Open Data: Potential Source for National Empowerment

It was 35 °C outside, yet Fauzan Helmi Sudaryanto traveled all the way from University of Indonesia at Depok, West Java to Open Government Indonesia Secretariat located at Central Jakarta. He was invited to deliver a presentation about Jakarta Flood Alert, a mobile application that he had created. Jakarta Flood Alert helps its users to monitor water levels using data from 14 sluices in Jakarta, especially during the rainy season. Fauzan explained that he used data from pusdalops.jakarta.go.id and made it more user friendly through the Jakarta Flood Alert application that gives information about the chance of upcoming floods in certain locations. This information can also be shared using social media to alert others when they need to be prepared.

Fauzan is one of innovators to utilize open data. Why? Because he used freely accessible data to create a useful tool for others, precisely citizens of Jakarta. Another example of open data utilization is benangmerah.net, an online platform for mapping data across Indonesia from Indonesia’s portal, data.ukp.go.id. This platform site was made by Andhika Nugraha, a student from Bandung Institute of Technology. It helps to deliver demographic data from every province in a more comprehensible manner. Most people find it easier to gather demographic data from this site, rather than try to make meaning of complicated raw data sets. Fauzan and Andhika have shown that even the simplest way to utilize open dataBy opening up data and making it sharable and reusable, governments can enable informed debate, better decision making, and the development of innovative new services. Technical specifications: Polici... could lead to an insightful creation for more people. These kinds of movements will hopefully pioneer more open data utilization in the future.

Open data pioneers have preceded Fauzan and Andhika by decades. Tim Berners-Lee, the creator of the world wide web, had stated that open data will go worldwide. Imagine, through open data we could make apps, improved business decisions, and social projects that help a nation’s development to a greater extent. There are many more undiscovered uses of open data that need to be explored. Innovators should be responsible for finding more creative ways to promote data literacy and transform substantial data into valuable creations.

Ipso facto, Indonesia is currently seeking to reap even more benefits of open data utilization. As such, Indonesia will officially launch its own open data portal, data.ukp.go.id, on September 5th 2014. This site will be one stop solution for the public to find data about Indonesia. Data will be provided not just by the government, but also CSOs (Civic Society Organization), academics, and the private sectorGovernments are working to open private sector practices as well — including through beneficial ownership transparency, open contracting, and regulating environmental standards. Technical specificat... More. Khrisnaresa Adytia, leader of Open Government Indonesia Secretariat said that the launch of open data portal will hopefully take Indonesia to the next level of accountability, whereby public initiatives will serve as a government watchdog. 

Data.ukp.go.id was created with noble a purpose, which is to empower Indonesia. The data available in the portal enables people to draw more sophisticated analyses when making important decisions. Intuitive decision-making will gradually become obsolete and decision-making will shift to one that is more data based. Moreover, creative initiatives such as applications, research, and bussiness idea, will become apparent. However, those resolutions may not become a reality, if they are not supported by all segments of society. Therefore on September 5th 2014, individuals from various backgrounds will be invited to the launch of data.ukp.go.id, called “INDONESIA 2.0”. As expected, “INDONESIA 2.0” will be a meeting point for representatives from Indonesia’s society that will help them to and collaborate, and innovate exertion of open data. This initiative shows that Indonesia is on the way to becoming more “open” to the public which is a sign of a brighter future ahead for this country. 

Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons. Author: Thorsten Peters.