The City of Ekurhuleni is entering the realm of open public data and invites professionals, students, organisations and individuals to an innovation session taking place on October 29 and 30, in the Boksburg City Hall, from 8am to 4pm.
The day will be a gathering of citizens from all walks of life (including those who are not technicians) with the purpose of brainstorming and developing applications, liberating data, creating visualisations and public analysis.
According to Themba Gadebe, metro spokesperson, the session is aimed at giving Ekurhuleni’s technologically-minded citizens an opportunity to utilise the public data available to create applications that will be useful for the community at large.
“It also allows any active citizens to share their ideas and give input that will shape what is developed,” said Gadebe.
“The goal of the session is to drive the development of citizen-centric solutions that maximise data initiatives, increase citizen engagement and the city’s efficiency.
“In order to achieve this, we are inviting the very citizens to whom we provide services to tell us which data sets we should avail in order to achieve service goals.”
He said the city has partnered with IBM and Microsoft in hosting the Open Data Day.
“They will make their platforms (Bluemix and Azure) available for use by the participants at no cost. Participants will also have the opportunity to interact with Microsoft and IBM professionals who will provide high-level training about their tools and platforms for building mobile solutions prior to the event.
“There will be prizes to be won, based on criteria that will be shared with all those who register.”
Residents and businesses wishing to be a part of the Ekurhuleni innovation game changing Open Data Day session can register by sending their name and contact details to digitalcity@ekurhuleni.gov.za.
Space is limited to the first 100 applicants.
