Ministry of Environment, the National Academy of Sciences, and Korea Meteorological Administration

Description: Solar is a burgeoning industry in South Korea. Yet, as solar panel sales continue to rise yearly, they continue to be driven by small brokers, the majority of whom claim their product is the best on the market. Haezoom attempts to equalize the market playing field, by providing consumers with accurate estimates of savings from installing solar panels in their homes.

Haezoom is one of many companies that have sprung up from the South Korean government’s 2013 public data act, and Haezoom itself relies on building, geographical, solar radiation, air temperature, as well as a number of other datasets provided by several Ministries in the government, the National Academy of Sciences, and the Korea Meteorological Administration. It analyzes these datasets alongside the user’s monthly electrical bill to predict expected energy savings, installation costs, and CO2 emission reductions. The service then suggests which solar energy installation best suits the user’s needs.

Haezoom fills two essential, yet previously vacant, roles within the South Korean solar industry. First, it provides an impartial cost-benefit analysis of solar panel installation to clients. Second, it suggests credible manufacturers to purchase solar panels from based on its user’s needs. In doing so, Haezoom promotes the adoption of solar energy by increasing the amount of information available to customers.

IAG Ltd

The parent company of a general insurance group with operations in Australia, New Zealand, Thailand and Vietnam
 http://www.iag.com.au/

Country: Australia

Sector: Finance and insurance

Impact: Identifies areas of greatest vulnerability to natural disasters through data mapping applications

Data Used: Census data from Australian Bureau of Statistics, Cyclone Track Maps from the Bureau of Meteorology and New South Wales Rural Fire Service

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IAG Ltd

The parent company of a general insurance group with operations in Australia, New Zealand, Thailand and Vietnam
 http://www.iag.com.au/

Country: Australia

Sector: Finance and insurance

Impact: Identifies areas of greatest vulnerability to natural disasters through data mapping applications

Data Used: Census data from Australian Bureau of Statistics, Cyclone Track Maps from the Bureau of Meteorology and New South Wales Rural Fire Service

Description: IAG is an insurance company that provides customer protection plans from environmental disasters and advocates for the expansion of government data. As a founding member of the Australian Business Roundtable for Disaster Resilience & Safer Communities, IAG works to create a national approach toward investing in disaster mitigation efforts through big data applications. IAG relies on government statistics to price and issue policies, process claims, create predictive modeling, and pursue risk management. These data sources include the Geoscience Australia, the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the Bureau of Meteorology for Cyclone Track Maps, and the New South Wales Rural Fire Service RSS Feed.

Subsequently, IAG was tasked by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) to lead the second phase, Global Risk Map, of the Principles of Sustainable Insurance (PSI) Global Resilient Project, looking at risk reduction in natural disasters. This project’s virtual tools track national-level vulnerability to natural hazards, national-level resilience, the economic and social impacts, exposure to natural hazards, and country-level natural hazard events. Under the approval of the UNEP, data sources are EM-DAT database, INFORM, World Bank Database, PreventionWeb. Along the data catalogue, users may narrow down disaster types and download feature information in CSV formatting.

Katadata

An economics and business publication in Indonesia
 http://databoks.katadata.co.id

Country: Indonesia

Sector: Business, research and consulting

Impact: Publish data, articles, reports and visualizations for economic and business analysis

Data Used: Economic, demographic, business and financial data from Indonesia’s Central Statistics Agency (BPS), Financial Services Authority (OJK), Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, Agency Plantation Fund Management (BPDP), Regulatory Agency for Upstream Oil and Gas (BPH Migas), Ministry of Finance - Directorate General of Taxation (DGT), Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM)

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Katadata

An economics and business publication in Indonesia
 http://databoks.katadata.co.id

Country: Indonesia

Sector: Business, research and consulting

Impact: Publish data, articles, reports and visualizations for economic and business analysis

Data Used: Economic, demographic, business and financial data from Indonesia’s Central Statistics Agency (BPS), Financial Services Authority (OJK), Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, Agency Plantation Fund Management (BPDP), Regulatory Agency for Upstream Oil and Gas (BPH Migas), Ministry of Finance - Directorate General of Taxation (DGT), Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM)

Description: Katadata offers an analytical news and research portal which provides economic and business data, news and investigations. The portal builds on Indonesia’s Internet growth, mobile and social media usage, as well as the country’s economic growth, which justify the need for the dissemination of more economic and financial information.

Katadata makes extensive use of open data while combining journalism and analysis, i.e. news and research, in its day-to-day business. In this context, Katadata created Databoks, a data portal that hosts business and economic statistical data from Indonesia. Considering the fragmentation of Indonesian economics and business data, Databoks was created with the goal of facilitating the use of data by companies, business people, researchers, students, government and media for various purposes, such as presentations, report creation and strengthening of media coverage.

New Zealand Institute of Economic Research

Consultancy advancing independent economic analyses
 http://nzier.org.nz/

Country: New Zealand

Sector: Business, research and consulting

Impact: Supports a database that breaks down national economic analysis into user friendly datasets

Data Used: Statistics New Zealand Official Yearbooks (1893-2012), Budget data and economic statistics from the Treasury and Reserve Bank of New Zealand

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New Zealand Institute of Economic Research

Consultancy advancing independent economic analyses
 http://nzier.org.nz/

Country: New Zealand

Sector: Business, research and consulting

Impact: Supports a database that breaks down national economic analysis into user friendly datasets

Data Used: Statistics New Zealand Official Yearbooks (1893-2012), Budget data and economic statistics from the Treasury and Reserve Bank of New Zealand

Description: The New Zealand Institute of Economic Research (NZIER) is a consultancy that encourages independent analyses on economic issues within the country. Their Public Good program endeavors to empower individuals in making data-driven decision-making in business and policy-making. NZIER focuses on data management and provides the tools for different data interpretation. To strengthen existing government data, NZIER incorporates information from The Treasury, New Zealand’s Official Yearbooks (1893-2012) from Statistics New Zealand, Government at a Glance database from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and the Reserve Bank of New Zealand.

These sources then develop their database called Data1850, which bridges data from five sectors: government, economic activity, prices, international linkages, and people. With the lack of statistics data available prior to 1850, the platform was coined Data1850. Their services include datasets or other information on economic or statistics based history, spanning from 1850 to present day. Easily operable and downloadable, the data is available for free on the website. Users choose among economic activity, people, and prices to begin, and then narrow down data options. For example, employment may be first narrowed down by industry or by occupation, then the types of services or professions.

RightShip

Provides a cost-effective online vetting tool for ships transporting dry bulk, petroleum, chemical and gas
 http://site.rightship.com/

Country: Australia

Sector: Transportation and logistics

Impact: Uses data to uphold international safety and environmental standards for shipping vessels

Data Used: Vessel information from the U.S. Coast Guard Maritime Information Exchange

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RightShip

Provides a cost-effective online vetting tool for ships transporting dry bulk, petroleum, chemical and gas
 http://site.rightship.com/

Country: Australia

Sector: Transportation and logistics

Impact: Uses data to uphold international safety and environmental standards for shipping vessels

Data Used: Vessel information from the U.S. Coast Guard Maritime Information Exchange

Description: Over 90% of the world's trade is conducted by maritime transport. As a result, risks associated with substandard ships such as casualties, delays, rising insurance costs all create a direct impact the global market and involved industries. RightShip uses open data sources to track whether international standards and codes of conduct are upheld in the maintenance and use of ships. The company created vetting tools to assess specifically ships transporting materials involving dry bulk, petroleum, chemical, and gas.

Their Existing Vessel Design Index (EVDI) has compiled information on over 76,000 in service vessels and tracks the Energy Efficiency Design Index (EEDI) through International Maritime Organization (IMO) databases. These services feed into RightShip Qi, also known as RightShip Quality Index. In addition, RightShip creates real-time diagnostics on data on relevant sources from satellite data to ship casualty history, which gathered from individual shipowners, government databases, and interest groups. Pulling together information from these sources develops accountability for individuals and companies to adhere to international standards for safety and environmental protection.

Europe & Central Asia

BRE

Advisory services for the built environment sector through research, testing, and training practices
 http://www.bre.co.uk/

Country: United Kingdom

Sector: Housing, construction and real estate

Impact: Provides cost effective and regulation certified resources for building construction

Data Used: Code for Sustainable Homes Certificates from the UK Department for Communities and Local Government , number of permanent new dwellings completed in the UK from the Office for National Statistics

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BRE

Advisory services for the built environment sector through research, testing, and training practices
 http://www.bre.co.uk/

Country: United Kingdom

Sector: Housing, construction and real estate

Impact: Provides cost effective and regulation certified resources for building construction

Data Used: Code for Sustainable Homes Certificates from the UK Department for Communities and Local Government , number of permanent new dwellings completed in the UK from the Office for National Statistics

Description: For the UK where construction constitutes 7% of its GDP, demands continue to grow considering climate change and sustainability issues BRE, formerly the Building Research Establishment, provides advisory services through research, testing, and certifications for the built environment sector. Founded in 1917 by the UK Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR), BRE is now an independent group, working in 77 countries, with over two million registered buildings, and 500,000 certificates.

One of the BRE services, BREEAM, or the Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method, analyzes buildings and projects to make cost effective and regulation certified decisions through open data. Services include access lists of BREEAM assessors and assessments, maps of BREEAM certifications, data visualizations on projects. Sources of government data include for example the Department for Communities and Local Government; BRE verifies the total number of Code for Sustainable Homes certificates. BREEAM plans to create a comprehensive BRE Data Lab and databases such as the GreenBookLive and Red Book, which lists environmental products and services.

Budget Stories

Budget and government transparency in Moldova
 http://www.budgetstories.md/

Country: Moldova

Sector: Governance

Impact: Provides analyses and tools accessible to a political layperson on Moldova’s budget and policies

Data Used: Budget data from Moldova’s Ministry of Finance; economic, energy and environment data from the National Bureau of Statistics

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Budget Stories

Budget and government transparency in Moldova
 http://www.budgetstories.md/

Country: Moldova

Sector: Governance

Impact: Provides analyses and tools accessible to a political layperson on Moldova’s budget and policies

Data Used: Budget data from Moldova’s Ministry of Finance; economic, energy and environment data from the National Bureau of Statistics

Description: Budget Stories, created by Expert Grup in Moldova, is a website providing budget information made available from the Moldovan government, as well as from a number of other sources such as the World Bank. Expert Grup produces reports on economic, environmental, and energy forecasts in Moldova. They have made several projects on these topics, focusing on ways to visualize large datasets and information taken from Moldova’s open data portal. The website’s  Budget Calendar and OpenSpending budget treemap projects both visualize this data in visual ways more accessible to an average citizen. They also provide the data in an online data portal.

The Budget Calendar project is a grid including the time of the year on the y axis and the steps towards approving a budget on the x axis. Within each cell, Expert Grup links the user to government reports relevant to that specific piece of the budget process, streamlining what could be a tedious search through multiple government sites to find this information. Expert Grup’s OpenSpending budget treemap also uses this open data, compiling it into a colorful visualization that gives the viewer a comparative understanding on where Moldova fits in comparison to other countries’ parliaments.

Cultural Routes

App which helps users plan walking and biking routes, linking routes to historical and cultural sites in Moscow
 http://culturalroutes.ru/

Country: Russia

Sector: Arts, culture and tourism

Impact: Reduces time spent browsing tourist information sites

Data Used: Bicycle parking, museums, and city taxi parking datasets from the Department of Information Technology of the Government of Moscow

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Cultural Routes

App which helps users plan walking and biking routes, linking routes to historical and cultural sites in Moscow
 http://culturalroutes.ru/

Country: Russia

Sector: Arts, culture and tourism

Impact: Reduces time spent browsing tourist information sites

Data Used: Bicycle parking, museums, and city taxi parking datasets from the Department of Information Technology of the Government of Moscow

Description: Cultural Routes is an app that plans walking and biking routes around historical and cultural sites in Moscow. The app takes the location of taxicab stands and bike share locations into account, and tracks which museums are accessible to visit for people with disabilities.

Cultural Routes, one of several apps built by BNet, a Russian app developer company, takes all of its data from the Russian government’s open data portal. Currently, the application uses bicycle parking, museum, and city taxi parking datasets from data.mos.ru, and overlays this information onto a map. In addition to Cultural Routes’ original route function, BNet has added three other route recommendation functions: the first shows popular routes, the second takes the user’s location and finds nearby museums, the third lists museums most recommended by Cultural Routes users.

By mapping existing museum, bike, and taxi information from Russia’s government data portal, the app reduces the time spent for tourists and museum-goes looking through multiple websites and planning their day along bikeshare apps, google maps, and taxi services.

Green Patrol

Advocates for environmental protection through regional investigations and civil society accountability measures
 http://greenpatrol.ru/ru

Country: Russia

Sector: Energy and climate

Impact: Hold environmental violators accountable through an open platform

Data Used: Environmental data from regional data portals and Russia’s Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, including main air polluters and surface water bodies, environmental protection expenditures; mortality and population data from the Federal State Statistics Service

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Green Patrol

Advocates for environmental protection through regional investigations and civil society accountability measures
 http://greenpatrol.ru/ru

Country: Russia

Sector: Energy and climate

Impact: Hold environmental violators accountable through an open platform

Data Used: Environmental data from regional data portals and Russia’s Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, including main air polluters and surface water bodies, environmental protection expenditures; mortality and population data from the Federal State Statistics Service

Description: Established in 2007, Green Patrol, an environmental protection advocacy group seeks to create a more ecologically-oriented civil society. Green Patrol leads investigations using citizen-based self-reporting systems, regional data from the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, regional open data portals, and Green Patrol investigations. Through a network of 53 branches throughout Russia, they collect data and integrate findings on environmental governance issues onto the online database. Green Patrol has investigations completed on 85 regions in Russia.

To support these investigations, Green Patrol uses geographic information system (GIS) to create accurate environmental rankings of the entities within Russia. These rankings rely on indicators such as water, land resources, bioresources and more, along with environmental indexes. In order to use this data, Green Patrol seeks information from regional data portals and Russian Ministries; they include mortality data, environmental protection expenditures, and air polluters and surface water bodies. Through these mediums, Green Patrol created for the Sakha Republic, for example, a 2014 regional report and up-to-date assessments to evaluate environmental policy violations. Subsequently, the Sakha Republic was marked in 73rd place of 85.

Medicat.io

A website that provides information on medication and pharmacies for the general public
 http://medicat.io

Country: France

Sector: Health

Impact: Helps consumers make more informed decisions about the medication/drugs they take

Data Used: Public database of medicines and National file of Health and Social Institutions (FINESS) from France’s Ministry of Social Affairs, Health and Women's Rights; National repository drug interactions and Official list of medication drugs in allopathy, homeopathy and herbal from France’s National Agency for the Safety of Health Products (ANSM); Drugstores on duty and emergency in Paris from the Regional Health Agency - Ile de France

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Medicat.io

A website that provides information on medication and pharmacies for the general public
 http://medicat.io

Country: France

Sector: Health

Impact: Helps consumers make more informed decisions about the medication/drugs they take

Data Used: Public database of medicines and National file of Health and Social Institutions (FINESS) from France’s Ministry of Social Affairs, Health and Women's Rights; National repository drug interactions and Official list of medication drugs in allopathy, homeopathy and herbal from France’s National Agency for the Safety of Health Products (ANSM); Drugstores on duty and emergency in Paris from the Regional Health Agency - Ile de France

Description: The goal of Medicat.io is to make information about medication in France more accessible to teh public, and allow people to be better informed when they discuss medications with doctors or pharmacists. Where there there is higher medication consumption in France than in its neighbouring countries, Medicat.io aims to raise awareness about the risks of taking multiple medications simultaneously. By analyzing crossing and comparing the components of different medications, and highlighting relevant information using reliable sources, the website allows users to explore the different treatment options available, and discuss the best options with pharmacists.

The service provided by Medicat.io is built on publicly available data. It uses data from France’s public database of medicines (Ministry of Social Affairs, Health and Women's Rights), the its National repository drug interactions (Agence française de sécurité sanitaire des produits de santé), which is updated every month. Similarly, the directory of pharmacies integrates public data from the Regional Health Agency, and the National file of Health and Social Institutions.

Michael Culture Association

A nonprofit that promotes digital cultural content and creates a network among cultural institutions throughout Europe
 http://www.michael-culture.eu/

Country: France

Sector: Arts, culture and tourism

Impact: Consolidates and fosters growing digital cultural content from museums and libraries across Europe

Data Used: Cultural data and inventories from public museums, libraries and archives across Europe

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Michael Culture Association

A nonprofit that promotes digital cultural content and creates a network among cultural institutions throughout Europe
 http://www.michael-culture.eu/

Country: France

Sector: Arts, culture and tourism

Impact: Consolidates and fosters growing digital cultural content from museums and libraries across Europe

Data Used: Cultural data and inventories from public museums, libraries and archives across Europe

Description: As the world increasingly moves towards digital formats, Michael Culture Association, commissioned in 2007,  provides members with access to digital cultural resources. The nonprofit encompasses over 150 cultural institutions across Europe, and its main project is the Michael Culture portal, which allows users to browse through European digital cultural heritage material online.

The Michael Culture portal builds its content from public and private, museums, libraries, and archives. The content itself ranges from art to archaeology and spans all periods of European history, and is searchable by subject, author, date, as well as a number of other identifiers. Michael Culture Association also links users to national portals of digital cultural collections, thus consolidating a number of scattered resources within a single portal. Through its support for multiple languages and large collection, the Michael Culture portal is able to deliver a searchable digital database of cultural content that supersedes the traditional linguistic and physical barriers of European cultural institutions.

Open Budget

A visualization tool that helps local municipalities publish and present their budgets in a user-friendly interactive format
 http://www.openbudget.in.ua/?locale=en

Country: Ukraine

Sector: Governance

Impact: Helps citizens understand budget information through visualizations

Data Used: Budgets from the Ukraine Open Data Portal

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Open Budget

A visualization tool that helps local municipalities publish and present their budgets in a user-friendly interactive format
 http://www.openbudget.in.ua/?locale=en

Country: Ukraine

Sector: Governance

Impact: Helps citizens understand budget information through visualizations

Data Used: Budgets from the Ukraine Open Data Portal

Description: Open Budget is a visualisation tool that helps local municipalities publish and present their budgets in a user-friendly interactive format. It is built by Center Eidos, an institution that trains journalists and NGOs for data-driven reporting and analytics. The goal of Center Eidos is raise public awareness in political consciousness and citizen’s proactive role in the development of Ukrainian society.

Open Budget offers three types visualizations: City Budget, Repairing Map and City programs based on data sources provided by DKAN, the Ukraine open data portal. These visualizations offer intuitive insights into complex government operations. City budget visualization supports instant understanding in how budgetary expenses are distributed across different sectors. Repairing map maps out which part of the city is under construction, and informs citizens to experience less inconvenience. City programs yields comprehensive overview as to the current progress for any budget-spending program. It not only shows remaining spendings for a program but also trends in budgetary planning for the same program during the past years. This attempt empowers citizens to hold governing body accountable for executing any city program.

Open Oil

Publishes on the extractive industries and provides multiple platforms to browse oil contracts and oil companies’ corporate filings globally
 http://openoil.net

Country: Germany

Sector: Energy and climate

Impact: Decrease opaque-nature of the oil industry and by doing so, increases oil companies’ accountability

Data Used: Monthly energy reviews from U.S. Energy Information Administration

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Open Oil

Publishes on the extractive industries and provides multiple platforms to browse oil contracts and oil companies’ corporate filings globally
 http://openoil.net

Country: Germany

Sector: Energy and climate

Impact: Decrease opaque-nature of the oil industry and by doing so, increases oil companies’ accountability

Data Used: Monthly energy reviews from U.S. Energy Information Administration

Description: While transparency has been positively affected by the movement towards opening private and government data, oil contracts have remained largely unreachable. OpenOil seeks to change this, by compiling oil contracts and information on oil companies  from around the world and making this information easily accessible on its platform.

OpenOil draws its information from a large number of sources, ranging from government sources such as the U.S. Energy Information Administration, from non-governmental organizations such as the BP Statistical Review of World Energy or World Bank Extractive Industries Handbook, or from a plethora of filings all part of the public domain and voluntarily shared information from oil companies themselves. After ensuring these datasets are in a machine-readable format (many of them are originally in PDF format, OpenOil includes them in their Aleph search engine, one of the nonprofit’s several services. OpenOil also applies this publically available data and visualizes corporate oil company networks as well as creates financial models of upstream oil, gas, and mining projects.

By creating the Aleph search engine for public domain corporate filings, network visualizations, and financial models, OpenOil is bringing transparency, through previously unread, unsorted publically available data on oil contracts, to the forefront of the global conversation on oi and energy.

Otthonterkep

An online portal that provides real estate property search
 http://otthonterkep.hu/

Country: Hungary

Sector: Housing, construction & real estate

Impact: Provides home buyers with information to better search properties

Data Used: Housing market transactions from the Hungarian National Tax and Customs Office; National Crime Map from http://police.hu; Census data from Hungary’s Central Statistical Office

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Otthonterkep

An online portal that provides real estate property search
 http://otthonterkep.hu/

Country: Hungary

Sector: Housing, construction & real estate

Impact: Provides home buyers with information to better search properties

Data Used: Housing market transactions from the Hungarian National Tax and Customs Office; National Crime Map from http://police.hu; Census data from Hungary’s Central Statistical Office

Description: In light of the thriving real estate market in Hungary, the company Mapsolutions Zrt. developed the website Otthonterkep in 2013 with the goal of providing home buyers an interactive home search interface. Via its real estate property search portal, Otthonterkep provides users with information on Hungarian real estate, including average house prices, parking prices , green spaces or even a criminal and demographic information. The website also includes a map that gives an overview of the housing market in Hungary. Otthonterkep constructed this map using data provided by public sources, including housing market transactions, census data, and national crime statistics.

Since 1990, Budapest underwent a construction boom, which was fuelled not only by local demand but also by the rising interest of international investors in the real estate. Additional analysis of Otthonterkep‘s  map conducted by index.hu offers valuable insights into the Hungarian housing stock, such as the aging of the buildings, the decline in new building permits issued in recent years, and the variation in price per square meter. The analysis also concludes that, in Hungary, there is a strong correlation of price per square meter and the age of the building, in particular for those that were built after 1990.

Päästöt.fi

A website that allows a user to examine and compare pollution emissions throughout Europe
 http://Paastot.fi

Country: Finland

Sector: Energy and climate

Impact: Bypasses local companies unwilling to disclose pollution emissions for a country-wide visualization.

Data Used: Environmental data from the European Pollutant Release and Transfer Register (E-PRTR)

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Päästöt.fi

A website that allows a user to examine and compare pollution emissions throughout Europe
 http://Paastot.fi

Country: Finland

Sector: Energy and climate

Impact: Bypasses local companies unwilling to disclose pollution emissions for a country-wide visualization.

Data Used: Environmental data from the European Pollutant Release and Transfer Register (E-PRTR)

Description: The idea for Päästöt.fi came about when its creator ran into a roadblock while looking into greenhouse gas emissions statistics of a local energy company. In order to circumvent this issue, he came across the European Pollutant Release and Transfer Register (E-PRTR) database, which was established in July 2000 to collect the annual emissions numbers from industrial facilities across Europe. Päästöt.fi emerged was created in 2010 to allow users to compare emission levels from industrial facilities across Europe.

Päästöt.fi visualizes some 30,000 industrial facilities, from mining sites to coal-fired plants. These facilities are all mapped on the platform, and information such as CO2, heavy metal, or another 89 other kinds of industrial emissions are overlaid on this map; the magnitude of each site’s emissions is shown through circles of varying sizes, and a box to the right relates the numerical figures associated with the selected site.

