Data has always been central to the work of Global Integrity, from the early days of the Global Integrity Report and our assessments of the gap between policies and implementation, to our more recent work supporting partners’ efforts to address complex problems through combining data, learning and action (see What we do and why we do it; English, Spanish). So, we’re excited to be at the International Open Data Conference in Buenos Aires this week. It’s going to be a crazy busy week, made more hectic by the prospect of a general strike in Buenos Aires on Tuesday; politics trumps open data?!

Jorge Florez and I will be participating, bringing to bear Global Integrity’s experience of supporting partners’ efforts to address sectoral and service delivery problems – and the political dynamics and patterns of incentives that often lead to those problems – using data. Jorge (pictures of us here) leads our work on open fiscal governance and public contracting, including our “Follow the Money” work in Mexico (English intro here, Spanish here), and wrote the chapter on open data for accountability and anti-corruption for the forthcoming State of Open Data report. FYI, he’s obsessed with starting with problems and putting users first. I’m obsessed with systems, power and learning.

Here’s what we’ll be up to:

Monday

• Data for transparency and accountability in Latin America, co-organized by ACIJ, Open Knowledge Argentina, and Global Integrity (Jorge attending)
• Open Data for Development Network Summit (Alan)

Tuesday

• Open Contracting in Practice (Alan and Jorge)
• Open Data Research Symposium (Jorge, moderating session on “Know your users”)
• Open Data Charter – Refresh workshop (Alan)

Wednesday

• AbreLatAm (Jorge)
• Data Standards Day (Alan)

Thursday and Friday

• International Open Data Conference (Jorge and Alan), including Open Data for Accountability & Anti-Corruption (Thursday, 11-12, Jorge chairing)

We are looking forward to being in Buenos Aires, to learning more about the successes and failures of efforts to leverage the power of open data, and to encouraging efforts that start with real-world problems, center on participation and use, and engage with politics and incentives. Come chat to us. Se habla Español, English y Spanglish!