Open Data

Unlocking the Value of Open Data

Hong Kong has been gearing up to unleash the full potential of open data for innovation and competitiveness over the past seven years. According to "The Economist", the world's most valuable resource is no longer oil, but data. When government data are made accessible and re-usable, they enable individuals, organizations and even governments themselves to innovate and collaborate in new ways. Businesses and entrepreneurs are using open data to better understand potential markets and build new data-driven products. Open data are key resources for accelerating economic growth and social innovation.

As a launch event of the Open Data Initiative of Social Science Research Centre, this Open Data Conference brings together data owners from public and private sectors, as well as open data practitioners to share best practices and quick-wins of using open data to diagnose problems and raise competitiveness of Hong Kong.

The event is a mix of presentations, open discussions, and unconference-style topic discussions, funded by a grant from ITC and a grant from the Knowledge Exchange Office of HKU.

Event objective:

To develop learning and progress on Open Data in Hong Kong by facilitating learning, developing understanding, and gathering analysis about Open Data.

Expected outcomes:

Civil servants with or without Open Data in their projects will find it valuable to engage with developers who can help them better present their data and make the best use of it. Real life overseas examples relevant to Hong Kong will show how overseas governments tackle the legal and political concerns in their projects.

Users/analysts of Open Data would benefit from linking with developers who can enhance their use of data through Apps.

NGO leaders can diagnose the social problems they are addressing through data-driven reports.

Academic researchers can learn of best practices.

University students and business professionals can link up to unlock the economic and social value of open data.

The event supports two groups of participants:

● Beginners - Prospective Open Data enthusiasts who want to develop and advance their understanding of Open Data as it relates to Hong Kong

● Experienced - Existing Open Data enthusiasts who are familiar with Open Data and want to link with others, share their insights and advance their capacity.

Keynote:

The Hon. Nicholas W Yang, JP
Secretary for Innovation and Technology
The Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region

Policy panel:

This will be followed by a panel discussion on how a records law and access to information law might help facilitate open data.

Panel members:

• Mr. Stephen Kai-yi WONG, Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data, Hong Kong
• Professor John Bacon-Shone, Director, Social Sciences Research Centre, HKU (Chair)
• Professor Andy Man-chung CHIU, Tony Yen Professor of Law, Law School, Beijing Normal University
• Mrs Stacy Belcher Lee, University Archivist, HKU

  And more...

Community presentations:

Series of 10 lightning talks (5 minute presentations on new or stimulating ideas using Open Data)

Morning finishes with 5 project demos using Open Data (e.g. Traffic, Data scraping, HK Waste, Weather, data journalism)

Topic sessions:

After lunch we will have separate tracks for the Beginners and Experienced covering topics like:

• Open Data in Hong Kong
• The Open Data Movement around the world
• Open Government, Transparency and Open Data
• Role of Open Data in Society
• Open Data and App development
• Finding signals and filtering noise in data

  Join us to get yourself and your organization ready to extract the full economic and social value of open data!

Register here 

Questions? Contact us at:

info@ssrc.hku.hk