Päästöt.fi manages to effectively communicate important information that was previously stored within a huge dataset that a layperson would otherwise not engage with. Through its visualization, citizens are now able to gain the necessary information to lobby and create change.

SumoBrain

Provides intellectual property information for attorneys, corporate researchers and inventors
 http://www.sumobrain.com/

Country: United Kingdom

Sector: Business, research and consulting

Impact: Facilitates easy patent searching, data transferability, and up-to-date alerts on patent data changes

Data Used: Patent data from U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, European Patent Office, and Japan Patent Office

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SumoBrain

Provides intellectual property information for attorneys, corporate researchers and inventors
 http://www.sumobrain.com/

Country: United Kingdom

Sector: Business, research, & consulting

Impact: Facilitates easy patent searching, data transferability, and up-to-date alerts on patent data changes

Data Used: Patent data from U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, European Patent Office, and Japan Patent Office

Description: SumoBrain provides a database of multi-sourced patents and applications. In the realm of evolving intellectual property rights and the continual stream of new innovations, individuals and companies face the challenge of tracking legal developments. This platform facilitates easy information access by consolidating information from government patent websites. Databases and their contents are openly accessible and downloadable from this platform, including United States and European patents and applications, Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) documents, and Japanese abstracts.

An open platform for data storage and accessible usage such as SumoBrain expedites the patent search process for lawyers, investors, and researchers. While maintaining transparency, these efforts encourage greater competition and access to industry trends through government-based mechanisms, taking what already exists and interpreting the data for public use. Ultimately, the opportunity to build products off of open data lowers barriers for many entering or participating in an industry. For example, by placing government publications into one database, SumoBrain provides users around the world have immediate access to patent documents and references, all of which presented in a consistent and searchable format. Users maintain virtual tools to manage work files through annotations, exports to Excel, and editing access for colleagues.

Telefonica

Multinational telecommunications provider of broadband and mobile networks
 https://www.telefonica.com/es

Country: Spain

Sector: Media and communications

Impact: Creating an ecosystem of digital communications

Data Used: Economic data and population data from various countries’ census datasets, UK health data (hospital admissions, emergency services locations) and transportation data (bus, underground, bikes), satellite data

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Telefonica

Multinational telecommunications provider of broadband and mobile networks
 https://www.telefonica.com/es

Country: Spain

Sector: Media and communications

Impact: Creating an ecosystem of digital communications

Data Used: Economic data and population data from various countries’ census datasets, UK health data (hospital admissions, emergency services locations) and transportation data (bus, underground, bikes), satellite data

Description: With operations in 24 countries and an estimated 315.7 million customers, Telefónica is a diversified telecommunications group that delivers services based on information and communications technologies. In the last few years, Telefónica has been an active promoter of open data use, both internally and externally. In its own operations, Telefónica makes use of open economic data, as well as demographic data, to identify customer segments and adjust product offerings in accordance with economic forecast. The organization also leverages satellite and population data to inform decisions on where to build telecommunications infrastructure.

Telefónica engages a broad stakeholder network as well around open data use. For example, in 2013, in partnership with the Open Data Institute and the MIT Medialab, Telefónica hosted a “hackathon for big data” which promoted the integration of open transportation and health data with other proprietary data sets. to create value for social good. During the event, teams were encouraged to study how crowds move towards high streets during the busy Christmas shopping period in order to develop strategies for the emergency services to allocate their resources more effectively, or make recommendations of how to manage the flow of road traffic on London’s busiest routes. In its home country, Telefónica has also promoted the use of open data by hosting workshops on “Data Journalism and Open Data” to  encourage Spanish journalists, programmers and other professionals to create content using open data.

Latin America & Caribbean

Chequeado

A fact-checking service that monitors political activities in Argentina
 http://chequeado.com/

Country: Argentina

Sector: Media and communications

Impact: Enforces accountability in political discourse

Data Used: Public safety data from the Ministry of Public Safety and Attorney General of the Province of Buenos Aires; Legal data from Argentina’s Ministry of Justice; Demographics and social data from Argentina’s Census; Economics statistics from Argentina’s National Directorate of External Sector Statistics

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Chequeado

A fact-checking service that monitors political activities in Argentina
 http://chequeado.com/

Country: Argentina

Sector: Media and communications

Impact: Enforces accountability in political discourse

Data Used: Public safety data from the Ministry of Public Safety and Attorney General of the Province of Buenos Aires; Legal data from Argentina’s Ministry of Justice; Demographics and social data from Argentina’s Census; Economics statistics from Argentina’s National Directorate of External Sector Statistics

Description: Chequeado is a nonpartisan group that verifies the claims of politicians, opinion leaders, entrepreneurs, media and other institutions, using reliable sources and data. The services is intended to help reduce the margin of intellectual impunity in the political discourse, and to contribute to more democratic transparency in Argentina. It relies heavily on open data for its investigations of political activity and fact-checking.

In this context, Chequeado created an online course on fact-checking and data journalism as an attempt to train more journalists in using data as a valuable tool in their work. Importantly, Chequeado also developed “Dato Chequeado” http://datochq.chequeado.com which is a collaborative platform to which anyone can upload datasets that are then verified, cataloged and published. This platform hosts a variety of open datasets, which provide users with reliable information that can be accessed easily, and ultimately contributes to more data being available, as well as the improvement of the quality of public debate.

De Olho nas Metas

Platform for monitoring the progress of municipal projects in São Paulo, Brazil
 http://deolhonasmetas.org.br

Country: Brazil

Sector: Governance

Impact: Helps civil society monitor municipal projects in their community

Data Used: Education data from the Brazilian Ministry of Education and Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), government operations data from the municipality of São Paulo

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De Olho nas Metas

Platform for monitoring the progress of municipal projects in São Paulo, Brazil
 http://deolhonasmetas.org.br

Country: Brazil

Sector: Governance

Impact: Helps civil society monitor municipal projects in their community

Data Used: Education data from the Brazilian Ministry of Education and Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), government operations data from the municipality of São Paulo

Description: According to Brazilian law, in every mandate the mayor of a municipality is obliged to submit a plan describing the goals that will be implemented during his administration. These goals cover various topics ranging from environment to education, or any other areas of intervention in the city. In 2013, a new legislation enabled the creation of Participatory Councils, civil society groups that , among other things, monitor the execution of the municipal budget, public services performance indicators, and the implementation of the proposed plan within their geographical area.

Relying on data pulled from the municipality of São Paulo website, the platform “De Olho nas Metas” was created to facilitate monitoring of the progress of municipal projects. The tool also aims to  improve communication between citizens, Participatory Councils, and public officials. For a more complete and transparent view of projects, the platform also incorporates data from the Treasury Court of São Paulo and displays information on the companies that were contracted for the execution of each project.

“De Olho nas Metas” has also produced reports providing recommendations for the improvement of the Brazilian education system supported by the analysis of open education data (e.g. literacy rates, education budgeting) from the Ministry of Education, and the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE).

ENOVA

Seeks to bridge the digital divide in education through open technology platforms
 http://enova.mx/

Country: Mexico

Sector: Education

Impact: Providing free online platforms students and educators to advance adaptive and accessible learning

Data Used: Social and demographic data (population density, income, level of education), transportation and environmental data (public transportation systems, green areas, and access to roads), education data (public schools) from the Government of Mexico

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ENOVA

Seeks to bridge the digital divide in education through open technology platforms
 http://enova.mx/

Country: Mexico

Sector: Education

Impact: Providing free online platforms students and educators to advance adaptive and accessible learning

Data Used: Social and demographic data (population density, income, level of education), transportation and environmental data (public transportation systems, green areas, and access to roads), education data (public schools) from the Government of Mexico

Description: Enova, a social entrepreneurship company based in Mexico City, seeks to bridge the digital divide amongst both students as well as educators. In a population where 69% lack access to computers or the Internet, such communities have a wide array of educational and technological needs. The Government of Mexico worked jointly with ENOVA to achieve digital inclusivity in establishing a “Network of Innovation and Learning” (Las redes de innovación y aprendizaje - RIA) centers. ENOVA utilized open data to determine areas of greatest need and most potential impact.

Through a method characterized as “urban acupuncture”, several indicators taken from publicly accessible databases were examined, including population density, income, level of education, public schools, commercial areas, public transportation systems, green areas, and access to roads. With 70 centers across 34 municipalities in the State of Mexico, government data was maximized to assess local needs within educational capacity building. Since each institution has specific needs, Enova focuses on the importance of adaptability in addition to the accessibility of their products.

La Nacion

Argentine daily newspaper covering national and international news
 http://www.lanacion.com.ar

Country: Argentina

Sector: Media and communications

Impact: Investigative journalism and making government information accessible in an open format

Data Used: Many including macroeconomic data, consumer indices, monthly industrial data, weather data, CO2 emissions, consumer complaints, tourism statistics, transportation data, political contributions in Argentina, and Buenos Aires census data

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La Nacion

Argentine daily newspaper covering national and international news
 http://www.lanacion.com.ar

Country: Argentina

Sector: Media and communications

Impact: Investigative journalism and making government information accessible in an open format

Data Used: Many including macroeconomic data, consumer indices, monthly industrial data, weather data, CO2 emissions, consumer complaints, tourism statistics, transportation data, political contributions in Argentina, and Buenos Aires census data

Description: La Nacion newspaper has been engaged in using and disseminating open data in various ways. In 2010, the newspaper started a project on data visualization where journalists, graphic designers and computer scientists worked together to understand how visualization tools can be used for reporting. The first delivery of this initiative, a report on Argentina’s Subsidies System for Transportation, relied on combining open transportation data from two government agencies ( Secretary of Transportation, and National Commission for Transport Regulation). The investigation discovered that the subsidies (gas and cash) grew dramatically (up to $34 billion) during the past ten years, and revealed the 20 companies that received more money from this system.

However, getting the public data in the first place poses a significant challenge. Since Argentina doesn’t have a law that allows citizens access public documents, like Freedom of Information Act in the U.S, all the information used in this investigation had to be converted from PDF’s documents to CSV and Excel files. In this context, making public data available in an open format is another goal of La Nacion. In march 2012, the newspaper launched an open data portal. In this portal, users can access official data in the domains of legislation and policy-making, general indicators, environment, sports, and economics.

Ojoconmipisto.com

Monitors the spending of municipal funds in Guatemala
 http://ojoconmipisto.com/

Country: Guatemala

Sector: Media and communications

Impact: Promoting civic-minded journalism and citizen participation

Data Used: Procurement data (Guatecompras) from Guatemala’s Ministry of Finance

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Ojoconmipisto.com

Monitors the spending of municipal funds in Guatemala
 http://ojoconmipisto.com/

Country: Guatemala

Sector: Media and communications

Impact: Promoting civic-minded journalism and citizen participation

Data Used: Procurement data (Guatecompras) from Guatemala’s Ministry of Finance

Description: Ojoconmipisto.com is a project developed by Laboratorio de Medios, an organization that trains journalists and others in various aspects of accessing and using public data in Guatemala. It is designed to allow reporters, social organizations and citizens to use open data to better understand municipal council spending, political affiliations and public contracts.

Started in 2013, the project made use of initial funding by the United States Agency for International Development to train journalists in working with GuateCompras, a database containing municipalities’ procurement information of the national government of Guatemala. The training also includes an overall understanding of the legal framework pertaining to public procurement and freedom of information in Guatemala. Empowered with this knowledge, local journalists are expected to be better equipped to monitor and report on the spendings of municipalities.

QEdu

A portal that displays public information on the quality of learning in each school, county and state in Brazil
 http://www.qedu.org.br

Country: Brazil

Sector: Education

Impact: Provides reliable data for educational managers to plan changes and improvements to education systems

Data Used: Education data (E.g. Prova Brasil, Censo Escolar, Ideb, and Enem) from the Ministry of Education in Brazil

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QEdu

A portal that displays public information on the quality of learning in each school, county and state in Brazil
 http://www.qedu.org.br

Country: Brazil

Sector: Education

Impact: Provides reliable data for educational managers to plan changes and improvements to education systems

Data Used: Education data (E.g. Prova Brasil, Censo Escolar, Ideb, and Enem) from the Ministry of Education in Brazil

Description: By monitoring the performance results of national education institutions, QEdu aims to make education data simple and accessible to anyone, whether student, teacher, manager, journalist, researcher or secretary. QEdu makes use of various datasets from the Ministry of Education in Brazil, particularly the ones related to the assessment of the quality of the Brazilian educational system, to offer a website in which users can explore the data intuitively.

The numbers provided by QEdu have also resulted in studies such as the “Excelência com Equidade” held by the Lemann Foundation in partnership with Itaú BBA Bank, whose focus was public schools that host students of low socioeconomic status. In this study, 215 schools were identified throughout Brazil as successful case studies in which students of low socioeconomic status performed with distinction.

Middle East & North Africa

GeoPostcodes

Provides a search engine for zip/postal codes for over 250 countries
 http://www.geopostcodes.com/

Country: United Arab Emirates

Sector: IT and geospatial

Impact: Utilizes open geographical data to create accurate reports on geocoding through a map and databases

Data Used: Codes and administrative levels from national statistics offices from all countries, and the U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics

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GeoPostcodes

Provides a search engine for zip/postal codes for over 250 countries
 http://www.geopostcodes.com/

Country: United Arab Emirates

Sector: IT and geospatial

Impact: Utilizes open geographical data to create accurate reports on geocoding through a map and databases

Data Used: Codes and administrative levels from national statistics offices from all countries, and the U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics

Description: GeoPostcodes collects, manages and publishes geographical information on geographical information. For clients that rely on distributing information to large user bases, reliable geographical information is critical to effective marketing. GeoPostcodes operates off of datasets covering almost 10 million postcodes and over 18 million streets. These datasets detail geographic coordinates, time zones, reference codes, ZIP codes or postcodes, and administrative divisions. Commercial services include geocoding addresses, distance calculations, and geo-mapping.

In their data catalog, the index of postal and ZIP codes includes 253 countries and territories, allowing for greater reach. Data is available for up to four administrative levels, such as region, province, district, and town/village. An interactive map demonstrates a visual representation of their collected data with a synopsis of the ISO Code, Postcodes format, and numbers of administrative levels, regions, and postcodes. Data is sourced from each country’s National Statistical Offices (NSOs) and coded into the regional datasets, including ISO, country, language, and other classifications. Other information is sourced from the United Nations Geographic Information System for country codes, Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) Time Zones Database, and International Organization for Standardization for currencies and official languages.

Lebanese Association for Democratic Elections (LADE)

Website that features visualizations of past elections according to voter trends based on gender, voter representation in Parliament, etc.
 http://www.lade.org.lb/

Country: Lebanon

Sector: Governance

Impact: Promotes electoral transparency and reform in Lebanon

Data Used: Demographic and electoral data from the Ministry of the Interior and Municipalities (MoIM), the Directorate General of Personal Services (DGPS), and www.elections.gov.lb website

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Lebanese Association for Democratic Elections (LADE)

Website that features visualizations of past elections according to voter trends based on gender, voter representation in Parliament, etc.
 http://www.lade.org.lb/

Country: Lebanon

Sector: Governance

Impact: Promotes electoral transparency and reform in Lebanon

Data Used: Demographic and electoral data from the Ministry of the Interior and Municipalities (MoIM), the Directorate General of Personal Services (DGPS), and www.elections.gov.lb website

Description: For Lebanon’s 2017 general elections, the Lebanese Association for Democratic Elections (LADE) and Lamba Labs have created a data platform that visualizes voter trends in past elections to help foster discussions, reform, and participation in the Lebanese election process. The Lebanese Elections Data Analysis project features visualizations such as voter trends based on gender, voter representation in the Parliament, and citizen involvement in the political system.

These visualizations are based on data collected by the LADE as well as from government data published by the Ministry of the Interior and Municipalities (MoIM), the Directorate General of Personal Services (DGPS), and the www.elections.gov.lb website. Additionally, during the election, LADE is prepared to monitor electoral violations and map them on its website. It will also create maps similar to those on its website in order to delineate voting patterns and proportionality of the election. LADE’s project will help ensure transparency in the upcoming general elections and provide vital information informing citizens and legislators on how to move forward with legislative and electoral reforms.

North America

Aidin

A website that improves the patient-placement process in choosing a post-acute provider
 http://www.myaidin.com/

Country: United States

Sector: Health

Impact: Reduces asymmetric information between patients and post-acute care providers

Data Used: Health data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services:  Nursing Home Compare, Home Health Compare, Patient Outreach and Hospital Integration

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Aidin

A website that improves the patient-placement process in choosing a post-acute provider
 http://www.myaidin.com/

Country: United States

Sector: Health

Impact: Reduces asymmetric information between patients and post-acute care providers

Data Used: Health data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services:  Nursing Home Compare, Home Health Compare, Patient Outreach and Hospital Integration

Description: In the current post-care provider environment in the US, patients have little to no information on whether a provider matches their needs, other than word-of-mouth or the occasional internet review; most patients end up choosing the provider nearest to their house. Aidin aims to stop this practice, and instead create choice based on the quality of service and care, generating business for  high-quality providers and moving patients away from low performers.  The website that gives detailed information on different nursing homes and other post-acute care providers to patients who are in the process of choosing between a multitude of options.

Aidin presents patients with a 1-page profile for every PAC that offers admission. These profiles are created by combining the diagnosis and demographics of a patient with open datasets such as “Nursing Home Compare,” from the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Additional information on the profile is formed from Aidin’s own tracking of readmission rates for PACs, patient reviews, and photos of each PAC.

Out of the patients presented with Aidin’s profiles of providers in their area, 80% will choose a high-performing PAC. By reducing the amount of asymmetric information between patients and providers, Aidin is making an impact on readmission rates to PACs, as well as directing PAC focus to quality of care instead of advertisements and airtime.

Calcbench

Conducts financial data research and analysis on public companies
 https://www.calcbench.com/

Country: United States

Sector: Finance and insurance

Impact: Provides standardized financial data in machine-readable formats for public use

Data Used: Corporate financial data and records from the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC)

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Calcbench

Conducts financial data research and analysis on public companies
 https://www.calcbench.com/

Country: United States

Sector: Finance and insurance

Impact: Provides standardized financial data in machine-readable formats for public use

Data Used: Corporate financial data and records from the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC)

Description: Over the years, the U.S. government has sought to standardize its data, including in the financial sector. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) publishes corporate reports on their publicly accessible database, known as EDGAR. For corporations, they are required to file parts of these reports in electronic and machine-readable formats. Calcbench, a financial services company, turns financial statements received from the SEC and uses algorithms to convert them into machine-readable formats through their XBRL algorithm, known as ‘eXtensible Business Reporting Language’.

Calcbench's data are derived from over 9,000 public companies and are made available for investors, auditors, and academics to manipulate and conduct their own analysis. Their data derives from primary financial statements and footnotes section of annual and quarterly filings, and more recently, the earnings press releases and proxy statements. While performing these services, Calcbench is able to track industry and economic trends, as well as monitor the quality of data, in real-time and accurate.

Farmlogs

Supporting farmers through technology to enhance crop production and reduce waste
 https://farmlogs.com/

Country: United States

Sector: Agriculture

Impact: Creates tools to measure crop management and environmental factors such as rainfall and soil composition

Data Used: Weather and rainfall data from U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) National Climatic Data Center, soil data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture

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FarmLogs

Supporting farmers through technology to enhance crop production and reduce waste
 https://farmlogs.com/

Country: United States

Sector: Agriculture

Impact: Creates tools to measure crop management and environmental factors such as rainfall and soil composition

Data Used: Weather and rainfall data from U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) National Climatic Data Center, soil data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture

Description: FarmLogs provides farmers with a free software and mobile application to map and analyze crop yields and environmental conditions for crop growth through government data. Their Farmlogs free Standard includes several features: Field Mapping, Scouting and Notes, Activity Tracking, Rainfall Tracking, GDD Accumulation, Soil Composition Maps, Growth Stage Analysis, Yield Maps, Input Planning. They also empower farmers to coordinate with the government to request data for their lands. On their website, FarmLogs details instructions on how to contact the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Farm Service Agency for field boundary data. Upon receipt, FarmLogs interprets the data and creates field boundaries on mapping systems for farmers to demarcate their lands.

Utilizing publicly accessible data remains essential to building its database of information. FarmLogs also tracks rainfall activity with data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Department of Agriculture datasets to analyze soil health. Incorporating real-time data from the government easily connect farmers to focus on crop production and avoid unnecessary waste. This free feature also monitors GDD accumulation, or heat accumulation, over a plot of land as well as color coded yield maps.

GoodGuide

A platform which provides users with health, environmental, and social performance information of consumer products and companies.
 http://www.goodguide.com/

Country: United States

Sector: Consumer

Impact: Increase consumer knowledge of purchased products and manufacturer accountability

Data Used: Toxic Release Inventory (and many other datasets) from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

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GoodGuide

A platform which provides users with health, environmental, and social performance information of consumer products and companies.
 http://www.goodguide.com/

Country: United States

Sector: Consumer

Impact: Increase consumer knowledge of purchased products and manufacturer accountability

Data Used: Toxic Release Inventory (and many other datasets) from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

Description: In an ever-expanding market of consumer products and goods whose origins are often completely unknown to the buyer, information on where and under what conditions was a product made is hard to come by. GoodGuide works to provide consumers with this kind of information through its searchable consumer product database, ranking products such as candy, coffee and tea, food, and household chemicals, by their health, environment, and social performances.

GoodGuide draws its information from a wide variety of sources, from scientific institutions to NGOs to open government data sources. Its algorithm takes these datasets and ranks products correspondingly. For example, if a user were to look up Teas, they would find Frontier’s and Twinings’ Green Teas, as well as 4,831 other tea products, all ranked with an aggregate GoodGuide score as well as company, environment, and social scores. These scores are associated with indicators such as the amount of recycled content in their packaging for their environmental score, or whether a product is certified fair trade for its social score.

GoodGuide improves the ability for consumers to not only learn what they are buying in terms of work conditions and company environmental and social efforts, but also to gain a level of collective purchasing power based on increased information symmetry.

InstaVIN

App that provides access to vehicle history and title reports
 https://www.instavin.com

Country: United States

Sector: Transportation and logistics

Impact: Providing consumers with complete vehicle history and title report

Data Used: Vehicle information from the U.S. National Motor Vehicle Title Information System (NMVTIS) and State Departments of Motor Vehicles; Police records from local Police datasets

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InstaVIN

App that provides access to vehicle history and title reports
 https://www.instavin.com

Country: United States

Sector: Transportation and logistics

Impact: Providing consumers with complete vehicle history and title report

Data Used: Vehicle information from the U.S. National Motor Vehicle Title Information System (NMVTIS) and State Departments of Motor Vehicles; Police records from local Police datasets

Description: Vehicle history reporting provides detailed information about a vehicle’s past and can help uncover hidden negative history. Accordingly, information on a vehicle’s history is therefore seen as an essential help for shoppers to make better purchase decisions when buying cars. InstaVIN addresses this by providing a vehicle history reporting service that looks up information on a Vehicle identification number (VIN) instantly when it is submitted by a consumer, and then sends the information back to the consumer.

The service runs an immediate background check on the vehicle, grabbing information from state and federal government sources, like the National Motor Vehicle Title Information System, police reports, as well as from private sources like car dealers and insurance records. This information, which may include theft, towing, impound, lien data, vehicle specifications, is then sent right back to the consumer. Taking advantage of this combination of data sources, consumers can get the title and salvage history of a vehicle thus reducing the risk of making a costly decision when purchasing it.

MapYourProperty

Website that automates zoning and land use information collection and compiles the data into a single report for clients
 http://www.mapyourproperty.com/

Country: Canada

Sector: Housing and real estate

Impact: Streamlines information gathering for urban planners and developers

Data Used: Zoning, regulatory, environmental, and land use datasets from the City of Toronto, Region of York, and Ontario Government of Canada

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MapYourProperty

Website that automates zoning and land use information collection and compiles the data into a single report for clients
 http://www.mapyourproperty.com/

Country: Canada

Sector: Housing and real estate

Impact: Streamlines information gathering for urban planners and developers

Data Used: Zoning, regulatory, environmental, and land use datasets from the City of Toronto, Region of York, and Ontario Government of Canada

Description: MapYourProperty gives clients instant access to zoning, land use, and environmental information about a specific location, eliminating the tedious process of cross-checking a property with the land regulations and restrictions pertaining to that location.

The Canadian startup relies almost entirely on open municipal and federal datasets, such as land use and zoning policies, the Toronto Bylaw 569-2013, or the Oak Ridge Moraine Plan. The information from these datasets is incorporated in two places: first, when a client visits MapYourProperty’s website, information such as environmental laws and flooding areas are overlaid on a Google maps search of the client’s location of interest. Information on the map is categorized into five tabs: land use, zoning, environmental, and water and provincial regulations. Second, when the client is satisfied with the map, MapYourProperty compiles this visual data and more into a single, detailed Word document.

The startup has enhanced Ontario’s real estate market, streamlining a previously time-consuming process that involved browsing through city hall binders and physical maps.

Navut

Provides online tools identify user preferences to facilitate relocation in Canada
 http://www.navut.com/

Country: Canada

Sector: Housing, construction and real estate

Impact: Customizes and cuts down the cost of housing searches

Data Used: Demographic data from Canada Census and U.S. Census Bureau, education data at the province level from Canadian Ministries of Education, U.S. Geological Survey

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Navut

Provides online tools identify user preferences to facilitate relocation in Canada
 http://www.navut.com/

Country: Canada

Sector: Housing, construction and real estate

Impact: Customizes and cuts down the cost of housing searches

Data Used: Demographic data from Canada Census and U.S. Census Bureau, education data at the province level from Canadian Ministries of Education, U.S. Geological Survey

Description: Relocating to a new area comes with its own challenges, but for the founders of Navut, relocating to Canada as immigrants inspired them to create a website breaking down information barriers in the housing market. Designed for enhanced user operability, Navut was founded in 2012 and seeks to generate data-driven decision-making. Navut provides online tools for users to specify relocation preferences depending on selection criteria, such as lifestyle and budget, and feeds the data through a personalized search engine called The Neighborhood Finder. Information collected from government and private sources address the criteria and allow users to narrow their real estate options.

Users examine property locations and assess factors such as distance to schools or commute to work. Additional information provided includes statistics on public and private schools, sourced from the Ministry of Education from each province, and demographics from the 2016 Canadian census. Providing access to census or education demographics creates opportunities for future homeowners and renters to make quality decisions while avoiding high real estate agent fees generally associated with the process.

Prosper Daily

A personal finance analytics company utilizing crowdsourcing and big data analytics for consumer financial protection and savings
 http://databoks.katadata.co.id

Country: United States

Sector: Consumer

Impact: Identifies fraudulent merchants using consumer complaint data

Data Used: Consumer Complaint Database from the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB)

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Prosper Daily

A personal finance analytics company utilizing crowdsourcing and big data analytics for consumer financial protection and savings
 https://www.prosper.com/daily

Country: United States

Sector: Consumer

Impact: Identifies fraudulent merchants using consumer complaint data

Data Used: Consumer Complaint Database from the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB)

Description: Prosper Daily, formerly known as BillGuard, uses big data analytics for consumer financial protection and savings. Combining data from banks, online commentary, and government databases, Prosper Daily monitors consumer complaints concerning payment cards and bank accounts. With a base of over a million users, Prosper Daily then identifies trends of fraudulent financial activity or wrongful charges. The goal is to narrow down the sources of fraudulent activity, whether it be a merchant or individual. Specific complaint trends considered include issues of overcharges, fraud, deceptive advertising or billing practices.

The U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) open Consumer Complaint Database aggregates consumer responses and directs them to companies for potential resolution. With CFPB open data services, Prosper Daily uses publicly available datasets to resolve credit card transactions issues. These datasets combined with their algorithm help users identify sources of fraudulent activity and directly contact merchants through their mobile application. In 2014, Prosper Daily (then BillGuard), claims to have flagged $60 million in suspect charges.

Quandl

An open data platform that gathers real-time market data
 https://www.quandl.com/

Country: Canada

Sector: IT and geospatial

Impact: Provides free access to a repository of financial economic, and social datasets to over 100,000 users

Data Used: Economic data and indices, industry, currency, commodity and interest rate data from multiple countries’ agencies, including: U.S. Agency for International Development, Bank of Israel, Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics, Central Bank of Argentina, Ministry of Finance and Bank of Japan, France’s National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies, Russian Federation Statistics Service, UK Office of National Statistics, Bank of England Official Statistics, Deutsche Bundesbank Data Repository, Bank of France, Bank of Russia, U.S. Federal Reserve economic data, Federal Reserve Banks of New York and Cleveland,  U.S. Treasury Financial Management Service, Puerto Rico Institute of Statistics, U.S. National Center for Education Statistics, U.S. Social Security Administration, U.S. Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service, U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S> Census Bureau, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office

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Quandl

An open data platform that gathers real-time market data
 https://www.quandl.com/

Country: Canada

Sector: IT and geospatial

Impact: Provides free access to a repository of financial economic, and social datasets to over 100,000 users

Data Used: Economic data and indices, industry, currency, commodity and interest rate data from multiple countries’ agencies, including: U.S. Agency for International Development, Bank of Israel, Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics, Central Bank of Argentina, Ministry of Finance and Bank of Japan, France’s National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies, Russian Federation Statistics Service, UK Office of National Statistics, Bank of England Official Statistics, Deutsche Bundesbank Data Repository, Bank of France, Bank of Russia, U.S. Federal Reserve economic data, Federal Reserve Banks of New York and Cleveland,  U.S. Treasury Financial Management Service, Puerto Rico Institute of Statistics, U.S. National Center for Education Statistics, U.S. Social Security Administration, U.S. Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service, U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S> Census Bureau, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office

Description: Founded in 2012, Quandl provides a repository for financial, economic, and social datasets, maintaining free and commercial data for public consumption to download and analyze. With a user base of over 100,000 people, Quandl allows users to maximize their use of financial market data by manipulating accurate and real-time datasets, which aid users to track industry trends for free or at a low cost. Databases are divided into sections: stocks, options, futures, forecasts, commodities, and economics. Each section contains government databases and alternative data sources, including information on consumer behavior, business intelligence, or industrial metrics, which predict changes to markets.

Through unlimited API use, Quandl permits users to access data from databases around the world from the Bank of Japan, containing 85,466 datasets, or even the U.S. Energy Information Administration Data, containing 1,498,336 datasets. This FinTech organization lends an accessible and free opportunity for investors and analysts to utilize technology platforms for data usability and access. Users benefiting from Quandl’s pursuits of big data include hedge fund managers, analysts, students, and investors.

Thinknum

Web platform for financial analysis
 https://www.thinknum.com

Country: United States

Sector: Finance and insurance

Impact: Provides data and insights to investors and businesses on the factors that drive valuation

Data Used: U.S. zipcode data, demographic data from the U.S. Census, U.S. unemployment rates, weather data from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

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Thinknum

Web platform for financial analysis
 https://www.thinknum.com

Country: United States

Sector: Finance and insurance

Impact: Provides data and insights to investors and businesses on the factors that drive valuation

Data Used: U.S. zipcode data, demographic data from the U.S. Census, U.S. unemployment rates, weather data from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Description: Despite the increasing amount of data available online, it can be difficult for investors to access relevant information. Founded in 2013, Thinknum’s provides data access and insights to its users through its web platform. The organization aggregates and indexes data from government sources, companies’ websites and social media activity.

For example, Thinknum allows users to view the store locations of a given brand, overlay it with locations of a competitor, and then connect this information to demographic data such as median household income by county. This information can then be used to inform an organization’s strategy of where household income is increasing, and thereby identify the most profitable store locations. Other examples include the analysis of unemployment rates to discover outperforming businesses in the restaurant industry, and taking advantage of historical weather data to find market patterns. By creating connections between different data sources, Thinknum allows investors and companies to better understand the various factors that drive valuation.

TuvaLabs

A platform that engages students in data analysis and modelling using open datasets
 http://databoks.katadata.co.id

Country: United States

Sector: Education

Impact: Increases data literacy and skills

Data Used: Demographic data from the U.S. Census, environmental data from U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, health data from U.S. National Institute for Health, energy and environmental data from U.S. Environmental Information Administration

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TuvaLabs

A platform that engages students in data analysis and modelling using open datasets
 http://tuvalabs.com/

Country: United States

Sector: Education

Impact: Increases data literacy and skills

Data Used: Demographic data from the U.S. Census, environmental data from U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, health data from U.S. National Institute for Health, energy and environmental data from U.S. Environmental Information Administration

Description: Data literacy is becoming an ever-more essential skill that professionals need to have. Tuvalabs is a platform that helps students develop data literacy skills, providing datasets taken from a variety of sources and portals, graphing tools on their website, and open-ended questions to close out activities.

Tuvalabs splits its datasets into categories such as culture, energy, or sports, within which are a number of datasets containing social and demographic data, energy data, health data, and others taken from government sites like Census.gov, Data.gov. Learners can then navigate a series of lessons and activities teaching them how to visualize and analyze the dataset they chose. Students then have the option to send or embed their project, reaching an audience the size of their class, or to an audience of students around the world.

TuvaLabs fills a gap that exists in public school education, not only giving students the tools to improve their data literacy skills, but also guiding them along the way through lessons and activities.

South Asia

Centre for Governance and Public Accountability (CGPA)

Civil society organization working for promotion of public accountability and good governance in Pakistan
 http://www.c-gpa.org/

Country: Pakistan

Sector: Governance

Impact: Promotion of citizens’ voices on key governance issues and strengthening state response to citizens’ grievances

Data Used: District level education budget of various districts in Pakistan; Municipal budget data of Peshawar District; Education, health, police, legal data from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa District

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Centre for Governance and Public Accountability (CGPA)

Civil society organization working for promotion of public accountability and good governance in Pakistan
 http://www.c-gpa.org/

Country: Pakistan

Sector: Governance

Impact: Promotion of citizens’ voices on key governance issues and strengthening state response to citizens’ grievances

Data Used: District level education budget of various districts in Pakistan; Municipal budget data of Peshawar District; Education, health, police, legal data from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa District

Description: The Centre for Governance and Public Accountability (CGPA) was established in 2011 to improve the levels of trust between state and society in Pakistan. CGPA’s work can be grouped into 6 main areas: open governance, rule of law, democratic governance, decentralization and devolution, promotion of pluralism, and social accountability. Since the enactment of the Freedom of Information (FOI) legislation in 2013, the CGPA has focused on the implementation of this law and published extensive research on the response by government agencies in different districts in Pakistan to information requests.

As a promoter of open governance and open data, the CGPA has produced several studies on education budgeting, municipal budgeting, and others which have contributed with analyses on areas such as public education governance and service delivery, the right to drinking safe  water and sanitation, and public accountability at the local level. . The CGPA is also dedicated to making public data, such as data from the School Census, available in machine-readable format for everyone to access and use. To do so, it has plans to build its own data portal to make more data available to the citizens of Pakistan.

Excel Geomatics

Open geographical data for information solutions to private and public organizations
 http://www.excelgeomatics.com/

Country: India

Sector: IT and geospatial

Impact: Maps open geographical data with data from the 2011 Census and NASA to target industry-specific needs

Data Used: Village and district boundary maps from India’s Census, Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS) from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), ASTER database from NASA and Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI)

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Excel Geomatics

Open geographical data for information solutions to private and public organizations
 http://www.excelgeomatics.com/

Country: India

Sector: IT and geospatial

Impact: Maps open geographical data with data from the 2011 Census and NASA to target industry-specific needs

Data Used: Village and district boundary maps from India’s Census, Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS) from the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), ASTER database from NASA and Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI)

Description: Excel Geomatics is a consultancy that uses open geographical data to provide services within a number of  technology domains including remote sensing, spatial and topographical analysis, and photogrammetry. Through National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) programming, Excel Geomatics uses their Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS) to develop their services. This Earth Observation data is integrated into the organization’s specialized GIS services which analyze 2011 Census data: ward maps for over 700 towns and cities, village and district boundary maps, and population distribution maps.

Excel Geomatics seeks to address pressing needs from mineral exploration to flood mapping. For instance, Excel Geomatics has evaluated gold potential in the Bukambe District of Tanzania. Data was sourced from the ASTER database, free high resolution imaging run by NASA and Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), as well as Google Earth Imaging. With these images, Excel Geomatics identified clients needs and provided recommendations for potential investments in the mining industry. Expert geologists analyzed Excel Geomatics findings and further identified gold prevalent areas through GIS.

Factly

A data journalism platform that seeks to integrate public information for informed reporting
 https://factly.in/

Country: India

Sector: Media and Communications

Impact: Creates fact-based reporting through articles and infographics

Data Used: Indian census data, crop data from the Ministry of Agriculture, pension data from the Planning Commission and Department of Rural Development, communal violence data from the Ministry of Home Affairs

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Factly

A data journalism platform that seeks to integrate public information for informed reporting
 https://factly.in/

Country: India

Sector: Media and Communications

Impact: Creates fact-based reporting through articles and infographics

Data Used: Indian census data, crop data from India’s Ministry of Agriculture, pension data from the Planning Commission and Department of Rural Development, communal violence data from the Ministry of Home Affairs

Description: Factly, an independent data journalism platform. To reduce information asymmetry, Factly reports news with verified public information and government data. Policy-makers, researchers, and general audiences benefit from its data-based news platform, visualizations and infographics. The organization collects data both through public domain sources and through Right to Information (RTI) requests.

For example, one article used data from the Ministry of Home Affairs to count the total number of communal incidents that occurred in India from 2011 to 2015. It revealed that 85% of the 3365 incidents took place in eight specific states: Bihar, Gujarat, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. Within the remaining states, seven failed to report a single incident of communal violence. Publishing this article enhanced a dialogue on the subject of law and order within state governments, shedding light on systemic issues.

Factly sources information from a number of from government data sources, such as the Census from the Ministry of Agriculture, Annual Reports with The Planning Commission, Department of Rural Development, and more. Delivering public information through three mediums - articles, infographics, and videos, Factly seeks to 'make public data meaningful.'

Mandi Trades

A location-based social network fostering business directly between local farmers and buyers
 http://www.manditrades.com/

Country: India

Sector: Agriculture

Impact: Increases efficiency in the agriculture market and reduces information asymmetry for small-scale farmers

Data Used: Commodity Prices from India’s data portal and AgMarknet.gov.in

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Mandi Trades

A location-based social network fostering business directly between local farmers and buyers
 http://www.manditrades.com/

Country: India

Sector: Agriculture

Impact: Increases efficiency in the agriculture market and reduces information asymmetry for small-scale farmers

Data Used: Commodity Prices from India’s data portal and AgMarknet.gov.in

Description: Mandi Trades is a location-based social network and mobile application that connects farmers, transporters, traders, shop owners, and retail managers to one another. Under the services of Farmobi Technologies Pvt Ltd, Mandi Trades allows buyers and sellers to bypass the middlemen often involved in the Indian food industry. Instead, this platform creates an environment where buyers can purchase crops directly from local farmers, which reduces transportation costs and increases profit margins for both parties. These services also automatically incorporate the locations of sellers upon uploading datasets.

The Farmobi Technologies' app levels the agricultural market in two ways. First, it features agricultural market price data from the government of India’s data portal, data.gov.in, to make public information access a key component to competitive pricing. Second, the app lets farmers directly post details about their crops, making purchasing decisions transparent to both suppliers and buyers. These two features in Mandi Trades not only decreases information asymmetry but also leverages existing government data to encourage public data use within the agriculture sector for fair and competitive pricing.

RailYatri

A web and mobile application based platform providing comprehensive information on trains
 http://www.railyatri.in/

Country: India

Sector: Transportation and logistics

Impact: Simplifies train travel for thousands of passengers

Data Used: Train routes and schedules from Indian local government

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RailYatri

A web and mobile application based platform providing comprehensive information on trains
 http://www.railyatri.in/

Country: India

Sector: Transportation and logistics

Impact: Simplifies train travel for thousands of passengers

Data Used: Train routes and schedules from Indian local government

Description: Over 23.9 million passengers travel and commute daily by train in India. RailYatri’s goal is to simplify travel by providing search, plan and tracking capability to more than 80% of India's Travel base. The app uses open transportation data including public schedules and routes. Other functions include checking train status with confirmation probability, tracking live location of a train, seat availability, and ticket confirmation probability, pushing train alerts, and many more.

RailYatri also goes further than providing simple statistics of transportation data and offers own analytics, for example estimating the probability of on-time train arrival.

RainbowAgri

A mobile internet solution that connects farmers and help them communicate, collaborate and commerce
 http://databoks.katadata.co.id

Country: India

Sector: Agriculture

Impact: Helps farmers make better price their crops

Data Used: Commodity prices, environmental data (e.g. dam water levels), and weather data from India’s data portal

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RainbowAgri

A mobile internet solution that connects farmers and help them communicate, collaborate and commerce
 http://www.rainbowagri.com/

Country: India

Sector: Agriculture

Impact: Helps farmers make better price their crops

Data Used: Commodity prices, environmental data (e.g. dam water levels), and weather data from India’s data portal

Description: Rainbow Agri is a dashboard for farmers to gather news related to agriculture, prices of commodities, authorized pesticide and seed vendors in the locality, and dam water levels. India has 87 million rural mobile Internet users, making it the world’s second largest smartphone market, and a prediction of 6% growth for the agricultural sector. Still, manifold challenges lie ahead for the continuous growth of this sector. The current availability of data, in particular of open data, has an important role to play in overcoming some of these challenges.

RainbowAgri is a mobile internet solution that aims to broadly contribute to digitize agriculture, and in this way, empower farmers to increase their productivity and income. Many of the features in Rainbow, such as live market prices from various markets in India, the daily dam water level, and location based weather updates, rely on the use of open data. RainbowAgri fetches most of the data from India’s national open data portal, as well as from other government of India websites as means to enrich the agriculture ecosystem with more information, and help farmers making informed decisions throughout the life cycle of the crop.

The Energy & Resources Institute (TERI)

Research institute working in the fields of energy, environment and sustainable development
 http://www.teriin.org

Country: India

Sector: Energy and climate

Impact: Raises awareness and provides policy recommendations on environmental policy matters

Data Used: India’s Census data, geospatial data (e.g. forestry maps, agriculture maps, land use maps), environmental data; satellite data from U.S. Geological Survey

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The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI)

Research institute working in the fields of energy, environment and sustainable development
 http://www.teriin.org

Country: India

Sector: Energy and climate

Impact: Raises awareness and provides policy recommendations on environmental policy matters

Data Used: India’s Census data, geospatial data (e.g. forestry maps, agriculture maps, land use maps), environmental data; satellite data from U.S. Geological Survey

Description: Founded in 1974, The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) focuses on technological innovations related to sustainable development. The organization provides research and analysis on areas such as clean energy, water management, pollution management, sustainable agriculture, and climate resilience. In light of its expertise in sustainability-related issues, TERI has helped the government of India deliver timely and sustainable environmental policy and practice outcomes.

At the core of its research endeavors, TERI relies on open data that relates mainly to the environment, but also data on demographics, as well as geospatial and satellite data such as forestry maps, agriculture maps, land use maps. Scientific publications published by TERI’s researchers comprise, for example, studies that make use of climate data to analyse the importance and status of open climate data, or to determine variability of rainfall, a parameter that is correlated with physical, social and economic changes. The use of LANDSAT TM satellite data, provided by the United States Geological Survey, has also been crucial for various studies investigating topics such as the land surface, or forests in India.

YoungInnovations

A technology company that creates solutions to global development problems
 http://databoks.katadata.co.id

Country: Nepal

Sector: IT and geospatial

Impact: Building partnerships and technology to assist development organizations

Data Used: Nepali census, finance, education, and health data; international development spending data

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YoungInnovations

A technology company that creates solutions to global development problems
 http://younginnovations.com.np/

Country: Nepal

Sector: IT and geospatial

Impact: Building partnerships and technology to assist development organizations

Data Used: Nepali census, finance, education, and health data; international development spending data

Description: Co-founded in 2007 YoungInnovations develops software applications mainly for development organizations. YoungInnovations aims to help its clients improve data-driven policy and decision-making  through  automated data tools to collect, curate, and analyze data. As a result of their focus on open data solutions for civic engagement, YoungInnovations has developed platforms for opening data such as Aidstream and DevelopmentCheck.

YoungInnovations was also the co-creator of OpenNepal, a platform that hosts, among other types of data, public datasets, such as census data and data from various government agencies such as Ministry of Finance, the Department of Education, and the Ministry of Health and Population. With the goal of bringing together the community of practice in Nepal around topics open data, and access to information, Open Nepal is a platform that provides high quality data so that users can to make informed decisions on policy (planning and practice), monitor development progress, and support accountability.

Sub-Saharan Africa

Economics Association of Zambia (EAZ)

Undertaking research, training, education, publication and consultancy in the field of economics and related disciplines
 http://eaz.org.zm

Country: Zambia

Sector: Governance

Impact: Recommendations and advocacy on economic policies to reduce poverty in Zambia

Data Used: Economic indicators, health indicators, household surveys, living conditions survey, demographic survey, economic census, population census, agriculture census from Zambia’s Central statistical office (CSO) and the Central Bank of Zambia

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Economics Association of Zambia (EAZ)

Undertaking research, training, education, publication and consultancy in the field of economics and related disciplines
 http://eaz.org.zm

Country: Zambia

Sector: Governance

Impact: Recommendations and advocacy on economic policies to reduce poverty in Zambia

Data Used: Economic indicators, health indicators, household surveys, living conditions survey, demographic survey, economic census, population census, agriculture census from Zambia’s Central statistical office (CSO) and the Central Bank of Zambia

Description: While Zambia’s economy has continued to grow at an average annual rate in recent years, global headwinds and domestic pressures have strained the Zambian economy. Since the 1960s, the Economics Association of Zambia (EAZ), a non-partisan body established in the 1960s, has promoted the socio-economic development of Zambia by undertaking research, training, education, publication and consultancy in the field of economics and related disciplines.

In its role of political advisor, the EAZ takes advantage of public economic data to conduct policy research. Complementary to its own primary data collection, EAZ sources open data mainly from the Zambian Central statistical office and the Central Bank of Zambia. The type of data being used covers a wide range - economic and health indicators, population and economic census, health demographic surveys, and others. For example, in its website, which also serves as an advocacy platform, the EAZ has contributed to the dissemination of the results of 2015 Living Conditions Monitoring Survey, a poverty assessment study conducted by the Central statistical office to monitor and highlight the living conditions of the population of Zambia. In this way, the EAZ seeks to help the Government of Zambia achieve its objectives towards poverty reduction and strengthening the linkages between budgeting and planning.

Eduweb

Centralized portal of open education data (schools, colleges and universities) in Kenya
 http://www.eduweb.co.ke

Country: Kenya

Sector: Education

Impact: Provides a simple interactive mechanism to identify, locate, and evaluate schools

Data Used: Education data (name of schools, location, contact, facilities, differentiating information) in Kenya’s Ministry of Education

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Eduweb

Centralized portal of open education data (schools, colleges and universities) in Kenya
 http://www.eduweb.co.ke

Country: Kenya

Sector: Education

Impact: Provides a simple interactive mechanism to identify, locate, and evaluate schools

Data Used: Education data (name of schools, location, contact, facilities, differentiating information) in Kenya’s Ministry of Education

Description: Developed in 2012 by Rivercross Technologies Eduweb is an online platform that helps citizens explore schools in Kenya. Eduweb provides  an online centralized portal where users can easily access information on relevant education institutions (schools, colleges and universities) country-wide. The portal, which is also available on mobile phones, aims to help parents looking for schools for their children, graduates looking for post-secondary opportunities, or others generally seeking to further their education. While making use of open education data, such as the names, locations, contacts of schools in Kenya, Eduweb offers a simple tool to effectively identify and compare different schools, so that parents, students, or others, can make informed decisions about their education.

Farmerline

An SMS-based service that provides small-scale farmers with up-to-date agricultural information and advisement.
 http://farmerline.co/

Country: Ghana

Sector: Agriculture

Impact: Helps farmers increase crop yield and encourage new farming practices.

Data Used: Agricultural data from Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA), weather data from a number of sources

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Farmerline

An SMS-based service that provides small-scale farmers with up-to-date agricultural information and advisement.
 http://farmerline.co/

Country: Ghana

Sector: Agriculture

Impact: Helps farmers increase crop yield and encourage new farming practices.

Data Used: Agricultural data from the Ghanaian Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA), weather data from a number of sources

Description: Farmerline, an SMS-based service, provides small-scale farmers with up-to-date agricultural information and advisement based in Ghana. Farming accounts for over a fifth of the country’s GDP, and 42% of the workforce. However, many farmers in Ghana operate small-scale farms and face an uphill battle for agriculture information due to a lack of internet access and the diversity of local languages.

Farmerline addresses both these issues, providing local farmers access to accurate, up-to-date weather forecasts and market prices. In turn, the farmers gain immediate knowledge of competitive pricing and if not larger, steadier yields due to the agronomic tips and support.

Open government data is at the heart of this effort. Launched in 2013, Farmerline gathers open data on weather and market prices, and then repackages the information into outbound text and voice SMS messages, servicing over 5000 farmers in Ghana and available in nine different local languages. Fully incorporating voice messages in its service, Farmerline has expanded to farmers in rural areas, where literacy rates remain under 50%.

MobileContent.com Ltd

Mobile content provider in Ghana
 http://mobilecontent.com.gh

Country: Ghana

Sector: Media and communications

Impact: Improves organization’s market and pricing strategy

Data Used: Demographic, consumer and mobile penetration data from Ghana’s Census; Education data from Ghana’s Ministry of Education

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MobileContent.com Ltd

Mobile content provider in Ghana
 http://mobilecontent.com.gh

Country: Ghana

Sector: Media and communications

Impact: Improves organization’s market and pricing strategy

Data Used: Demographic, consumer and mobile penetration data from Ghana’s Census; Education data from Ghana’s Ministry of Education

Description: MobileContent primarily uses open data to inform the organization’s strategic decisions. For instance, the organization uses various types of consumer data on mobile use (e.g. value of mobile services, how much consumers spend per month on average, mobile penetration), complemented with demographic data, to determine whether a specific target market is likely to be profitable, and the optimal pricing for the organization’s products and services.

MobileContent designs a number of mobile-based services, providing information ranging from ways to prevent diseases to jokes and horoscopes. In addition to using open data to inform pricing, marketing and product development, the organization also hosts a platform with information about educational institutions throughout Ghana.

Odekro

A website that provides makes public information from the Parliament of Ghana more easily accessible
 http://www.odekro.org/

Country: Ghana

Sector: Governance

Impact: Promotes government accountability and citizen participation by making parliamentary proceedings accessible to the public

Data Used: Ghanaian Parliamentary and election data

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Odekro

A website that provides makes public information from the Parliament of Ghana more easily accessible
 http://www.odekro.org/

Country: Ghana

Sector: Governance

Impact: Promotes government accountability and citizen participation by making parliamentary proceedings accessible to the public

Data Used: Ghanaian Parliamentary and election data

Description: Ghana’s legislature is composed of 275 Members of Parliament (MPs) that are elected to serve their single-member constituencies. However, while the majority of the activities in parliament, such as votings, motions, and committees, take place in the open, too often, information is difficult to find, access and use. Created in 2012, Odekro is an online platform that aims to promote transparency and citizen participation in Ghana by providing public access to Bills, Motions, and Parliamentary proceedings (Hansards).

Mainly, the work of Odekro is to extract the data from different public sources, such as the Parliament of Ghana, the Electoral commission, and Ghana statistical service. While some of the data is available in excel formats, often Odekro has to convert data from paper or PDF to a machine-readable format. Making this information open allows media organizations to contribute to a more evidence-based public discussion, and increased public accountability of Members of Parliament. An example of this was the attention recently drawn to the country’s non-attending MPs after a letter sent by Odekro to the Speaker of Parliament based on this data. The Odekro platform also provides tools that allow users to discuss online while discussions are taking place in the Parliament, as well as to report issues affecting their constituencies, or follow the specific issues the MPs for their constituencies are contributing to. In this way, Odekro aims to enable communities and marginalized populations to leverage this information to engage with government agencies.

Sagaci Research

Providing market intelligence and data across key industries
 http://sagaciresearch.com/

Country: Kenya

Sector: Business, research and consulting

Impact: Market intelligence and data from African countries

Data Used: Census data and national statistics on the automotive and other markets in Kenya and Nigeria

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Sagaci Research

Providing market intelligence and data across key industries
 http://sagaciresearch.com/

Country: Kenya

Sector: Business, research and consulting

Impact: Market intelligence and data from African countries

Data Used: Census data and national statistics on the automotive and other markets in Kenya and Nigeria

Description: Open government data provides Sagaci Research with a valuable resource for undertaking research endeavors. Sagaci Research provides market research and intelligence dedicated to african markets on a number of industries. Its reports, databases and field research (quantitative/qualitative) provide an up-to-date in-depth understanding of the key sectors in the region (consumer goods, retail, telecommunications, financial services, construction and real-estate, and others).

In particular, census data is crucial for the process of sampling when collecting research data from different areas of the country. Other types of open government data are also used. For example, the report “Registered vehicles in Kenya and Nigeria”, which presents key facts and data on the automotive market in Kenya and Nigeria, providing a compelling overview of both markets by leveraging on national statistics, such as vehicle registrations.

Twaweza

A nonprofit promoting public accountability in Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda
 http://twaweza.org

Country: Tanzania

Sector: Media and communications

Impact: Creating effective public and policy engagement through media partnerships and global leadership

Data Used: Tanzanian economic data, census and household survey data, education data such as school enrollment rates, and budget data

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Twaweza

A nonprofit promoting public accountability in Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda
 http://twaweza.org

Country: Tanzania

Sector: Media and communications

Impact: Creating effective public and policy engagement through media partnerships and global leadership

Data Used: Tanzanian economic data, census and household survey data, education data such as school enrollment rates, and budget data

Description: Founded in 2009, Twaweza is a civil society organization that helps citizens exercise agency and governments be more open and responsive in Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda. Twaweza works to provide practical information to everyone, to foster quality independent media and citizen monitoring services. Via its Uwazi unit, Twaweza produces policy briefs on key issues, thus triggering public debate and fostering an ecosystem of change. In this context, Twaweza is an active promoter of open data, encouraging both the supply and use of public data.

In its own use, Twaweza draws on public data to conduct research across the fields of open government and basic education. For example, in the Tanzanian general elections in 2015, Twaweza organised televised debates between leading politicians from different parties, and used data from a range of different sources as a means of stimulating discussion, and of trying to guide the debate towards a greater focus on evidence. In part, the data that was used was sourced internally - from the Uwezo survey of basic learning outcomes and the Sautiza Wananchi mobile phone panel survey - but the remaining data, which included economic data, census and other household survey data, official data on public services (school enrolment rates, etc.) budget data and more, was pulled from official government sources. While some of the data was available in machine-readable formats, much had to be converted from pdfs and reports.

Yeleman

IT organization building data platforms for government and UNICEF
 http://yeleman.com

Country: Mali

Sector: IT and geospatial

Impact: Yeleman's dashboard has aided in pinpointing and reducing malaria outbreaks

Data Used: Health facilities registry from the Malian Ministry of Health

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Yeleman

IT organization building data platforms for government and UNICEF
 http://yeleman.com

Country: Mali

Sector: IT and geospatial

Impact: Its dashboard has aided in pinpointing and reducing malaria outbreaks

Data Used: Health facilities registry from the Malian Ministry of Health

Description: When MEASURE Evaluation, a USAID initiative, began to look for data-driven solutions to help reduce malaria outbreaks and other diseases, it contracted the programming team Yeleman to build its database. Yeleman built a comprehensive dashboard whose data is derived from a number of sources, and supports data entry from android phones.

The company built this dashboard from scratch using a combination of the Ministry of Health’s health facility registry dataset as well as its own crowd-based datasets. The dashboard provides health experts with monthly reports and weekly updates on health centers’ stocks data, such as initial stocks, quantity received, and quantity used during program implementation, as well as analysis on when each submission was received. Through Yeleman’s collection and analysis of continuously gathered health data, has been able to expand the program to the entire region of Mopti, and WHO Mali is considering implementing a similar system for other regions of Mali.

Use Cases by Sector
Agriculture

Farmerline

An SMS-based service that provides small-scale farmers with up-to-date agricultural information and advisement.
 http://farmerline.co/

Country: Ghana

Sector: Agriculture

Impact: Helps farmers increase crop yield and encourage new farming practices.

Data Used: Agricultural data from Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA), weather data from a number of sources

X

Farmerline

An SMS-based service that provides small-scale farmers with up-to-date agricultural information and advisement.
 http://farmerline.co/

Country: Ghana

Sector: Agriculture

Impact: Helps farmers increase crop yield and encourage new farming practices.

Data Used: Agricultural data from the Ghanaian Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA), weather data from a number of sources

Description: Farmerline, an SMS-based service, provides small-scale farmers with up-to-date agricultural information and advisement based in Ghana. Farming accounts for over a fifth of the country’s GDP, and 42% of the workforce. However, many farmers in Ghana operate small-scale farms and face an uphill battle for agriculture information due to a lack of internet access and the diversity of local languages.

Farmerline addresses both these issues, providing local farmers access to accurate, up-to-date weather forecasts and market prices. In turn, the farmers gain immediate knowledge of competitive pricing and if not larger, steadier yields due to the agronomic tips and support.

Open government data is at the heart of this effort. Launched in 2013, Farmerline gathers open data on weather and market prices, and then repackages the information into outbound text and voice SMS messages, servicing over 5000 farmers in Ghana and available in nine different local languages. Fully incorporating voice messages in its service, Farmerline has expanded to farmers in rural areas, where literacy rates remain under 50%.

Farmlogs

Supporting farmers through technology to enhance crop production and reduce waste
 https://farmlogs.com/

Country: United States

Sector: Agriculture

Impact: Creates tools to measure crop management and environmental factors such as rainfall and soil composition

Data Used: Weather and rainfall data from U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) National Climatic Data Center, soil data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture

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FarmLogs

Supporting farmers through technology to enhance crop production and reduce waste
 https://farmlogs.com/

Country: United States

Sector: Agriculture

Impact: Creates tools to measure crop management and environmental factors such as rainfall and soil composition

Data Used: Weather and rainfall data from U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) National Climatic Data Center, soil data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture

Description: FarmLogs provides farmers with a free software and mobile application to map and analyze crop yields and environmental conditions for crop growth through government data. Their Farmlogs free Standard includes several features: Field Mapping, Scouting and Notes, Activity Tracking, Rainfall Tracking, GDD Accumulation, Soil Composition Maps, Growth Stage Analysis, Yield Maps, Input Planning. They also empower farmers to coordinate with the government to request data for their lands. On their website, FarmLogs details instructions on how to contact the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Farm Service Agency for field boundary data. Upon receipt, FarmLogs interprets the data and creates field boundaries on mapping systems for farmers to demarcate their lands.

Utilizing publicly accessible data remains essential to building its database of information. FarmLogs also tracks rainfall activity with data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Department of Agriculture datasets to analyze soil health. Incorporating real-time data from the government easily connect farmers to focus on crop production and avoid unnecessary waste. This free feature also monitors GDD accumulation, or heat accumulation, over a plot of land as well as color coded yield maps.

Mandi Trades

A location-based social network fostering business directly between local farmers and buyers
 http://www.manditrades.com/

Country: India

Sector: Agriculture

Impact: Increases efficiency in the agriculture market and reduces information asymmetry for small-scale farmers

Data Used: Commodity Prices from India’s data portal and AgMarknet.gov.in

X

Mandi Trades

A location-based social network fostering business directly between local farmers and buyers
 http://www.manditrades.com/

Country: India

Sector: Agriculture

Impact: Increases efficiency in the agriculture market and reduces information asymmetry for small-scale farmers

Data Used: Commodity Prices from India’s data portal and AgMarknet.gov.in

Description: Mandi Trades is a location-based social network and mobile application that connects farmers, transporters, traders, shop owners, and retail managers to one another. Under the services of Farmobi Technologies Pvt Ltd, Mandi Trades allows buyers and sellers to bypass the middlemen often involved in the Indian food industry. Instead, this platform creates an environment where buyers can purchase crops directly from local farmers, which reduces transportation costs and increases profit margins for both parties. These services also automatically incorporate the locations of sellers upon uploading datasets.

The Farmobi Technologies' app levels the agricultural market in two ways. First, it features agricultural market price data from the government of India’s data portal, data.gov.in, to make public information access a key component to competitive pricing. Second, the app lets farmers directly post details about their crops, making purchasing decisions transparent to both suppliers and buyers. These two features in Mandi Trades not only decreases information asymmetry but also leverages existing government data to encourage public data use within the agriculture sector for fair and competitive pricing.

RainbowAgri

A mobile internet solution that connects farmers and help them communicate, collaborate and commerce
 http://databoks.katadata.co.id

Country: India

Sector: Agriculture

Impact: Helps farmers make better price their crops

Data Used: Commodity prices, environmental data (e.g. dam water levels), and weather data from India’s data portal

X

RainbowAgri

A mobile internet solution that connects farmers and help them communicate, collaborate and commerce
 http://www.rainbowagri.com/

Country: India

Sector: Agriculture

Impact: Helps farmers make better price their crops

Data Used: Commodity prices, environmental data (e.g. dam water levels), and weather data from India’s data portal

Description: Rainbow Agri is a dashboard for farmers to gather news related to agriculture, prices of commodities, authorized pesticide and seed vendors in the locality, and dam water levels. India has 87 million rural mobile Internet users, making it the world’s second largest smartphone market, and a prediction of 6% growth for the agricultural sector. Still, manifold challenges lie ahead for the continuous growth of this sector. The current availability of data, in particular of open data, has an important role to play in overcoming some of these challenges.

RainbowAgri is a mobile internet solution that aims to broadly contribute to digitize agriculture, and in this way, empower farmers to increase their productivity and income. Many of the features in Rainbow, such as live market prices from various markets in India, the daily dam water level, and location based weather updates, rely on the use of open data. RainbowAgri fetches most of the data from India’s national open data portal, as well as from other government of India websites as means to enrich the agriculture ecosystem with more information, and help farmers making informed decisions throughout the life cycle of the crop.

Arts, Culture & Tourism

Cultural Routes

App which helps users plan walking and biking routes, linking routes to historical and cultural sites in Moscow
 http://culturalroutes.ru/

Country: Russia

Sector: Arts, culture and tourism

Impact: Reduces time spent browsing tourist information sites

Data Used: Bicycle parking, museums, and city taxi parking datasets from the Department of Information Technology of the Government of Moscow

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Cultural Routes

App which helps users plan walking and biking routes, linking routes to historical and cultural sites in Moscow
 http://culturalroutes.ru/

Country: Russia

Sector: Arts, culture and tourism

Impact: Reduces time spent browsing tourist information sites

Data Used: Bicycle parking, museums, and city taxi parking datasets from the Department of Information Technology of the Government of Moscow

Description: Cultural Routes is an app that plans walking and biking routes around historical and cultural sites in Moscow. The app takes the location of taxicab stands and bike share locations into account, and tracks which museums are accessible to visit for people with disabilities.

Cultural Routes, one of several apps built by BNet, a Russian app developer company, takes all of its data from the Russian government’s open data portal. Currently, the application uses bicycle parking, museum, and city taxi parking datasets from data.mos.ru, and overlays this information onto a map. In addition to Cultural Routes’ original route function, BNet has added three other route recommendation functions: the first shows popular routes, the second takes the user’s location and finds nearby museums, the third lists museums most recommended by Cultural Routes users.

By mapping existing museum, bike, and taxi information from Russia’s government data portal, the app reduces the time spent for tourists and museum-goes looking through multiple websites and planning their day along bikeshare apps, google maps, and taxi services.

Michael Culture Association

A nonprofit that promotes digital cultural content and creates a network among cultural institutions throughout Europe
 http://www.michael-culture.eu/

Country: France

Sector: Arts, culture and tourism

Impact: Consolidates and fosters growing digital cultural content from museums and libraries across Europe

Data Used: Cultural data and inventories from public museums, libraries and archives across Europe

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Michael Culture Association

A nonprofit that promotes digital cultural content and creates a network among cultural institutions throughout Europe
 http://www.michael-culture.eu/

Country: France

Sector: Arts, culture and tourism

Impact: Consolidates and fosters growing digital cultural content from museums and libraries across Europe

Data Used: Cultural data and inventories from public museums, libraries and archives across Europe

Description: As the world increasingly moves towards digital formats, Michael Culture Association, commissioned in 2007,  provides members with access to digital cultural resources. The nonprofit encompasses over 150 cultural institutions across Europe, and its main project is the Michael Culture portal, which allows users to browse through European digital cultural heritage material online.

The Michael Culture portal builds its content from public and private, museums, libraries, and archives. The content itself ranges from art to archaeology and spans all periods of European history, and is searchable by subject, author, date, as well as a number of other identifiers. Michael Culture Association also links users to national portals of digital cultural collections, thus consolidating a number of scattered resources within a single portal. Through its support for multiple languages and large collection, the Michael Culture portal is able to deliver a searchable digital database of cultural content that supersedes the traditional linguistic and physical barriers of European cultural institutions.

Business, Research & Consulting

Economics Association of Zambia (EAZ)

Undertaking research, training, education, publication and consultancy in the field of economics and related disciplines
 http://eaz.org.zm

Country: Zambia

Sector: Governance

Impact: Recommendations and advocacy on economic policies to reduce poverty in Zambia

Data Used: Economic indicators, health indicators, household surveys, living conditions survey, demographic survey, economic census, population census, agriculture census from Zambia’s Central statistical office (CSO) and the Central Bank of Zambia

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Economics Association of Zambia (EAZ)

Undertaking research, training, education, publication and consultancy in the field of economics and related disciplines
 http://eaz.org.zm

Country: Zambia

Sector: Governance

Impact: Recommendations and advocacy on economic policies to reduce poverty in Zambia

Data Used: Economic indicators, health indicators, household surveys, living conditions survey, demographic survey, economic census, population census, agriculture census from Zambia’s Central statistical office (CSO) and the Central Bank of Zambia

Description: While Zambia’s economy has continued to grow at an average annual rate in recent years, global headwinds and domestic pressures have strained the Zambian economy. Since the 1960s, the Economics Association of Zambia (EAZ), a non-partisan body established in the 1960s, has promoted the socio-economic development of Zambia by undertaking research, training, education, publication and consultancy in the field of economics and related disciplines.

In its role of political advisor, the EAZ takes advantage of public economic data to conduct policy research. Complementary to its own primary data collection, EAZ sources open data mainly from the Zambian Central statistical office and the Central Bank of Zambia. The type of data being used covers a wide range - economic and health indicators, population and economic census, health demographic surveys, and others. For example, in its website, which also serves as an advocacy platform, the EAZ has contributed to the dissemination of the results of 2015 Living Conditions Monitoring Survey, a poverty assessment study conducted by the Central statistical office to monitor and highlight the living conditions of the population of Zambia. In this way, the EAZ seeks to help the Government of Zambia achieve its objectives towards poverty reduction and strengthening the linkages between budgeting and planning.

Katadata

An economics and business publication in Indonesia
 http://databoks.katadata.co.id

Country: Indonesia

Sector: Business, research and consulting

Impact: Publish data, articles, reports and visualizations for economic and business analysis

Data Used: Economic, demographic, business and financial data from Indonesia’s Central Statistics Agency (BPS), Financial Services Authority (OJK), Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, Agency Plantation Fund Management (BPDP), Regulatory Agency for Upstream Oil and Gas (BPH Migas), Ministry of Finance - Directorate General of Taxation (DGT), Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM)

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Katadata

An economics and business publication in Indonesia
 http://databoks.katadata.co.id

Country: Indonesia

Sector: Business, research and consulting

Impact: Publish data, articles, reports and visualizations for economic and business analysis

Data Used: Economic, demographic, business and financial data from Indonesia’s Central Statistics Agency (BPS), Financial Services Authority (OJK), Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, Agency Plantation Fund Management (BPDP), Regulatory Agency for Upstream Oil and Gas (BPH Migas), Ministry of Finance - Directorate General of Taxation (DGT), Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM)

Description: Katadata offers an analytical news and research portal which provides economic and business data, news and investigations. The portal builds on Indonesia’s Internet growth, mobile and social media usage, as well as the country’s economic growth, which justify the need for the dissemination of more economic and financial information.

Katadata makes extensive use of open data while combining journalism and analysis, i.e. news and research, in its day-to-day business. In this context, Katadata created Databoks, a data portal that hosts business and economic statistical data from Indonesia. Considering the fragmentation of Indonesian economics and business data, Databoks was created with the goal of facilitating the use of data by companies, business people, researchers, students, government and media for various purposes, such as presentations, report creation and strengthening of media coverage.

New Zealand Institute of Economic Research

Consultancy advancing independent economic analyses
 http://nzier.org.nz/

Country: New Zealand

Sector: Business, research and consulting

Impact: Supports a database that breaks down national economic analysis into user friendly datasets

Data Used: Statistics New Zealand Official Yearbooks (1893-2012), Budget data and economic statistics from the Treasury and Reserve Bank of New Zealand

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New Zealand Institute of Economic Research

Consultancy advancing independent economic analyses
 http://nzier.org.nz/

Country: New Zealand

Sector: Business, research and consulting

Impact: Supports a database that breaks down national economic analysis into user friendly datasets

Data Used: Statistics New Zealand Official Yearbooks (1893-2012), Budget data and economic statistics from the Treasury and Reserve Bank of New Zealand

Description: The New Zealand Institute of Economic Research (NZIER) is a consultancy that encourages independent analyses on economic issues within the country. Their Public Good program endeavors to empower individuals in making data-driven decision-making in business and policy-making. NZIER focuses on data management and provides the tools for different data interpretation. To strengthen existing government data, NZIER incorporates information from The Treasury, New Zealand’s Official Yearbooks (1893-2012) from Statistics New Zealand, Government at a Glance database from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and the Reserve Bank of New Zealand.

These sources then develop their database called Data1850, which bridges data from five sectors: government, economic activity, prices, international linkages, and people. With the lack of statistics data available prior to 1850, the platform was coined Data1850. Their services include datasets or other information on economic or statistics based history, spanning from 1850 to present day. Easily operable and downloadable, the data is available for free on the website. Users choose among economic activity, people, and prices to begin, and then narrow down data options. For example, employment may be first narrowed down by industry or by occupation, then the types of services or professions.

Sagaci Research

Providing market intelligence and data across key industries
 http://sagaciresearch.com/

Country: Kenya

Sector: Business, research and consulting

Impact: Market intelligence and data from African countries

Data Used: Census data and national statistics on the automotive and other markets in Kenya and Nigeria

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Sagaci Research

Providing market intelligence and data across key industries
 http://sagaciresearch.com/

Country: Kenya

Sector: Business, research and consulting

Impact: Market intelligence and data from African countries

Data Used: Census data and national statistics on the automotive and other markets in Kenya and Nigeria

Description: Open government data provides Sagaci Research with a valuable resource for undertaking research endeavors. Sagaci Research provides market research and intelligence dedicated to african markets on a number of industries. Its reports, databases and field research (quantitative/qualitative) provide an up-to-date in-depth understanding of the key sectors in the region (consumer goods, retail, telecommunications, financial services, construction and real-estate, and others).

In particular, census data is crucial for the process of sampling when collecting research data from different areas of the country. Other types of open government data are also used. For example, the report “Registered vehicles in Kenya and Nigeria”, which presents key facts and data on the automotive market in Kenya and Nigeria, providing a compelling overview of both markets by leveraging on national statistics, such as vehicle registrations.

SumoBrain

Provides intellectual property information for attorneys, corporate researchers and inventors
 http://www.sumobrain.com/

Country: United Kingdom

Sector: Business, research and consulting

Impact: Facilitates easy patent searching, data transferability, and up-to-date alerts on patent data changes

Data Used: Patent data from U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, European Patent Office, and Japan Patent Office

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SumoBrain

Provides intellectual property information for attorneys, corporate researchers and inventors
 http://www.sumobrain.com/

Country: United Kingdom

Sector: Business, research, & consulting

Impact: Facilitates easy patent searching, data transferability, and up-to-date alerts on patent data changes

Data Used: Patent data from U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, European Patent Office, and Japan Patent Office

Description: SumoBrain provides a database of multi-sourced patents and applications. In the realm of evolving intellectual property rights and the continual stream of new innovations, individuals and companies face the challenge of tracking legal developments. This platform facilitates easy information access by consolidating information from government patent websites. Databases and their contents are openly accessible and downloadable from this platform, including United States and European patents and applications, Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) documents, and Japanese abstracts.

An open platform for data storage and accessible usage such as SumoBrain expedites the patent search process for lawyers, investors, and researchers. While maintaining transparency, these efforts encourage greater competition and access to industry trends through government-based mechanisms, taking what already exists and interpreting the data for public use. Ultimately, the opportunity to build products off of open data lowers barriers for many entering or participating in an industry. For example, by placing government publications into one database, SumoBrain provides users around the world have immediate access to patent documents and references, all of which presented in a consistent and searchable format. Users maintain virtual tools to manage work files through annotations, exports to Excel, and editing access for colleagues.

Consumer

GoodGuide

A platform which provides users with health, environmental, and social performance information of consumer products and companies.
 http://www.goodguide.com/

Country: United States

Sector: Consumer

Impact: Increase consumer knowledge of purchased products and manufacturer accountability

Data Used: Toxic Release Inventory (and many other datasets) from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

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GoodGuide

A platform which provides users with health, environmental, and social performance information of consumer products and companies.
 http://www.goodguide.com/

Country: United States

Sector: Consumer

Impact: Increase consumer knowledge of purchased products and manufacturer accountability

Data Used: Toxic Release Inventory (and many other datasets) from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

Description: In an ever-expanding market of consumer products and goods whose origins are often completely unknown to the buyer, information on where and under what conditions was a product made is hard to come by. GoodGuide works to provide consumers with this kind of information through its searchable consumer product database, ranking products such as candy, coffee and tea, food, and household chemicals, by their health, environment, and social performances.

GoodGuide draws its information from a wide variety of sources, from scientific institutions to NGOs to open government data sources. Its algorithm takes these datasets and ranks products correspondingly. For example, if a user were to look up Teas, they would find Frontier’s and Twinings’ Green Teas, as well as 4,831 other tea products, all ranked with an aggregate GoodGuide score as well as company, environment, and social scores. These scores are associated with indicators such as the amount of recycled content in their packaging for their environmental score, or whether a product is certified fair trade for its social score.

GoodGuide improves the ability for consumers to not only learn what they are buying in terms of work conditions and company environmental and social efforts, but also to gain a level of collective purchasing power based on increased information symmetry.

Prosper Daily

A personal finance analytics company utilizing crowdsourcing and big data analytics for consumer financial protection and savings
 http://databoks.katadata.co.id

Country: United States

Sector: Consumer

Impact: Identifies fraudulent merchants using consumer complaint data

Data Used: Consumer Complaint Database from the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB)

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Prosper Daily

A personal finance analytics company utilizing crowdsourcing and big data analytics for consumer financial protection and savings
 https://www.prosper.com/daily

Country: United States

Sector: Consumer

Impact: Identifies fraudulent merchants using consumer complaint data

Data Used: Consumer Complaint Database from the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB)

Description: Prosper Daily, formerly known as BillGuard, uses big data analytics for consumer financial protection and savings. Combining data from banks, online commentary, and government databases, Prosper Daily monitors consumer complaints concerning payment cards and bank accounts. With a base of over a million users, Prosper Daily then identifies trends of fraudulent financial activity or wrongful charges. The goal is to narrow down the sources of fraudulent activity, whether it be a merchant or individual. Specific complaint trends considered include issues of overcharges, fraud, deceptive advertising or billing practices.

The U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) open Consumer Complaint Database aggregates consumer responses and directs them to companies for potential resolution. With CFPB open data services, Prosper Daily uses publicly available datasets to resolve credit card transactions issues. These datasets combined with their algorithm help users identify sources of fraudulent activity and directly contact merchants through their mobile application. In 2014, Prosper Daily (then BillGuard), claims to have flagged $60 million in suspect charges.

Education

Eduweb

Centralized portal of open education data (schools, colleges and universities) in Kenya
 http://www.eduweb.co.ke

Country: Kenya

Sector: Education

Impact: Provides a simple interactive mechanism to identify, locate, and evaluate schools

Data Used: Education data (name of schools, location, contact, facilities, differentiating information) in Kenya’s Ministry of Education

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Eduweb

Centralized portal of open education data (schools, colleges and universities) in Kenya
 http://www.eduweb.co.ke

Country: Kenya

Sector: Education

Impact: Provides a simple interactive mechanism to identify, locate, and evaluate schools

Data Used: Education data (name of schools, location, contact, facilities, differentiating information) in Kenya’s Ministry of Education

Description: Developed in 2012 by Rivercross Technologies Eduweb is an online platform that helps citizens explore schools in Kenya. Eduweb provides  an online centralized portal where users can easily access information on relevant education institutions (schools, colleges and universities) country-wide. The portal, which is also available on mobile phones, aims to help parents looking for schools for their children, graduates looking for post-secondary opportunities, or others generally seeking to further their education. While making use of open education data, such as the names, locations, contacts of schools in Kenya, Eduweb offers a simple tool to effectively identify and compare different schools, so that parents, students, or others, can make informed decisions about their education.

ENOVA

Seeks to bridge the digital divide in education through open technology platforms
 http://enova.mx/

Country: Mexico

Sector: Education

Impact: Providing free online platforms students and educators to advance adaptive and accessible learning

Data Used: Social and demographic data (population density, income, level of education), transportation and environmental data (public transportation systems, green areas, and access to roads), education data (public schools) from the Government of Mexico

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ENOVA

Seeks to bridge the digital divide in education through open technology platforms
 http://enova.mx/

Country: Mexico

Sector: Education

Impact: Providing free online platforms students and educators to advance adaptive and accessible learning

Data Used: Social and demographic data (population density, income, level of education), transportation and environmental data (public transportation systems, green areas, and access to roads), education data (public schools) from the Government of Mexico

Description: Enova, a social entrepreneurship company based in Mexico City, seeks to bridge the digital divide amongst both students as well as educators. In a population where 69% lack access to computers or the Internet, such communities have a wide array of educational and technological needs. The Government of Mexico worked jointly with ENOVA to achieve digital inclusivity in establishing a “Network of Innovation and Learning” (Las redes de innovación y aprendizaje - RIA) centers. ENOVA utilized open data to determine areas of greatest need and most potential impact.

Through a method characterized as “urban acupuncture”, several indicators taken from publicly accessible databases were examined, including population density, income, level of education, public schools, commercial areas, public transportation systems, green areas, and access to roads. With 70 centers across 34 municipalities in the State of Mexico, government data was maximized to assess local needs within educational capacity building. Since each institution has specific needs, Enova focuses on the importance of adaptability in addition to the accessibility of their products.

QEdu

A portal that displays public information on the quality of learning in each school, county and state in Brazil
 http://www.qedu.org.br

Country: Brazil

Sector: Education

Impact: Provides reliable data for educational managers to plan changes and improvements to education systems

Data Used: Education data (E.g. Prova Brasil, Censo Escolar, Ideb, and Enem) from the Ministry of Education in Brazil

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QEdu

A portal that displays public information on the quality of learning in each school, county and state in Brazil
 http://www.qedu.org.br

Country: Brazil

Sector: Education

Impact: Provides reliable data for educational managers to plan changes and improvements to education systems

Data Used: Education data (E.g. Prova Brasil, Censo Escolar, Ideb, and Enem) from the Ministry of Education in Brazil

Description: By monitoring the performance results of national education institutions, QEdu aims to make education data simple and accessible to anyone, whether student, teacher, manager, journalist, researcher or secretary. QEdu makes use of various datasets from the Ministry of Education in Brazil, particularly the ones related to the assessment of the quality of the Brazilian educational system, to offer a website in which users can explore the data intuitively.

The numbers provided by QEdu have also resulted in studies such as the “Excelência com Equidade” held by the Lemann Foundation in partnership with Itaú BBA Bank, whose focus was public schools that host students of low socioeconomic status. In this study, 215 schools were identified throughout Brazil as successful case studies in which students of low socioeconomic status performed with distinction.

TuvaLabs

A platform that engages students in data analysis and modelling using open datasets
 http://databoks.katadata.co.id

Country: United States

Sector: Education

Impact: Increases data literacy and skills

Data Used: Demographic data from the U.S. Census, environmental data from U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, health data from U.S. National Institute for Health, energy and environmental data from U.S. Environmental Information Administration

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TuvaLabs

A platform that engages students in data analysis and modelling using open datasets
 http://tuvalabs.com/

Country: United States

Sector: Education

Impact: Increases data literacy and skills

Data Used: Demographic data from the U.S. Census, environmental data from U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, health data from U.S. National Institute for Health, energy and environmental data from U.S. Environmental Information Administration

Description: Data literacy is becoming an ever-more essential skill that professionals need to have. Tuvalabs is a platform that helps students develop data literacy skills, providing datasets taken from a variety of sources and portals, graphing tools on their website, and open-ended questions to close out activities.

Tuvalabs splits its datasets into categories such as culture, energy, or sports, within which are a number of datasets containing social and demographic data, energy data, health data, and others taken from government sites like Census.gov, Data.gov. Learners can then navigate a series of lessons and activities teaching them how to visualize and analyze the dataset they chose. Students then have the option to send or embed their project, reaching an audience the size of their class, or to an audience of students around the world.

TuvaLabs fills a gap that exists in public school education, not only giving students the tools to improve their data literacy skills, but also guiding them along the way through lessons and activities.

Energy & Climate

Green Patrol

Advocates for environmental protection through regional investigations and civil society accountability measures
 http://greenpatrol.ru/ru

Country: Russia

Sector: Energy and climate

Impact: Hold environmental violators accountable through an open platform

Data Used: Environmental data from regional data portals and Russia’s Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, including main air polluters and surface water bodies, environmental protection expenditures; mortality and population data from the Federal State Statistics Service

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Green Patrol

Advocates for environmental protection through regional investigations and civil society accountability measures
 http://greenpatrol.ru/ru

Country: Russia

Sector: Energy and climate

Impact: Hold environmental violators accountable through an open platform

Data Used: Environmental data from regional data portals and Russia’s Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, including main air polluters and surface water bodies, environmental protection expenditures; mortality and population data from the Federal State Statistics Service

Description: Established in 2007, Green Patrol, an environmental protection advocacy group seeks to create a more ecologically-oriented civil society. Green Patrol leads investigations using citizen-based self-reporting systems, regional data from the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, regional open data portals, and Green Patrol investigations. Through a network of 53 branches throughout Russia, they collect data and integrate findings on environmental governance issues onto the online database. Green Patrol has investigations completed on 85 regions in Russia.

To support these investigations, Green Patrol uses geographic information system (GIS) to create accurate environmental rankings of the entities within Russia. These rankings rely on indicators such as water, land resources, bioresources and more, along with environmental indexes. In order to use this data, Green Patrol seeks information from regional data portals and Russian Ministries; they include mortality data, environmental protection expenditures, and air polluters and surface water bodies. Through these mediums, Green Patrol created for the Sakha Republic, for example, a 2014 regional report and up-to-date assessments to evaluate environmental policy violations. Subsequently, the Sakha Republic was marked in 73rd place of 85.

Haezoom

An online platform that calculates potential energy savings from installing solar panels on a user’s residence
 http://www.haezoom.com/

Country: South Korea

Sector: Energy and climate

Impact: Offers common standard for solar panel industry and reduces asymmetric information between small solar panel brokers and consumers

Data Used: Building, solar radiation, air temperature data from South Korea’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transportation, Ministry of Environment, the National Academy of Sciences, and Korea Meteorological Administration

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Haezoom

An online platform that calculates potential energy savings from installing solar panels on a user’s residence
 http://www.haezoom.com/

Country: South Korea

Sector: Energy and climate

Impact: Offers common standard for solar panel industry and reduces asymmetric information between small solar panel brokers and consumers

Data Used: Building, solar radiation, air temperature data from South Korea’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transportation, Ministry of Environment, the National Academy of Sciences, and Korea Meteorological Administration

Description: Solar is a burgeoning industry in South Korea. Yet, as solar panel sales continue to rise yearly, they continue to be driven by small brokers, the majority of whom claim their product is the best on the market. Haezoom attempts to equalize the market playing field, by providing consumers with accurate estimates of savings from installing solar panels in their homes.

Haezoom is one of many companies that have sprung up from the South Korean government’s 2013 public data act, and Haezoom itself relies on building, geographical, solar radiation, air temperature, as well as a number of other datasets provided by several Ministries in the government, the National Academy of Sciences, and the Korea Meteorological Administration. It analyzes these datasets alongside the user’s monthly electrical bill to predict expected energy savings, installation costs, and CO2 emission reductions. The service then suggests which solar energy installation best suits the user’s needs.

Haezoom fills two essential, yet previously vacant, roles within the South Korean solar industry. First, it provides an impartial cost-benefit analysis of solar panel installation to clients. Second, it suggests credible manufacturers to purchase solar panels from based on its user’s needs. In doing so, Haezoom promotes the adoption of solar energy by increasing the amount of information available to customers.

Open Oil

Publishes on the extractive industries and provides multiple platforms to browse oil contracts and oil companies’ corporate filings globally
 http://openoil.net

Country: Germany

Sector: Energy and climate

Impact: Decrease opaque-nature of the oil industry and by doing so, increases oil companies’ accountability

Data Used: Monthly energy reviews from U.S. Energy Information Administration

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Open Oil

Publishes on the extractive industries and provides multiple platforms to browse oil contracts and oil companies’ corporate filings globally
 http://openoil.net

Country: Germany

Sector: Energy and climate

Impact: Decrease opaque-nature of the oil industry and by doing so, increases oil companies’ accountability

Data Used: Monthly energy reviews from U.S. Energy Information Administration

Description: While transparency has been positively affected by the movement towards opening private and government data, oil contracts have remained largely unreachable. OpenOil seeks to change this, by compiling oil contracts and information on oil companies  from around the world and making this information easily accessible on its platform.

OpenOil draws its information from a large number of sources, ranging from government sources such as the U.S. Energy Information Administration, from non-governmental organizations such as the BP Statistical Review of World Energy or World Bank Extractive Industries Handbook, or from a plethora of filings all part of the public domain and voluntarily shared information from oil companies themselves. After ensuring these datasets are in a machine-readable format (many of them are originally in PDF format, OpenOil includes them in their Aleph search engine, one of the nonprofit’s several services. OpenOil also applies this publically available data and visualizes corporate oil company networks as well as creates financial models of upstream oil, gas, and mining projects.

By creating the Aleph search engine for public domain corporate filings, network visualizations, and financial models, OpenOil is bringing transparency, through previously unread, unsorted publically available data on oil contracts, to the forefront of the global conversation on oi and energy.

Päästöt.fi

A website that allows a user to examine and compare pollution emissions throughout Europe
 http://Paastot.fi

Country: Finland

Sector: Energy and climate

Impact: Bypasses local companies unwilling to disclose pollution emissions for a country-wide visualization.

Data Used: Environmental data from the European Pollutant Release and Transfer Register (E-PRTR)

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Päästöt.fi

A website that allows a user to examine and compare pollution emissions throughout Europe
 http://Paastot.fi

Country: Finland

Sector: Energy and climate

Impact: Bypasses local companies unwilling to disclose pollution emissions for a country-wide visualization.

Data Used: Environmental data from the European Pollutant Release and Transfer Register (E-PRTR)

Description: The idea for Päästöt.fi came about when its creator ran into a roadblock while looking into greenhouse gas emissions statistics of a local energy company. In order to circumvent this issue, he came across the European Pollutant Release and Transfer Register (E-PRTR) database, which was established in July 2000 to collect the annual emissions numbers from industrial facilities across Europe. Päästöt.fi emerged was created in 2010 to allow users to compare emission levels from industrial facilities across Europe.

Päästöt.fi visualizes some 30,000 industrial facilities, from mining sites to coal-fired plants. These facilities are all mapped on the platform, and information such as CO2, heavy metal, or another 89 other kinds of industrial emissions are overlaid on this map; the magnitude of each site’s emissions is shown through circles of varying sizes, and a box to the right relates the numerical figures associated with the selected site.

Päästöt.fi manages to effectively communicate important information that was previously stored within a huge dataset that a layperson would otherwise not engage with. Through its visualization, citizens are now able to gain the necessary information to lobby and create change.

The Energy & Resources Institute (TERI)

Research institute working in the fields of energy, environment and sustainable development
 http://www.teriin.org

Country: India

Sector: Energy and climate

Impact: Raises awareness and provides policy recommendations on environmental policy matters

Data Used: India’s Census data, geospatial data (e.g. forestry maps, agriculture maps, land use maps), environmental data; satellite data from U.S. Geological Survey

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The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI)

Research institute working in the fields of energy, environment and sustainable development
 http://www.teriin.org

Country: India

Sector: Energy and climate

Impact: Raises awareness and provides policy recommendations on environmental policy matters

Data Used: India’s Census data, geospatial data (e.g. forestry maps, agriculture maps, land use maps), environmental data; satellite data from U.S. Geological Survey

Description: Founded in 1974, The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) focuses on technological innovations related to sustainable development. The organization provides research and analysis on areas such as clean energy, water management, pollution management, sustainable agriculture, and climate resilience. In light of its expertise in sustainability-related issues, TERI has helped the government of India deliver timely and sustainable environmental policy and practice outcomes.

At the core of its research endeavors, TERI relies on open data that relates mainly to the environment, but also data on demographics, as well as geospatial and satellite data such as forestry maps, agriculture maps, land use maps. Scientific publications published by TERI’s researchers comprise, for example, studies that make use of climate data to analyse the importance and status of open climate data, or to determine variability of rainfall, a parameter that is correlated with physical, social and economic changes. The use of LANDSAT TM satellite data, provided by the United States Geological Survey, has also been crucial for various studies investigating topics such as the land surface, or forests in India.

Finance & Insurance

Calcbench

Conducts financial data research and analysis on public companies
 https://www.calcbench.com/

Country: United States

Sector: Finance and insurance

Impact: Provides standardized financial data in machine-readable formats for public use

Data Used: Corporate financial data and records from the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC)

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Calcbench

Conducts financial data research and analysis on public companies
 https://www.calcbench.com/

Country: United States

Sector: Finance and insurance

Impact: Provides standardized financial data in machine-readable formats for public use

Data Used: Corporate financial data and records from the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC)

Description: Over the years, the U.S. government has sought to standardize its data, including in the financial sector. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) publishes corporate reports on their publicly accessible database, known as EDGAR. For corporations, they are required to file parts of these reports in electronic and machine-readable formats. Calcbench, a financial services company, turns financial statements received from the SEC and uses algorithms to convert them into machine-readable formats through their XBRL algorithm, known as ‘eXtensible Business Reporting Language’.

Calcbench's data are derived from over 9,000 public companies and are made available for investors, auditors, and academics to manipulate and conduct their own analysis. Their data derives from primary financial statements and footnotes section of annual and quarterly filings, and more recently, the earnings press releases and proxy statements. While performing these services, Calcbench is able to track industry and economic trends, as well as monitor the quality of data, in real-time and accurate.

IAG Ltd

The parent company of a general insurance group with operations in Australia, New Zealand, Thailand and Vietnam
 http://www.iag.com.au/

Country: Australia

Sector: Finance and insurance

Impact: Identifies areas of greatest vulnerability to natural disasters through data mapping applications

Data Used: Census data from Australian Bureau of Statistics, Cyclone Track Maps from the Bureau of Meteorology and New South Wales Rural Fire Service

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IAG Ltd

The parent company of a general insurance group with operations in Australia, New Zealand, Thailand and Vietnam
 http://www.iag.com.au/

Country: Australia

Sector: Finance and insurance

Impact: Identifies areas of greatest vulnerability to natural disasters through data mapping applications

Data Used: Census data from Australian Bureau of Statistics, Cyclone Track Maps from the Bureau of Meteorology and New South Wales Rural Fire Service

Description: IAG is an insurance company that provides customer protection plans from environmental disasters and advocates for the expansion of government data. As a founding member of the Australian Business Roundtable for Disaster Resilience & Safer Communities, IAG works to create a national approach toward investing in disaster mitigation efforts through big data applications. IAG relies on government statistics to price and issue policies, process claims, create predictive modeling, and pursue risk management. These data sources include the Geoscience Australia, the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the Bureau of Meteorology for Cyclone Track Maps, and the New South Wales Rural Fire Service RSS Feed.

Subsequently, IAG was tasked by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) to lead the second phase, Global Risk Map, of the Principles of Sustainable Insurance (PSI) Global Resilient Project, looking at risk reduction in natural disasters. This project’s virtual tools track national-level vulnerability to natural hazards, national-level resilience, the economic and social impacts, exposure to natural hazards, and country-level natural hazard events. Under the approval of the UNEP, data sources are EM-DAT database, INFORM, World Bank Database, PreventionWeb. Along the data catalogue, users may narrow down disaster types and download feature information in CSV formatting.

Thinknum

Web platform for financial analysis
 https://www.thinknum.com

Country: United States

Sector: Finance and insurance

Impact: Provides data and insights to investors and businesses on the factors that drive valuation

Data Used: U.S. zipcode data, demographic data from the U.S. Census, U.S. unemployment rates, weather data from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

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Thinknum

Web platform for financial analysis
 https://www.thinknum.com

Country: United States

Sector: Finance and insurance

Impact: Provides data and insights to investors and businesses on the factors that drive valuation

Data Used: U.S. zipcode data, demographic data from the U.S. Census, U.S. unemployment rates, weather data from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Description: Despite the increasing amount of data available online, it can be difficult for investors to access relevant information. Founded in 2013, Thinknum’s provides data access and insights to its users through its web platform. The organization aggregates and indexes data from government sources, companies’ websites and social media activity.

For example, Thinknum allows users to view the store locations of a given brand, overlay it with locations of a competitor, and then connect this information to demographic data such as median household income by county. This information can then be used to inform an organization’s strategy of where household income is increasing, and thereby identify the most profitable store locations. Other examples include the analysis of unemployment rates to discover outperforming businesses in the restaurant industry, and taking advantage of historical weather data to find market patterns. By creating connections between different data sources, Thinknum allows investors and companies to better understand the various factors that drive valuation.

Governance

Budget Stories

Budget and government transparency in Moldova
 http://www.budgetstories.md/

Country: Moldova

Sector: Governance

Impact: Provides analyses and tools accessible to a political layperson on Moldova’s budget and policies

Data Used: Budget data from Moldova’s Ministry of Finance; economic, energy and environment data from the National Bureau of Statistics

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Budget Stories

Budget and government transparency in Moldova
 http://www.budgetstories.md/

Country: Moldova

Sector: Governance

Impact: Provides analyses and tools accessible to a political layperson on Moldova’s budget and policies

Data Used: Budget data from Moldova’s Ministry of Finance; economic, energy and environment data from the National Bureau of Statistics

Description: Budget Stories, created by Expert Grup in Moldova, is a website providing budget information made available from the Moldovan government, as well as from a number of other sources such as the World Bank. Expert Grup produces reports on economic, environmental, and energy forecasts in Moldova. They have made several projects on these topics, focusing on ways to visualize large datasets and information taken from Moldova’s open data portal. The website’s  Budget Calendar and OpenSpending budget treemap projects both visualize this data in visual ways more accessible to an average citizen. They also provide the data in an online data portal.

The Budget Calendar project is a grid including the time of the year on the y axis and the steps towards approving a budget on the x axis. Within each cell, Expert Grup links the user to government reports relevant to that specific piece of the budget process, streamlining what could be a tedious search through multiple government sites to find this information. Expert Grup’s OpenSpending budget treemap also uses this open data, compiling it into a colorful visualization that gives the viewer a comparative understanding on where Moldova fits in comparison to other countries’ parliaments.

Centre for Governance and Public Accountability (CGPA)

Civil society organization working for promotion of public accountability and good governance in Pakistan
 http://www.c-gpa.org/

Country: Pakistan

Sector: Governance

Impact: Promotion of citizens’ voices on key governance issues and strengthening state response to citizens’ grievances

Data Used: District level education budget of various districts in Pakistan; Municipal budget data of Peshawar District; Education, health, police, legal data from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa District

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Centre for Governance and Public Accountability (CGPA)

Civil society organization working for promotion of public accountability and good governance in Pakistan
 http://www.c-gpa.org/

Country: Pakistan

Sector: Governance

Impact: Promotion of citizens’ voices on key governance issues and strengthening state response to citizens’ grievances

Data Used: District level education budget of various districts in Pakistan; Municipal budget data of Peshawar District; Education, health, police, legal data from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa District

Description: The Centre for Governance and Public Accountability (CGPA) was established in 2011 to improve the levels of trust between state and society in Pakistan. CGPA’s work can be grouped into 6 main areas: open governance, rule of law, democratic governance, decentralization and devolution, promotion of pluralism, and social accountability. Since the enactment of the Freedom of Information (FOI) legislation in 2013, the CGPA has focused on the implementation of this law and published extensive research on the response by government agencies in different districts in Pakistan to information requests.

As a promoter of open governance and open data, the CGPA has produced several studies on education budgeting, municipal budgeting, and others which have contributed with analyses on areas such as public education governance and service delivery, the right to drinking safe  water and sanitation, and public accountability at the local level. . The CGPA is also dedicated to making public data, such as data from the School Census, available in machine-readable format for everyone to access and use. To do so, it has plans to build its own data portal to make more data available to the citizens of Pakistan.

De Olho nas Metas

Platform for monitoring the progress of municipal projects in São Paulo, Brazil
 http://deolhonasmetas.org.br

Country: Brazil

Sector: Governance

Impact: Helps civil society monitor municipal projects in their community

Data Used: Education data from the Brazilian Ministry of Education and Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), government operations data from the municipality of São Paulo

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De Olho nas Metas

Platform for monitoring the progress of municipal projects in São Paulo, Brazil
 http://deolhonasmetas.org.br

Country: Brazil

Sector: Governance

Impact: Helps civil society monitor municipal projects in their community

Data Used: Education data from the Brazilian Ministry of Education and Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), government operations data from the municipality of São Paulo

Description: According to Brazilian law, in every mandate the mayor of a municipality is obliged to submit a plan describing the goals that will be implemented during his administration. These goals cover various topics ranging from environment to education, or any other areas of intervention in the city. In 2013, a new legislation enabled the creation of Participatory Councils, civil society groups that , among other things, monitor the execution of the municipal budget, public services performance indicators, and the implementation of the proposed plan within their geographical area.

Relying on data pulled from the municipality of São Paulo website, the platform “De Olho nas Metas” was created to facilitate monitoring of the progress of municipal projects. The tool also aims to  improve communication between citizens, Participatory Councils, and public officials. For a more complete and transparent view of projects, the platform also incorporates data from the Treasury Court of São Paulo and displays information on the companies that were contracted for the execution of each project.

“De Olho nas Metas” has also produced reports providing recommendations for the improvement of the Brazilian education system supported by the analysis of open education data (e.g. literacy rates, education budgeting) from the Ministry of Education, and the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE).

Lebanese Association for Democratic Elections (LADE)

Website that features visualizations of past elections according to voter trends based on gender, voter representation in Parliament, etc.
 http://www.lade.org.lb/

Country: Lebanon

Sector: Governance

Impact: Promotes electoral transparency and reform in Lebanon

Data Used: Demographic and electoral data from the Ministry of the Interior and Municipalities (MoIM), the Directorate General of Personal Services (DGPS), and www.elections.gov.lb website

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Lebanese Association for Democratic Elections (LADE)

Website that features visualizations of past elections according to voter trends based on gender, voter representation in Parliament, etc.
 http://www.lade.org.lb/

Country: Lebanon

Sector: Governance

Impact: Promotes electoral transparency and reform in Lebanon

Data Used: Demographic and electoral data from the Ministry of the Interior and Municipalities (MoIM), the Directorate General of Personal Services (DGPS), and www.elections.gov.lb website

Description: For Lebanon’s 2017 general elections, the Lebanese Association for Democratic Elections (LADE) and Lamba Labs have created a data platform that visualizes voter trends in past elections to help foster discussions, reform, and participation in the Lebanese election process. The Lebanese Elections Data Analysis project features visualizations such as voter trends based on gender, voter representation in the Parliament, and citizen involvement in the political system.

These visualizations are based on data collected by the LADE as well as from government data published by the Ministry of the Interior and Municipalities (MoIM), the Directorate General of Personal Services (DGPS), and the www.elections.gov.lb website. Additionally, during the election, LADE is prepared to monitor electoral violations and map them on its website. It will also create maps similar to those on its website in order to delineate voting patterns and proportionality of the election. LADE’s project will help ensure transparency in the upcoming general elections and provide vital information informing citizens and legislators on how to move forward with legislative and electoral reforms.

Odekro

A website that provides makes public information from the Parliament of Ghana more easily accessible
 http://www.odekro.org/

Country: Ghana

Sector: Governance

Impact: Promotes government accountability and citizen participation by making parliamentary proceedings accessible to the public

Data Used: Ghanaian Parliamentary and election data

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Odekro

A website that provides makes public information from the Parliament of Ghana more easily accessible
 http://www.odekro.org/

Country: Ghana

Sector: Governance

Impact: Promotes government accountability and citizen participation by making parliamentary proceedings accessible to the public

Data Used: Ghanaian Parliamentary and election data

Description: Ghana’s legislature is composed of 275 Members of Parliament (MPs) that are elected to serve their single-member constituencies. However, while the majority of the activities in parliament, such as votings, motions, and committees, take place in the open, too often, information is difficult to find, access and use. Created in 2012, Odekro is an online platform that aims to promote transparency and citizen participation in Ghana by providing public access to Bills, Motions, and Parliamentary proceedings (Hansards).

Mainly, the work of Odekro is to extract the data from different public sources, such as the Parliament of Ghana, the Electoral commission, and Ghana statistical service. While some of the data is available in excel formats, often Odekro has to convert data from paper or PDF to a machine-readable format. Making this information open allows media organizations to contribute to a more evidence-based public discussion, and increased public accountability of Members of Parliament. An example of this was the attention recently drawn to the country’s non-attending MPs after a letter sent by Odekro to the Speaker of Parliament based on this data. The Odekro platform also provides tools that allow users to discuss online while discussions are taking place in the Parliament, as well as to report issues affecting their constituencies, or follow the specific issues the MPs for their constituencies are contributing to. In this way, Odekro aims to enable communities and marginalized populations to leverage this information to engage with government agencies.

Open Budget

A visualization tool that helps local municipalities publish and present their budgets in a user-friendly interactive format
 http://www.openbudget.in.ua/?locale=en

Country: Ukraine

Sector: Governance

Impact: Helps citizens understand budget information through visualizations

Data Used: Budgets from the Ukraine Open Data Portal

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Open Budget

A visualization tool that helps local municipalities publish and present their budgets in a user-friendly interactive format
 http://www.openbudget.in.ua/?locale=en

Country: Ukraine

Sector: Governance

Impact: Helps citizens understand budget information through visualizations

Data Used: Budgets from the Ukraine Open Data Portal

Description: Open Budget is a visualisation tool that helps local municipalities publish and present their budgets in a user-friendly interactive format. It is built by Center Eidos, an institution that trains journalists and NGOs for data-driven reporting and analytics. The goal of Center Eidos is raise public awareness in political consciousness and citizen’s proactive role in the development of Ukrainian society.

Open Budget offers three types visualizations: City Budget, Repairing Map and City programs based on data sources provided by DKAN, the Ukraine open data portal. These visualizations offer intuitive insights into complex government operations. City budget visualization supports instant understanding in how budgetary expenses are distributed across different sectors. Repairing map maps out which part of the city is under construction, and informs citizens to experience less inconvenience. City programs yields comprehensive overview as to the current progress for any budget-spending program. It not only shows remaining spendings for a program but also trends in budgetary planning for the same program during the past years. This attempt empowers citizens to hold governing body accountable for executing any city program.

Health

Aidin

A website that improves the patient-placement process in choosing a post-acute provider
 http://www.myaidin.com/

Country: United States

Sector: Health

Impact: Reduces asymmetric information between patients and post-acute care providers

Data Used: Health data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services:  Nursing Home Compare, Home Health Compare, Patient Outreach and Hospital Integration

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Aidin

A website that improves the patient-placement process in choosing a post-acute provider
 http://www.myaidin.com/

Country: United States

Sector: Health

Impact: Reduces asymmetric information between patients and post-acute care providers

Data Used: Health data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services:  Nursing Home Compare, Home Health Compare, Patient Outreach and Hospital Integration

Description: In the current post-care provider environment in the US, patients have little to no information on whether a provider matches their needs, other than word-of-mouth or the occasional internet review; most patients end up choosing the provider nearest to their house. Aidin aims to stop this practice, and instead create choice based on the quality of service and care, generating business for  high-quality providers and moving patients away from low performers.  The website that gives detailed information on different nursing homes and other post-acute care providers to patients who are in the process of choosing between a multitude of options.

Aidin presents patients with a 1-page profile for every PAC that offers admission. These profiles are created by combining the diagnosis and demographics of a patient with open datasets such as “Nursing Home Compare,” from the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Additional information on the profile is formed from Aidin’s own tracking of readmission rates for PACs, patient reviews, and photos of each PAC.

Out of the patients presented with Aidin’s profiles of providers in their area, 80% will choose a high-performing PAC. By reducing the amount of asymmetric information between patients and providers, Aidin is making an impact on readmission rates to PACs, as well as directing PAC focus to quality of care instead of advertisements and airtime.

Medicat.io

A website that provides information on medication and pharmacies for the general public
 http://medicat.io

Country: France

Sector: Health

Impact: Helps consumers make more informed decisions about the medication/drugs they take

Data Used: Public database of medicines and National file of Health and Social Institutions (FINESS) from France’s Ministry of Social Affairs, Health and Women's Rights; National repository drug interactions and Official list of medication drugs in allopathy, homeopathy and herbal from France’s National Agency for the Safety of Health Products (ANSM); Drugstores on duty and emergency in Paris from the Regional Health Agency - Ile de France

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Medicat.io

A website that provides information on medication and pharmacies for the general public
 http://medicat.io

Country: France

Sector: Health

Impact: Helps consumers make more informed decisions about the medication/drugs they take

Data Used: Public database of medicines and National file of Health and Social Institutions (FINESS) from France’s Ministry of Social Affairs, Health and Women's Rights; National repository drug interactions and Official list of medication drugs in allopathy, homeopathy and herbal from France’s National Agency for the Safety of Health Products (ANSM); Drugstores on duty and emergency in Paris from the Regional Health Agency - Ile de France

Description: The goal of Medicat.io is to make information about medication in France more accessible to teh public, and allow people to be better informed when they discuss medications with doctors or pharmacists. Where there there is higher medication consumption in France than in its neighbouring countries, Medicat.io aims to raise awareness about the risks of taking multiple medications simultaneously. By analyzing crossing and comparing the components of different medications, and highlighting relevant information using reliable sources, the website allows users to explore the different treatment options available, and discuss the best options with pharmacists.

The service provided by Medicat.io is built on publicly available data. It uses data from France’s public database of medicines (Ministry of Social Affairs, Health and Women's Rights), the its National repository drug interactions (Agence française de sécurité sanitaire des produits de santé), which is updated every month. Similarly, the directory of pharmacies integrates public data from the Regional Health Agency, and the National file of Health and Social Institutions.

Housing, Construction & Real Estate

BRE

Advisory services for the built environment sector through research, testing, and training practices
 http://www.bre.co.uk/

Country: United Kingdom

Sector: Housing, construction and real estate

Impact: Provides cost effective and regulation certified resources for building construction

Data Used: Code for Sustainable Homes Certificates from the UK Department for Communities and Local Government , number of permanent new dwellings completed in the UK from the Office for National Statistics

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BRE

Advisory services for the built environment sector through research, testing, and training practices
 http://www.bre.co.uk/

Country: United Kingdom

Sector: Housing, construction and real estate

Impact: Provides cost effective and regulation certified resources for building construction

Data Used: Code for Sustainable Homes Certificates from the UK Department for Communities and Local Government , number of permanent new dwellings completed in the UK from the Office for National Statistics

Description: For the UK where construction constitutes 7% of its GDP, demands continue to grow considering climate change and sustainability issues BRE, formerly the Building Research Establishment, provides advisory services through research, testing, and certifications for the built environment sector. Founded in 1917 by the UK Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR), BRE is now an independent group, working in 77 countries, with over two million registered buildings, and 500,000 certificates.

One of the BRE services, BREEAM, or the Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method, analyzes buildings and projects to make cost effective and regulation certified decisions through open data. Services include access lists of BREEAM assessors and assessments, maps of BREEAM certifications, data visualizations on projects. Sources of government data include for example the Department for Communities and Local Government; BRE verifies the total number of Code for Sustainable Homes certificates. BREEAM plans to create a comprehensive BRE Data Lab and databases such as the GreenBookLive and Red Book, which lists environmental products and services.

MapYourProperty

Website that automates zoning and land use information collection and compiles the data into a single report for clients
 http://www.mapyourproperty.com/

Country: Canada

Sector: Housing and real estate

Impact: Streamlines information gathering for urban planners and developers

Data Used: Zoning, regulatory, environmental, and land use datasets from the City of Toronto, Region of York, and Ontario Government of Canada

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MapYourProperty

Website that automates zoning and land use information collection and compiles the data into a single report for clients
 http://www.mapyourproperty.com/

Country: Canada

Sector: Housing and real estate

Impact: Streamlines information gathering for urban planners and developers

Data Used: Zoning, regulatory, environmental, and land use datasets from the City of Toronto, Region of York, and Ontario Government of Canada

Description: MapYourProperty gives clients instant access to zoning, land use, and environmental information about a specific location, eliminating the tedious process of cross-checking a property with the land regulations and restrictions pertaining to that location.

The Canadian startup relies almost entirely on open municipal and federal datasets, such as land use and zoning policies, the Toronto Bylaw 569-2013, or the Oak Ridge Moraine Plan. The information from these datasets is incorporated in two places: first, when a client visits MapYourProperty’s website, information such as environmental laws and flooding areas are overlaid on a Google maps search of the client’s location of interest. Information on the map is categorized into five tabs: land use, zoning, environmental, and water and provincial regulations. Second, when the client is satisfied with the map, MapYourProperty compiles this visual data and more into a single, detailed Word document.

The startup has enhanced Ontario’s real estate market, streamlining a previously time-consuming process that involved browsing through city hall binders and physical maps.

Navut

Provides online tools identify user preferences to facilitate relocation in Canada
 http://www.navut.com/

Country: Canada

Sector: Housing, construction and real estate

Impact: Customizes and cuts down the cost of housing searches

Data Used: Demographic data from Canada Census and U.S. Census Bureau, education data at the province level from Canadian Ministries of Education, U.S. Geological Survey

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Navut

Provides online tools identify user preferences to facilitate relocation in Canada
 http://www.navut.com/

Country: Canada

Sector: Housing, construction and real estate

Impact: Customizes and cuts down the cost of housing searches

Data Used: Demographic data from Canada Census and U.S. Census Bureau, education data at the province level from Canadian Ministries of Education, U.S. Geological Survey

Description: Relocating to a new area comes with its own challenges, but for the founders of Navut, relocating to Canada as immigrants inspired them to create a website breaking down information barriers in the housing market. Designed for enhanced user operability, Navut was founded in 2012 and seeks to generate data-driven decision-making. Navut provides online tools for users to specify relocation preferences depending on selection criteria, such as lifestyle and budget, and feeds the data through a personalized search engine called The Neighborhood Finder. Information collected from government and private sources address the criteria and allow users to narrow their real estate options.

Users examine property locations and assess factors such as distance to schools or commute to work. Additional information provided includes statistics on public and private schools, sourced from the Ministry of Education from each province, and demographics from the 2016 Canadian census. Providing access to census or education demographics creates opportunities for future homeowners and renters to make quality decisions while avoiding high real estate agent fees generally associated with the process.

Otthonterkep

An online portal that provides real estate property search
 http://otthonterkep.hu/

Country: Hungary

Sector: Housing, construction & real estate

Impact: Provides home buyers with information to better search properties

Data Used: Housing market transactions from the Hungarian National Tax and Customs Office; National Crime Map from http://police.hu; Census data from Hungary’s Central Statistical Office

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Otthonterkep

An online portal that provides real estate property search
 http://otthonterkep.hu/

Country: Hungary

Sector: Housing, construction & real estate

Impact: Provides home buyers with information to better search properties

Data Used: Housing market transactions from the Hungarian National Tax and Customs Office; National Crime Map from http://police.hu; Census data from Hungary’s Central Statistical Office

Description: In light of the thriving real estate market in Hungary, the company Mapsolutions Zrt. developed the website Otthonterkep in 2013 with the goal of providing home buyers an interactive home search interface. Via its real estate property search portal, Otthonterkep provides users with information on Hungarian real estate, including average house prices, parking prices , green spaces or even a criminal and demographic information. The website also includes a map that gives an overview of the housing market in Hungary. Otthonterkep constructed this map using data provided by public sources, including housing market transactions, census data, and national crime statistics.

Since 1990, Budapest underwent a construction boom, which was fuelled not only by local demand but also by the rising interest of international investors in the real estate. Additional analysis of Otthonterkep‘s  map conducted by index.hu offers valuable insights into the Hungarian housing stock, such as the aging of the buildings, the decline in new building permits issued in recent years, and the variation in price per square meter. The analysis also concludes that, in Hungary, there is a strong correlation of price per square meter and the age of the building, in particular for those that were built after 1990.

IT & Geospatial

Excel Geomatics

Open geographical data for information solutions to private and public organizations
 http://www.excelgeomatics.com/

Country: India

Sector: IT and geospatial

Impact: Maps open geographical data with data from the 2011 Census and NASA to target industry-specific needs

Data Used: Village and district boundary maps from India’s Census, Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS) from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), ASTER database from NASA and Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI)

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Excel Geomatics

Open geographical data for information solutions to private and public organizations
 http://www.excelgeomatics.com/

Country: India

Sector: IT and geospatial

Impact: Maps open geographical data with data from the 2011 Census and NASA to target industry-specific needs

Data Used: Village and district boundary maps from India’s Census, Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS) from the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), ASTER database from NASA and Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI)

Description: Excel Geomatics is a consultancy that uses open geographical data to provide services within a number of  technology domains including remote sensing, spatial and topographical analysis, and photogrammetry. Through National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) programming, Excel Geomatics uses their Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS) to develop their services. This Earth Observation data is integrated into the organization’s specialized GIS services which analyze 2011 Census data: ward maps for over 700 towns and cities, village and district boundary maps, and population distribution maps.

Excel Geomatics seeks to address pressing needs from mineral exploration to flood mapping. For instance, Excel Geomatics has evaluated gold potential in the Bukambe District of Tanzania. Data was sourced from the ASTER database, free high resolution imaging run by NASA and Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), as well as Google Earth Imaging. With these images, Excel Geomatics identified clients needs and provided recommendations for potential investments in the mining industry. Expert geologists analyzed Excel Geomatics findings and further identified gold prevalent areas through GIS.

GeoPostcodes

Provides a search engine for zip/postal codes for over 250 countries
 http://www.geopostcodes.com/

Country: United Arab Emirates

Sector: IT and geospatial

Impact: Utilizes open geographical data to create accurate reports on geocoding through a map and databases

Data Used: Codes and administrative levels from national statistics offices from all countries, and the U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics

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GeoPostcodes

Provides a search engine for zip/postal codes for over 250 countries
 http://www.geopostcodes.com/

Country: United Arab Emirates

Sector: IT and geospatial

Impact: Utilizes open geographical data to create accurate reports on geocoding through a map and databases

Data Used: Codes and administrative levels from national statistics offices from all countries, and the U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics

Description: GeoPostcodes collects, manages and publishes geographical information on geographical information. For clients that rely on distributing information to large user bases, reliable geographical information is critical to effective marketing. GeoPostcodes operates off of datasets covering almost 10 million postcodes and over 18 million streets. These datasets detail geographic coordinates, time zones, reference codes, ZIP codes or postcodes, and administrative divisions. Commercial services include geocoding addresses, distance calculations, and geo-mapping.

In their data catalog, the index of postal and ZIP codes includes 253 countries and territories, allowing for greater reach. Data is available for up to four administrative levels, such as region, province, district, and town/village. An interactive map demonstrates a visual representation of their collected data with a synopsis of the ISO Code, Postcodes format, and numbers of administrative levels, regions, and postcodes. Data is sourced from each country’s National Statistical Offices (NSOs) and coded into the regional datasets, including ISO, country, language, and other classifications. Other information is sourced from the United Nations Geographic Information System for country codes, Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) Time Zones Database, and International Organization for Standardization for currencies and official languages.

Quandl

An open data platform that gathers real-time market data
 https://www.quandl.com/

Country: Canada

Sector: IT and geospatial

Impact: Provides free access to a repository of financial economic, and social datasets to over 100,000 users

Data Used: Economic data and indices, industry, currency, commodity and interest rate data from multiple countries’ agencies, including: U.S. Agency for International Development, Bank of Israel, Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics, Central Bank of Argentina, Ministry of Finance and Bank of Japan, France’s National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies, Russian Federation Statistics Service, UK Office of National Statistics, Bank of England Official Statistics, Deutsche Bundesbank Data Repository, Bank of France, Bank of Russia, U.S. Federal Reserve economic data, Federal Reserve Banks of New York and Cleveland,  U.S. Treasury Financial Management Service, Puerto Rico Institute of Statistics, U.S. National Center for Education Statistics, U.S. Social Security Administration, U.S. Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service, U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S> Census Bureau, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office

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Quandl

An open data platform that gathers real-time market data
 https://www.quandl.com/

Country: Canada

Sector: IT and geospatial

Impact: Provides free access to a repository of financial economic, and social datasets to over 100,000 users

Data Used: Economic data and indices, industry, currency, commodity and interest rate data from multiple countries’ agencies, including: U.S. Agency for International Development, Bank of Israel, Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics, Central Bank of Argentina, Ministry of Finance and Bank of Japan, France’s National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies, Russian Federation Statistics Service, UK Office of National Statistics, Bank of England Official Statistics, Deutsche Bundesbank Data Repository, Bank of France, Bank of Russia, U.S. Federal Reserve economic data, Federal Reserve Banks of New York and Cleveland,  U.S. Treasury Financial Management Service, Puerto Rico Institute of Statistics, U.S. National Center for Education Statistics, U.S. Social Security Administration, U.S. Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service, U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S> Census Bureau, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office

Description: Founded in 2012, Quandl provides a repository for financial, economic, and social datasets, maintaining free and commercial data for public consumption to download and analyze. With a user base of over 100,000 people, Quandl allows users to maximize their use of financial market data by manipulating accurate and real-time datasets, which aid users to track industry trends for free or at a low cost. Databases are divided into sections: stocks, options, futures, forecasts, commodities, and economics. Each section contains government databases and alternative data sources, including information on consumer behavior, business intelligence, or industrial metrics, which predict changes to markets.

Through unlimited API use, Quandl permits users to access data from databases around the world from the Bank of Japan, containing 85,466 datasets, or even the U.S. Energy Information Administration Data, containing 1,498,336 datasets. This FinTech organization lends an accessible and free opportunity for investors and analysts to utilize technology platforms for data usability and access. Users benefiting from Quandl’s pursuits of big data include hedge fund managers, analysts, students, and investors.

Yeleman

IT organization building data platforms for government and UNICEF
 http://yeleman.com

Country: Mali

Sector: IT and geospatial

Impact: Yeleman's dashboard has aided in pinpointing and reducing malaria outbreaks

Data Used: Health facilities registry from the Malian Ministry of Health

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Yeleman

IT organization building data platforms for government and UNICEF
 http://yeleman.com

Country: Mali

Sector: IT and geospatial

Impact: Its dashboard has aided in pinpointing and reducing malaria outbreaks

Data Used: Health facilities registry from the Malian Ministry of Health

Description: When MEASURE Evaluation, a USAID initiative, began to look for data-driven solutions to help reduce malaria outbreaks and other diseases, it contracted the programming team Yeleman to build its database. Yeleman built a comprehensive dashboard whose data is derived from a number of sources, and supports data entry from android phones.

The company built this dashboard from scratch using a combination of the Ministry of Health’s health facility registry dataset as well as its own crowd-based datasets. The dashboard provides health experts with monthly reports and weekly updates on health centers’ stocks data, such as initial stocks, quantity received, and quantity used during program implementation, as well as analysis on when each submission was received. Through Yeleman’s collection and analysis of continuously gathered health data, has been able to expand the program to the entire region of Mopti, and WHO Mali is considering implementing a similar system for other regions of Mali.

YoungInnovations

A technology company that creates solutions to global development problems
 http://databoks.katadata.co.id

Country: Nepal

Sector: IT and geospatial

Impact: Building partnerships and technology to assist development organizations

Data Used: Nepali census, finance, education, and health data; international development spending data

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YoungInnovations

A technology company that creates solutions to global development problems
 http://younginnovations.com.np/

Country: Nepal

Sector: IT and geospatial

Impact: Building partnerships and technology to assist development organizations

Data Used: Nepali census, finance, education, and health data; international development spending data

Description: Co-founded in 2007 YoungInnovations develops software applications mainly for development organizations. YoungInnovations aims to help its clients improve data-driven policy and decision-making  through  automated data tools to collect, curate, and analyze data. As a result of their focus on open data solutions for civic engagement, YoungInnovations has developed platforms for opening data such as Aidstream and DevelopmentCheck.

YoungInnovations was also the co-creator of OpenNepal, a platform that hosts, among other types of data, public datasets, such as census data and data from various government agencies such as Ministry of Finance, the Department of Education, and the Ministry of Health and Population. With the goal of bringing together the community of practice in Nepal around topics open data, and access to information, Open Nepal is a platform that provides high quality data so that users can to make informed decisions on policy (planning and practice), monitor development progress, and support accountability.

Media & Communications

Chequeado

A fact-checking service that monitors political activities in Argentina
 http://chequeado.com/

Country: Argentina

Sector: Media and communications

Impact: Enforces accountability in political discourse

Data Used: Public safety data from the Ministry of Public Safety and Attorney General of the Province of Buenos Aires; Legal data from Argentina’s Ministry of Justice; Demographics and social data from Argentina’s Census; Economics statistics from Argentina’s National Directorate of External Sector Statistics

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Chequeado

A fact-checking service that monitors political activities in Argentina
 http://chequeado.com/

Country: Argentina

Sector: Media and communications

Impact: Enforces accountability in political discourse

Data Used: Public safety data from the Ministry of Public Safety and Attorney General of the Province of Buenos Aires; Legal data from Argentina’s Ministry of Justice; Demographics and social data from Argentina’s Census; Economics statistics from Argentina’s National Directorate of External Sector Statistics

Description: Chequeado is a nonpartisan group that verifies the claims of politicians, opinion leaders, entrepreneurs, media and other institutions, using reliable sources and data. The services is intended to help reduce the margin of intellectual impunity in the political discourse, and to contribute to more democratic transparency in Argentina. It relies heavily on open data for its investigations of political activity and fact-checking.

In this context, Chequeado created an online course on fact-checking and data journalism as an attempt to train more journalists in using data as a valuable tool in their work. Importantly, Chequeado also developed “Dato Chequeado” http://datochq.chequeado.com which is a collaborative platform to which anyone can upload datasets that are then verified, cataloged and published. This platform hosts a variety of open datasets, which provide users with reliable information that can be accessed easily, and ultimately contributes to more data being available, as well as the improvement of the quality of public debate.

Factly

A data journalism platform that seeks to integrate public information for informed reporting
 https://factly.in/

Country: India

Sector: Media and Communications

Impact: Creates fact-based reporting through articles and infographics

Data Used: Indian census data, crop data from the Ministry of Agriculture, pension data from the Planning Commission and Department of Rural Development, communal violence data from the Ministry of Home Affairs

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Factly

A data journalism platform that seeks to integrate public information for informed reporting
 https://factly.in/

Country: India

Sector: Media and Communications

Impact: Creates fact-based reporting through articles and infographics

Data Used: Indian census data, crop data from India’s Ministry of Agriculture, pension data from the Planning Commission and Department of Rural Development, communal violence data from the Ministry of Home Affairs

Description: Factly, an independent data journalism platform. To reduce information asymmetry, Factly reports news with verified public information and government data. Policy-makers, researchers, and general audiences benefit from its data-based news platform, visualizations and infographics. The organization collects data both through public domain sources and through Right to Information (RTI) requests.

For example, one article used data from the Ministry of Home Affairs to count the total number of communal incidents that occurred in India from 2011 to 2015. It revealed that 85% of the 3365 incidents took place in eight specific states: Bihar, Gujarat, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. Within the remaining states, seven failed to report a single incident of communal violence. Publishing this article enhanced a dialogue on the subject of law and order within state governments, shedding light on systemic issues.

Factly sources information from a number of from government data sources, such as the Census from the Ministry of Agriculture, Annual Reports with The Planning Commission, Department of Rural Development, and more. Delivering public information through three mediums - articles, infographics, and videos, Factly seeks to 'make public data meaningful.'

La Nacion

Argentine daily newspaper covering national and international news
 http://www.lanacion.com.ar

Country: Argentina

Sector: Media and communications

Impact: Investigative journalism and making government information accessible in an open format

Data Used: Many including macroeconomic data, consumer indices, monthly industrial data, weather data, CO2 emissions, consumer complaints, tourism statistics, transportation data, political contributions in Argentina, and Buenos Aires census data

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La Nacion

Argentine daily newspaper covering national and international news
 http://www.lanacion.com.ar

Country: Argentina

Sector: Media and communications

Impact: Investigative journalism and making government information accessible in an open format

Data Used: Many including macroeconomic data, consumer indices, monthly industrial data, weather data, CO2 emissions, consumer complaints, tourism statistics, transportation data, political contributions in Argentina, and Buenos Aires census data

Description: La Nacion newspaper has been engaged in using and disseminating open data in various ways. In 2010, the newspaper started a project on data visualization where journalists, graphic designers and computer scientists worked together to understand how visualization tools can be used for reporting. The first delivery of this initiative, a report on Argentina’s Subsidies System for Transportation, relied on combining open transportation data from two government agencies ( Secretary of Transportation, and National Commission for Transport Regulation). The investigation discovered that the subsidies (gas and cash) grew dramatically (up to $34 billion) during the past ten years, and revealed the 20 companies that received more money from this system.

However, getting the public data in the first place poses a significant challenge. Since Argentina doesn’t have a law that allows citizens access public documents, like Freedom of Information Act in the U.S, all the information used in this investigation had to be converted from PDF’s documents to CSV and Excel files. In this context, making public data available in an open format is another goal of La Nacion. In march 2012, the newspaper launched an open data portal. In this portal, users can access official data in the domains of legislation and policy-making, general indicators, environment, sports, and economics.

MobileContent.com Ltd

Mobile content provider in Ghana
 http://mobilecontent.com.gh

Country: Ghana

Sector: Media and communications

Impact: Improves organization’s market and pricing strategy

Data Used: Demographic, consumer and mobile penetration data from Ghana’s Census; Education data from Ghana’s Ministry of Education

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MobileContent.com Ltd

Mobile content provider in Ghana
 http://mobilecontent.com.gh

Country: Ghana

Sector: Media and communications

Impact: Improves organization’s market and pricing strategy

Data Used: Demographic, consumer and mobile penetration data from Ghana’s Census; Education data from Ghana’s Ministry of Education

Description: MobileContent primarily uses open data to inform the organization’s strategic decisions. For instance, the organization uses various types of consumer data on mobile use (e.g. value of mobile services, how much consumers spend per month on average, mobile penetration), complemented with demographic data, to determine whether a specific target market is likely to be profitable, and the optimal pricing for the organization’s products and services.

MobileContent designs a number of mobile-based services, providing information ranging from ways to prevent diseases to jokes and horoscopes. In addition to using open data to inform pricing, marketing and product development, the organization also hosts a platform with information about educational institutions throughout Ghana.

Ojoconmipisto.com

Monitors the spending of municipal funds in Guatemala
 http://ojoconmipisto.com/

Country: Guatemala

Sector: Media and communications

Impact: Promoting civic-minded journalism and citizen participation

Data Used: Procurement data (Guatecompras) from Guatemala’s Ministry of Finance

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Ojoconmipisto.com

Monitors the spending of municipal funds in Guatemala
 http://ojoconmipisto.com/

Country: Guatemala

Sector: Media and communications

Impact: Promoting civic-minded journalism and citizen participation

Data Used: Procurement data (Guatecompras) from Guatemala’s Ministry of Finance

Description: Ojoconmipisto.com is a project developed by Laboratorio de Medios, an organization that trains journalists and others in various aspects of accessing and using public data in Guatemala. It is designed to allow reporters, social organizations and citizens to use open data to better understand municipal council spending, political affiliations and public contracts.

Started in 2013, the project made use of initial funding by the United States Agency for International Development to train journalists in working with GuateCompras, a database containing municipalities’ procurement information of the national government of Guatemala. The training also includes an overall understanding of the legal framework pertaining to public procurement and freedom of information in Guatemala. Empowered with this knowledge, local journalists are expected to be better equipped to monitor and report on the spendings of municipalities.

Telefonica

Multinational telecommunications provider of broadband and mobile networks
 https://www.telefonica.com/es

Country: Spain

Sector: Media and communications

Impact: Creating an ecosystem of digital communications

Data Used: Economic data and population data from various countries’ census datasets, UK health data (hospital admissions, emergency services locations) and transportation data (bus, underground, bikes), satellite data

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Telefonica

Multinational telecommunications provider of broadband and mobile networks
 https://www.telefonica.com/es

Country: Spain

Sector: Media and communications

Impact: Creating an ecosystem of digital communications

Data Used: Economic data and population data from various countries’ census datasets, UK health data (hospital admissions, emergency services locations) and transportation data (bus, underground, bikes), satellite data

Description: With operations in 24 countries and an estimated 315.7 million customers, Telefónica is a diversified telecommunications group that delivers services based on information and communications technologies. In the last few years, Telefónica has been an active promoter of open data use, both internally and externally. In its own operations, Telefónica makes use of open economic data, as well as demographic data, to identify customer segments and adjust product offerings in accordance with economic forecast. The organization also leverages satellite and population data to inform decisions on where to build telecommunications infrastructure.

Telefónica engages a broad stakeholder network as well around open data use. For example, in 2013, in partnership with the Open Data Institute and the MIT Medialab, Telefónica hosted a “hackathon for big data” which promoted the integration of open transportation and health data with other proprietary data sets. to create value for social good. During the event, teams were encouraged to study how crowds move towards high streets during the busy Christmas shopping period in order to develop strategies for the emergency services to allocate their resources more effectively, or make recommendations of how to manage the flow of road traffic on London’s busiest routes. In its home country, Telefónica has also promoted the use of open data by hosting workshops on “Data Journalism and Open Data” to  encourage Spanish journalists, programmers and other professionals to create content using open data.

Twaweza

A nonprofit promoting public accountability in Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda
 http://twaweza.org

Country: Tanzania

Sector: Media and communications

Impact: Creating effective public and policy engagement through media partnerships and global leadership

Data Used: Tanzanian economic data, census and household survey data, education data such as school enrollment rates, and budget data

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Twaweza

A nonprofit promoting public accountability in Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda
 http://twaweza.org

Country: Tanzania

Sector: Media and communications

Impact: Creating effective public and policy engagement through media partnerships and global leadership

Data Used: Tanzanian economic data, census and household survey data, education data such as school enrollment rates, and budget data

Description: Founded in 2009, Twaweza is a civil society organization that helps citizens exercise agency and governments be more open and responsive in Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda. Twaweza works to provide practical information to everyone, to foster quality independent media and citizen monitoring services. Via its Uwazi unit, Twaweza produces policy briefs on key issues, thus triggering public debate and fostering an ecosystem of change. In this context, Twaweza is an active promoter of open data, encouraging both the supply and use of public data.

In its own use, Twaweza draws on public data to conduct research across the fields of open government and basic education. For example, in the Tanzanian general elections in 2015, Twaweza organised televised debates between leading politicians from different parties, and used data from a range of different sources as a means of stimulating discussion, and of trying to guide the debate towards a greater focus on evidence. In part, the data that was used was sourced internally - from the Uwezo survey of basic learning outcomes and the Sautiza Wananchi mobile phone panel survey - but the remaining data, which included economic data, census and other household survey data, official data on public services (school enrolment rates, etc.) budget data and more, was pulled from official government sources. While some of the data was available in machine-readable formats, much had to be converted from pdfs and reports.

Transportation & Logistics

InstaVIN

App that provides access to vehicle history and title reports
 https://www.instavin.com

Country: United States

Sector: Transportation and logistics

Impact: Providing consumers with complete vehicle history and title report

Data Used: Vehicle information from the U.S. National Motor Vehicle Title Information System (NMVTIS) and State Departments of Motor Vehicles; Police records from local Police datasets

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InstaVIN

App that provides access to vehicle history and title reports
 https://www.instavin.com

Country: United States

Sector: Transportation and logistics

Impact: Providing consumers with complete vehicle history and title report

Data Used: Vehicle information from the U.S. National Motor Vehicle Title Information System (NMVTIS) and State Departments of Motor Vehicles; Police records from local Police datasets

Description: Vehicle history reporting provides detailed information about a vehicle’s past and can help uncover hidden negative history. Accordingly, information on a vehicle’s history is therefore seen as an essential help for shoppers to make better purchase decisions when buying cars. InstaVIN addresses this by providing a vehicle history reporting service that looks up information on a Vehicle identification number (VIN) instantly when it is submitted by a consumer, and then sends the information back to the consumer.

The service runs an immediate background check on the vehicle, grabbing information from state and federal government sources, like the National Motor Vehicle Title Information System, police reports, as well as from private sources like car dealers and insurance records. This information, which may include theft, towing, impound, lien data, vehicle specifications, is then sent right back to the consumer. Taking advantage of this combination of data sources, consumers can get the title and salvage history of a vehicle thus reducing the risk of making a costly decision when purchasing it.

RailYatri

A web and mobile application based platform providing comprehensive information on trains
 http://www.railyatri.in/

Country: India

Sector: Transportation and logistics

Impact: Simplifies train travel for thousands of passengers

Data Used: Train routes and schedules from Indian local government

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RailYatri

A web and mobile application based platform providing comprehensive information on trains
 http://www.railyatri.in/

Country: India

Sector: Transportation and logistics

Impact: Simplifies train travel for thousands of passengers

Data Used: Train routes and schedules from Indian local government

Description: Over 23.9 million passengers travel and commute daily by train in India. RailYatri’s goal is to simplify travel by providing search, plan and tracking capability to more than 80% of India's Travel base. The app uses open transportation data including public schedules and routes. Other functions include checking train status with confirmation probability, tracking live location of a train, seat availability, and ticket confirmation probability, pushing train alerts, and many more.

RailYatri also goes further than providing simple statistics of transportation data and offers own analytics, for example estimating the probability of on-time train arrival.

RightShip

Provides a cost-effective online vetting tool for ships transporting dry bulk, petroleum, chemical and gas
 http://site.rightship.com/

Country: Australia

Sector: Transportation and logistics

Impact: Uses data to uphold international safety and environmental standards for shipping vessels

Data Used: Vessel information from the U.S. Coast Guard Maritime Information Exchange

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RightShip

Provides a cost-effective online vetting tool for ships transporting dry bulk, petroleum, chemical and gas
 http://site.rightship.com/

Country: Australia

Sector: Transportation and logistics

Impact: Uses data to uphold international safety and environmental standards for shipping vessels

Data Used: Vessel information from the U.S. Coast Guard Maritime Information Exchange

Description: Over 90% of the world's trade is conducted by maritime transport. As a result, risks associated with substandard ships such as casualties, delays, rising insurance costs all create a direct impact the global market and involved industries. RightShip uses open data sources to track whether international standards and codes of conduct are upheld in the maintenance and use of ships. The company created vetting tools to assess specifically ships transporting materials involving dry bulk, petroleum, chemical, and gas.

Their Existing Vessel Design Index (EVDI) has compiled information on over 76,000 in service vessels and tracks the Energy Efficiency Design Index (EEDI) through International Maritime Organization (IMO) databases. These services feed into RightShip Qi, also known as RightShip Quality Index. In addition, RightShip creates real-time diagnostics on data on relevant sources from satellite data to ship casualty history, which gathered from individual shipowners, government databases, and interest groups. Pulling together information from these sources develops accountability for individuals and companies to adhere to international standards for safety and environmental protection.

Machine-Readability Project
The following use cases were developed as part of the ‘Open Data Impact Map - Machine Readability Project’. This project was conducted by the Center for Open Data Enterprise in collaboration with Open Data Watch. It was supported by the World Bank, with funding from the Trust Fund for Statistical Capacity Building. They represent examples of open data use in low to lower-middle income countries that showed evidence of use machine-readable open data. To download the data collected for the project, click here.
Agriculture

Farmerline

An SMS-based service that provides small-scale farmers with up-to-date agricultural information and advisement.
 http://farmerline.co/

Country: Ghana

Sector: Agriculture

Impact: Helps farmers increase crop yield and encourage new farming practices.

Data Used: Agricultural data from Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA), weather data from a number of sources

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Farmerline

An SMS-based service that provides small-scale farmers with up-to-date agricultural information and advisement.
 http://farmerline.co/

Country: Ghana

Sector: Agriculture

Impact: Helps farmers increase crop yield and encourage new farming practices.

Data Used: Agricultural data from the Ghanaian Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA), weather data from a number of sources

Description: Farmerline, an SMS-based service, provides small-scale farmers with up-to-date agricultural information and advisement based in Ghana. Farming accounts for over a fifth of the country’s GDP, and 42% of the workforce. However, many farmers in Ghana operate small-scale farms and face an uphill battle for agriculture information due to a lack of internet access and the diversity of local languages.

Farmerline addresses both these issues, providing local farmers access to accurate, up-to-date weather forecasts and market prices. In turn, the farmers gain immediate knowledge of competitive pricing and if not larger, steadier yields due to the agronomic tips and support.

Open government data is at the heart of this effort. Launched in 2013, Farmerline gathers open data on weather and market prices, and then repackages the information into outbound text and voice SMS messages, servicing over 5000 farmers in Ghana and available in nine different local languages. Fully incorporating voice messages in its service, Farmerline has expanded to farmers in rural areas, where literacy rates remain under 50%.

Mandi Trades

A location-based social network fostering business directly between local farmers and buyers
 http://www.manditrades.com/

Country: India

Sector: Agriculture

Impact: Increases efficiency in the agriculture market and reduces information asymmetry for small-scale farmers

Data Used: Commodity Prices from India’s data portal and AgMarknet.gov.in

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Mandi Trades

A location-based social network fostering business directly between local farmers and buyers
 http://www.manditrades.com/

Country: India

Sector: Agriculture

Impact: Increases efficiency in the agriculture market and reduces information asymmetry for small-scale farmers

Data Used: Commodity Prices from India’s data portal and AgMarknet.gov.in

Description: Mandi Trades is a location-based social network and mobile application that connects farmers, transporters, traders, shop owners, and retail managers to one another. Under the services of Farmobi Technologies Pvt Ltd, Mandi Trades allows buyers and sellers to bypass the middlemen often involved in the Indian food industry. Instead, this platform creates an environment where buyers can purchase crops directly from local farmers, which reduces transportation costs and increases profit margins for both parties. These services also automatically incorporate the locations of sellers upon uploading datasets.

The Farmobi Technologies' app levels the agricultural market in two ways. First, it features agricultural market price data from the government of India’s data portal, data.gov.in, to make public information access a key component to competitive pricing. Second, the app lets farmers directly post details about their crops, making purchasing decisions transparent to both suppliers and buyers. These two features in Mandi Trades not only decreases information asymmetry but also leverages existing government data to encourage public data use within the agriculture sector for fair and competitive pricing.

RainbowAgri

A mobile internet solution that connects farmers and help them communicate, collaborate and commerce
 http://databoks.katadata.co.id

Country: India

Sector: Agriculture

Impact: Helps farmers make better price their crops

Data Used: Commodity prices, environmental data (e.g. dam water levels), and weather data from India’s data portal

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RainbowAgri

A mobile internet solution that connects farmers and help them communicate, collaborate and commerce
 http://www.rainbowagri.com/

Country: India

Sector: Agriculture

Impact: Helps farmers make better price their crops

Data Used: Commodity prices, environmental data (e.g. dam water levels), and weather data from India’s data portal

Description: Rainbow Agri is a dashboard for farmers to gather news related to agriculture, prices of commodities, authorized pesticide and seed vendors in the locality, and dam water levels. India has 87 million rural mobile Internet users, making it the world’s second largest smartphone market, and a prediction of 6% growth for the agricultural sector. Still, manifold challenges lie ahead for the continuous growth of this sector. The current availability of data, in particular of open data, has an important role to play in overcoming some of these challenges.

RainbowAgri is a mobile internet solution that aims to broadly contribute to digitize agriculture, and in this way, empower farmers to increase their productivity and income. Many of the features in Rainbow, such as live market prices from various markets in India, the daily dam water level, and location based weather updates, rely on the use of open data. RainbowAgri fetches most of the data from India’s national open data portal, as well as from other government of India websites as means to enrich the agriculture ecosystem with more information, and help farmers making informed decisions throughout the life cycle of the crop.

Business, Research & Consulting

Economics Association of Zambia (EAZ)

Undertaking research, training, education, publication and consultancy in the field of economics and related disciplines
 http://eaz.org.zm

Country: Zambia

Sector: Governance

Impact: Recommendations and advocacy on economic policies to reduce poverty in Zambia

Data Used: Economic indicators, health indicators, household surveys, living conditions survey, demographic survey, economic census, population census, agriculture census from Zambia’s Central statistical office (CSO) and the Central Bank of Zambia

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Economics Association of Zambia (EAZ)

Undertaking research, training, education, publication and consultancy in the field of economics and related disciplines
 http://eaz.org.zm

Country: Zambia

Sector: Governance

Impact: Recommendations and advocacy on economic policies to reduce poverty in Zambia

Data Used: Economic indicators, health indicators, household surveys, living conditions survey, demographic survey, economic census, population census, agriculture census from Zambia’s Central statistical office (CSO) and the Central Bank of Zambia

Description: While Zambia’s economy has continued to grow at an average annual rate in recent years, global headwinds and domestic pressures have strained the Zambian economy. Since the 1960s, the Economics Association of Zambia (EAZ), a non-partisan body established in the 1960s, has promoted the socio-economic development of Zambia by undertaking research, training, education, publication and consultancy in the field of economics and related disciplines.

In its role of political advisor, the EAZ takes advantage of public economic data to conduct policy research. Complementary to its own primary data collection, EAZ sources open data mainly from the Zambian Central statistical office and the Central Bank of Zambia. The type of data being used covers a wide range - economic and health indicators, population and economic census, health demographic surveys, and others. For example, in its website, which also serves as an advocacy platform, the EAZ has contributed to the dissemination of the results of 2015 Living Conditions Monitoring Survey, a poverty assessment study conducted by the Central statistical office to monitor and highlight the living conditions of the population of Zambia. In this way, the EAZ seeks to help the Government of Zambia achieve its objectives towards poverty reduction and strengthening the linkages between budgeting and planning.

Katadata

An economics and business publication in Indonesia
 http://databoks.katadata.co.id

Country: Indonesia

Sector: Business, research and consulting

Impact: Publish data, articles, reports and visualizations for economic and business analysis

Data Used: Economic, demographic, business and financial data from Indonesia’s Central Statistics Agency (BPS), Financial Services Authority (OJK), Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, Agency Plantation Fund Management (BPDP), Regulatory Agency for Upstream Oil and Gas (BPH Migas), Ministry of Finance - Directorate General of Taxation (DGT), Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM)

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Katadata

An economics and business publication in Indonesia
 http://databoks.katadata.co.id

Country: Indonesia

Sector: Business, research and consulting

Impact: Publish data, articles, reports and visualizations for economic and business analysis

Data Used: Economic, demographic, business and financial data from Indonesia’s Central Statistics Agency (BPS), Financial Services Authority (OJK), Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, Agency Plantation Fund Management (BPDP), Regulatory Agency for Upstream Oil and Gas (BPH Migas), Ministry of Finance - Directorate General of Taxation (DGT), Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM)

Description: Katadata offers an analytical news and research portal which provides economic and business data, news and investigations. The portal builds on Indonesia’s Internet growth, mobile and social media usage, as well as the country’s economic growth, which justify the need for the dissemination of more economic and financial information.

Katadata makes extensive use of open data while combining journalism and analysis, i.e. news and research, in its day-to-day business. In this context, Katadata created Databoks, a data portal that hosts business and economic statistical data from Indonesia. Considering the fragmentation of Indonesian economics and business data, Databoks was created with the goal of facilitating the use of data by companies, business people, researchers, students, government and media for various purposes, such as presentations, report creation and strengthening of media coverage.

Sagaci Research

Providing market intelligence and data across key industries
 http://sagaciresearch.com/

Country: Kenya

Sector: Business, research and consulting

Impact: Market intelligence and data from African countries

Data Used: Census data and national statistics on the automotive and other markets in Kenya and Nigeria

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Sagaci Research

Providing market intelligence and data across key industries
 http://sagaciresearch.com/

Country: Kenya

Sector: Business, research and consulting

Impact: Market intelligence and data from African countries

Data Used: Census data and national statistics on the automotive and other markets in Kenya and Nigeria

Description: Open government data provides Sagaci Research with a valuable resource for undertaking research endeavors. Sagaci Research provides market research and intelligence dedicated to african markets on a number of industries. Its reports, databases and field research (quantitative/qualitative) provide an up-to-date in-depth understanding of the key sectors in the region (consumer goods, retail, telecommunications, financial services, construction and real-estate, and others).

In particular, census data is crucial for the process of sampling when collecting research data from different areas of the country. Other types of open government data are also used. For example, the report “Registered vehicles in Kenya and Nigeria”, which presents key facts and data on the automotive market in Kenya and Nigeria, providing a compelling overview of both markets by leveraging on national statistics, such as vehicle registrations.

Education

Eduweb

Centralized portal of open education data (schools, colleges and universities) in Kenya
 http://www.eduweb.co.ke

Country: Kenya

Sector: Education

Impact: Provides a simple interactive mechanism to identify, locate, and evaluate schools

Data Used: Education data (name of schools, location, contact, facilities, differentiating information) in Kenya’s Ministry of Education

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Eduweb

Centralized portal of open education data (schools, colleges and universities) in Kenya
 http://www.eduweb.co.ke

Country: Kenya

Sector: Education

Impact: Provides a simple interactive mechanism to identify, locate, and evaluate schools

Data Used: Education data (name of schools, location, contact, facilities, differentiating information) in Kenya’s Ministry of Education

Description: Developed in 2012 by Rivercross Technologies Eduweb is an online platform that helps citizens explore schools in Kenya. Eduweb provides  an online centralized portal where users can easily access information on relevant education institutions (schools, colleges and universities) country-wide. The portal, which is also available on mobile phones, aims to help parents looking for schools for their children, graduates looking for post-secondary opportunities, or others generally seeking to further their education. While making use of open education data, such as the names, locations, contacts of schools in Kenya, Eduweb offers a simple tool to effectively identify and compare different schools, so that parents, students, or others, can make informed decisions about their education.

Energy & Climate

The Energy & Resources Institute (TERI)

Research institute working in the fields of energy, environment and sustainable development
 http://www.teriin.org

Country: India

Sector: Energy and climate

Impact: Raises awareness and provides policy recommendations on environmental policy matters

Data Used: India’s Census data, geospatial data (e.g. forestry maps, agriculture maps, land use maps), environmental data; satellite data from U.S. Geological Survey

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The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI)

Research institute working in the fields of energy, environment and sustainable development
 http://www.teriin.org

Country: India

Sector: Energy and climate

Impact: Raises awareness and provides policy recommendations on environmental policy matters

Data Used: India’s Census data, geospatial data (e.g. forestry maps, agriculture maps, land use maps), environmental data; satellite data from U.S. Geological Survey

Description: Founded in 1974, The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) focuses on technological innovations related to sustainable development. The organization provides research and analysis on areas such as clean energy, water management, pollution management, sustainable agriculture, and climate resilience. In light of its expertise in sustainability-related issues, TERI has helped the government of India deliver timely and sustainable environmental policy and practice outcomes.

At the core of its research endeavors, TERI relies on open data that relates mainly to the environment, but also data on demographics, as well as geospatial and satellite data such as forestry maps, agriculture maps, land use maps. Scientific publications published by TERI’s researchers comprise, for example, studies that make use of climate data to analyse the importance and status of open climate data, or to determine variability of rainfall, a parameter that is correlated with physical, social and economic changes. The use of LANDSAT TM satellite data, provided by the United States Geological Survey, has also been crucial for various studies investigating topics such as the land surface, or forests in India.

Governance

Budget Stories

Budget and government transparency in Moldova
 http://www.budgetstories.md/

Country: Moldova

Sector: Governance

Impact: Provides analyses and tools accessible to a political layperson on Moldova’s budget and policies

Data Used: Budget data from Moldova’s Ministry of Finance; economic, energy and environment data from the National Bureau of Statistics

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Budget Stories

Budget and government transparency in Moldova
 http://www.budgetstories.md/

Country: Moldova

Sector: Governance

Impact: Provides analyses and tools accessible to a political layperson on Moldova’s budget and policies

Data Used: Budget data from Moldova’s Ministry of Finance; economic, energy and environment data from the National Bureau of Statistics

Description: Budget Stories, created by Expert Grup in Moldova, is a website providing budget information made available from the Moldovan government, as well as from a number of other sources such as the World Bank. Expert Grup produces reports on economic, environmental, and energy forecasts in Moldova. They have made several projects on these topics, focusing on ways to visualize large datasets and information taken from Moldova’s open data portal. The website’s  Budget Calendar and OpenSpending budget treemap projects both visualize this data in visual ways more accessible to an average citizen. They also provide the data in an online data portal.

The Budget Calendar project is a grid including the time of the year on the y axis and the steps towards approving a budget on the x axis. Within each cell, Expert Grup links the user to government reports relevant to that specific piece of the budget process, streamlining what could be a tedious search through multiple government sites to find this information. Expert Grup’s OpenSpending budget treemap also uses this open data, compiling it into a colorful visualization that gives the viewer a comparative understanding on where Moldova fits in comparison to other countries’ parliaments.

Centre for Governance and Public Accountability (CGPA)

Civil society organization working for promotion of public accountability and good governance in Pakistan
 http://www.c-gpa.org/

Country: Pakistan

Sector: Governance

Impact: Promotion of citizens’ voices on key governance issues and strengthening state response to citizens’ grievances

Data Used: District level education budget of various districts in Pakistan; Municipal budget data of Peshawar District; Education, health, police, legal data from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa District

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Centre for Governance and Public Accountability (CGPA)

Civil society organization working for promotion of public accountability and good governance in Pakistan
 http://www.c-gpa.org/

Country: Pakistan

Sector: Governance

Impact: Promotion of citizens’ voices on key governance issues and strengthening state response to citizens’ grievances

Data Used: District level education budget of various districts in Pakistan; Municipal budget data of Peshawar District; Education, health, police, legal data from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa District

Description: The Centre for Governance and Public Accountability (CGPA) was established in 2011 to improve the levels of trust between state and society in Pakistan. CGPA’s work can be grouped into 6 main areas: open governance, rule of law, democratic governance, decentralization and devolution, promotion of pluralism, and social accountability. Since the enactment of the Freedom of Information (FOI) legislation in 2013, the CGPA has focused on the implementation of this law and published extensive research on the response by government agencies in different districts in Pakistan to information requests.

As a promoter of open governance and open data, the CGPA has produced several studies on education budgeting, municipal budgeting, and others which have contributed with analyses on areas such as public education governance and service delivery, the right to drinking safe  water and sanitation, and public accountability at the local level. . The CGPA is also dedicated to making public data, such as data from the School Census, available in machine-readable format for everyone to access and use. To do so, it has plans to build its own data portal to make more data available to the citizens of Pakistan.

Odekro

A website that provides makes public information from the Parliament of Ghana more easily accessible
 http://www.odekro.org/

Country: Ghana

Sector: Governance

Impact: Promotes government accountability and citizen participation by making parliamentary proceedings accessible to the public

Data Used: Ghanaian Parliamentary and election data

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Odekro

A website that provides makes public information from the Parliament of Ghana more easily accessible
 http://www.odekro.org/

Country: Ghana

Sector: Governance

Impact: Promotes government accountability and citizen participation by making parliamentary proceedings accessible to the public

Data Used: Ghanaian Parliamentary and election data

Description: Ghana’s legislature is composed of 275 Members of Parliament (MPs) that are elected to serve their single-member constituencies. However, while the majority of the activities in parliament, such as votings, motions, and committees, take place in the open, too often, information is difficult to find, access and use. Created in 2012, Odekro is an online platform that aims to promote transparency and citizen participation in Ghana by providing public access to Bills, Motions, and Parliamentary proceedings (Hansards).

Mainly, the work of Odekro is to extract the data from different public sources, such as the Parliament of Ghana, the Electoral commission, and Ghana statistical service. While some of the data is available in excel formats, often Odekro has to convert data from paper or PDF to a machine-readable format. Making this information open allows media organizations to contribute to a more evidence-based public discussion, and increased public accountability of Members of Parliament. An example of this was the attention recently drawn to the country’s non-attending MPs after a letter sent by Odekro to the Speaker of Parliament based on this data. The Odekro platform also provides tools that allow users to discuss online while discussions are taking place in the Parliament, as well as to report issues affecting their constituencies, or follow the specific issues the MPs for their constituencies are contributing to. In this way, Odekro aims to enable communities and marginalized populations to leverage this information to engage with government agencies.

Open Budget

A visualization tool that helps local municipalities publish and present their budgets in a user-friendly interactive format
 http://www.openbudget.in.ua/?locale=en

Country: Ukraine

Sector: Governance

Impact: Helps citizens understand budget information through visualizations

Data Used: Budgets from the Ukraine Open Data Portal

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Open Budget

A visualization tool that helps local municipalities publish and present their budgets in a user-friendly interactive format
 http://www.openbudget.in.ua/?locale=en

Country: Ukraine

Sector: Governance

Impact: Helps citizens understand budget information through visualizations

Data Used: Budgets from the Ukraine Open Data Portal

Description: Open Budget is a visualisation tool that helps local municipalities publish and present their budgets in a user-friendly interactive format. It is built by Center Eidos, an institution that trains journalists and NGOs for data-driven reporting and analytics. The goal of Center Eidos is raise public awareness in political consciousness and citizen’s proactive role in the development of Ukrainian society.

Open Budget offers three types visualizations: City Budget, Repairing Map and City programs based on data sources provided by DKAN, the Ukraine open data portal. These visualizations offer intuitive insights into complex government operations. City budget visualization supports instant understanding in how budgetary expenses are distributed across different sectors. Repairing map maps out which part of the city is under construction, and informs citizens to experience less inconvenience. City programs yields comprehensive overview as to the current progress for any budget-spending program. It not only shows remaining spendings for a program but also trends in budgetary planning for the same program during the past years. This attempt empowers citizens to hold governing body accountable for executing any city program.

IT & Geospatial

Yeleman

IT organization building data platforms for government and UNICEF
 http://yeleman.com

Country: Mali

Sector: IT and geospatial

Impact: Yeleman's dashboard has aided in pinpointing and reducing malaria outbreaks

Data Used: Health facilities registry from the Malian Ministry of Health

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Yeleman

IT organization building data platforms for government and UNICEF
 http://yeleman.com

Country: Mali

Sector: IT and geospatial

Impact: Its dashboard has aided in pinpointing and reducing malaria outbreaks

Data Used: Health facilities registry from the Malian Ministry of Health

Description: When MEASURE Evaluation, a USAID initiative, began to look for data-driven solutions to help reduce malaria outbreaks and other diseases, it contracted the programming team Yeleman to build its database. Yeleman built a comprehensive dashboard whose data is derived from a number of sources, and supports data entry from android phones.

The company built this dashboard from scratch using a combination of the Ministry of Health’s health facility registry dataset as well as its own crowd-based datasets. The dashboard provides health experts with monthly reports and weekly updates on health centers’ stocks data, such as initial stocks, quantity received, and quantity used during program implementation, as well as analysis on when each submission was received. Through Yeleman’s collection and analysis of continuously gathered health data, has been able to expand the program to the entire region of Mopti, and WHO Mali is considering implementing a similar system for other regions of Mali.

YoungInnovations

A technology company that creates solutions to global development problems
 http://databoks.katadata.co.id

Country: Nepal

Sector: IT and geospatial

Impact: Building partnerships and technology to assist development organizations

Data Used: Nepali census, finance, education, and health data; international development spending data

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YoungInnovations

A technology company that creates solutions to global development problems
 http://younginnovations.com.np/

Country: Nepal

Sector: IT and geospatial

Impact: Building partnerships and technology to assist development organizations

Data Used: Nepali census, finance, education, and health data; international development spending data

Description: Co-founded in 2007 YoungInnovations develops software applications mainly for development organizations. YoungInnovations aims to help its clients improve data-driven policy and decision-making  through  automated data tools to collect, curate, and analyze data. As a result of their focus on open data solutions for civic engagement, YoungInnovations has developed platforms for opening data such as Aidstream and DevelopmentCheck.

YoungInnovations was also the co-creator of OpenNepal, a platform that hosts, among other types of data, public datasets, such as census data and data from various government agencies such as Ministry of Finance, the Department of Education, and the Ministry of Health and Population. With the goal of bringing together the community of practice in Nepal around topics open data, and access to information, Open Nepal is a platform that provides high quality data so that users can to make informed decisions on policy (planning and practice), monitor development progress, and support accountability.

Media & Communications

Factly

A data journalism platform that seeks to integrate public information for informed reporting
 https://factly.in/

Country: India

Sector: Media and Communications

Impact: Creates fact-based reporting through articles and infographics

Data Used: Indian census data, crop data from the Ministry of Agriculture, pension data from the Planning Commission and Department of Rural Development, communal violence data from the Ministry of Home Affairs

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Factly

A data journalism platform that seeks to integrate public information for informed reporting
 https://factly.in/

Country: India

Sector: Media and Communications

Impact: Creates fact-based reporting through articles and infographics

Data Used: Indian census data, crop data from India’s Ministry of Agriculture, pension data from the Planning Commission and Department of Rural Development, communal violence data from the Ministry of Home Affairs

Description: Factly, an independent data journalism platform. To reduce information asymmetry, Factly reports news with verified public information and government data. Policy-makers, researchers, and general audiences benefit from its data-based news platform, visualizations and infographics. The organization collects data both through public domain sources and through Right to Information (RTI) requests.

For example, one article used data from the Ministry of Home Affairs to count the total number of communal incidents that occurred in India from 2011 to 2015. It revealed that 85% of the 3365 incidents took place in eight specific states: Bihar, Gujarat, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. Within the remaining states, seven failed to report a single incident of communal violence. Publishing this article enhanced a dialogue on the subject of law and order within state governments, shedding light on systemic issues.

Factly sources information from a number of from government data sources, such as the Census from the Ministry of Agriculture, Annual Reports with The Planning Commission, Department of Rural Development, and more. Delivering public information through three mediums - articles, infographics, and videos, Factly seeks to 'make public data meaningful.'

MobileContent.com Ltd

Mobile content provider in Ghana
 http://mobilecontent.com.gh

Country: Ghana

Sector: Media and communications

Impact: Improves organization’s market and pricing strategy

Data Used: Demographic, consumer and mobile penetration data from Ghana’s Census; Education data from Ghana’s Ministry of Education

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MobileContent.com Ltd

Mobile content provider in Ghana
 http://mobilecontent.com.gh

Country: Ghana

Sector: Media and communications

Impact: Improves organization’s market and pricing strategy

Data Used: Demographic, consumer and mobile penetration data from Ghana’s Census; Education data from Ghana’s Ministry of Education

Description: MobileContent primarily uses open data to inform the organization’s strategic decisions. For instance, the organization uses various types of consumer data on mobile use (e.g. value of mobile services, how much consumers spend per month on average, mobile penetration), complemented with demographic data, to determine whether a specific target market is likely to be profitable, and the optimal pricing for the organization’s products and services.

MobileContent designs a number of mobile-based services, providing information ranging from ways to prevent diseases to jokes and horoscopes. In addition to using open data to inform pricing, marketing and product development, the organization also hosts a platform with information about educational institutions throughout Ghana.

Ojoconmipisto.com

Monitors the spending of municipal funds in Guatemala
 http://ojoconmipisto.com/

Country: Guatemala

Sector: Media and communications

Impact: Promoting civic-minded journalism and citizen participation

Data Used: Procurement data (Guatecompras) from Guatemala’s Ministry of Finance

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Ojoconmipisto.com

Monitors the spending of municipal funds in Guatemala
 http://ojoconmipisto.com/

Country: Guatemala

Sector: Media and communications

Impact: Promoting civic-minded journalism and citizen participation

Data Used: Procurement data (Guatecompras) from Guatemala’s Ministry of Finance

Description: Ojoconmipisto.com is a project developed by Laboratorio de Medios, an organization that trains journalists and others in various aspects of accessing and using public data in Guatemala. It is designed to allow reporters, social organizations and citizens to use open data to better understand municipal council spending, political affiliations and public contracts.

Started in 2013, the project made use of initial funding by the United States Agency for International Development to train journalists in working with GuateCompras, a database containing municipalities’ procurement information of the national government of Guatemala. The training also includes an overall understanding of the legal framework pertaining to public procurement and freedom of information in Guatemala. Empowered with this knowledge, local journalists are expected to be better equipped to monitor and report on the spendings of municipalities.

Twaweza

A nonprofit promoting public accountability in Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda
 http://twaweza.org

Country: Tanzania

Sector: Media and communications

Impact: Creating effective public and policy engagement through media partnerships and global leadership

Data Used: Tanzanian economic data, census and household survey data, education data such as school enrollment rates, and budget data

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Twaweza

A nonprofit promoting public accountability in Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda
 http://twaweza.org

Country: Tanzania

Sector: Media and communications

Impact: Creating effective public and policy engagement through media partnerships and global leadership

Data Used: Tanzanian economic data, census and household survey data, education data such as school enrollment rates, and budget data

Description: Founded in 2009, Twaweza is a civil society organization that helps citizens exercise agency and governments be more open and responsive in Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda. Twaweza works to provide practical information to everyone, to foster quality independent media and citizen monitoring services. Via its Uwazi unit, Twaweza produces policy briefs on key issues, thus triggering public debate and fostering an ecosystem of change. In this context, Twaweza is an active promoter of open data, encouraging both the supply and use of public data.

In its own use, Twaweza draws on public data to conduct research across the fields of open government and basic education. For example, in the Tanzanian general elections in 2015, Twaweza organised televised debates between leading politicians from different parties, and used data from a range of different sources as a means of stimulating discussion, and of trying to guide the debate towards a greater focus on evidence. In part, the data that was used was sourced internally - from the Uwezo survey of basic learning outcomes and the Sautiza Wananchi mobile phone panel survey - but the remaining data, which included economic data, census and other household survey data, official data on public services (school enrolment rates, etc.) budget data and more, was pulled from official government sources. While some of the data was available in machine-readable formats, much had to be converted from pdfs and reports.

Transportation & Logistics

RailYatri

A web and mobile application based platform providing comprehensive information on trains
 http://www.railyatri.in/

Country: India

Sector: Transportation and logistics

Impact: Simplifies train travel for thousands of passengers

Data Used: Train routes and schedules from Indian local government

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RailYatri

A web and mobile application based platform providing comprehensive information on trains
 http://www.railyatri.in/

Country: India

Sector: Transportation and logistics

Impact: Simplifies train travel for thousands of passengers

Data Used: Train routes and schedules from Indian local government

Description: Over 23.9 million passengers travel and commute daily by train in India. RailYatri’s goal is to simplify travel by providing search, plan and tracking capability to more than 80% of India's Travel base. The app uses open transportation data including public schedules and routes. Other functions include checking train status with confirmation probability, tracking live location of a train, seat availability, and ticket confirmation probability, pushing train alerts, and many more.

RailYatri also goes further than providing simple statistics of transportation data and offers own analytics, for example estimating the probability of on-time train arrival.

The Open Data Impact Map, a project of the Center for Open Data Enterprise, is supported by the Open Data for Development (OD4D) program, a partnership funded by Canada’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC), the World Bank, United Kingdom’s Department for International Development (DFID), and Global Affairs Canada (GAC). The Open Data Impact Map is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International License.