CONCEPT PAPER Open Government Partnership Seminar and Exhibition: Open Data for Good Governance, Civic Engagement and Economic Growth WHAT ARE WE PROPOSING? A one day seminar and exhibition on Open Data for good governance, civic engagement and economic growth that will achieve these following objectives:

● Discuss the potential benefits of open data for improving good governance, civic engagement and economic growth

● Facilitate discussion on the strengths and weaknesses of current open data initiatives by the Malaysian government

● Showcase the use of open data by Malaysian non-governmental organisations (NGOs) involved in GIAT (a coalition of five NGOs working on and for good governance, integrity, accountability and transparency) and businesses including highlighting challenges in the use of the open data

● Discuss ways to move forward to maximise the potential of open data for good governance, civic engagement and economic growth including through the adoption of an international framework such as the Open Government Partnership

● Facilitate dialogue between government, business and NGOs in closing the gap in reaching the full potential of open data for economic growth, good governance and civic engagement.

The seminar and exhibition will be jointly organised by members of GIAT. They are the Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs (IDEAS), Transparency International Malaysia (TI-Malaysia), Centre to Combat Corruption and Cronyism (C4), Sinar Project, Citizen’s Network for a Better Malaysia (CNBM) and Friends of Kota Damansara. WHAT ARE THE PROGRAMME OBJECTIVES? The seminar will be a follow up to the OGP workshop that IDEAS organised in October 2014. The coalition was set up as a result of the workshop and members have been meeting regularly since November 2014. The purpose of this seminar is to:

● To advocate for enhanced civic engagement and good governance as an outcome of open data initiatives

● To strengthen the coalition’s work and to encourage other organisations to join the coalition

● To disseminate Open Government Partnership values and related projects.

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WHY ARE WE PROPOSING IT? The Malaysian government has already embarked on open data initiatives. In 2013, the government launched data.gov.my, a website in which the public can access government data from various ministries. In addition to data.gov.my, the government has also voluntarily released information on various government sectors in separate websites. Examples of these websites are:

● www.procurement.gov.my, in which the public can find information about tender related information

● www.audit.gov.my for the auditor general’s report ● meih.st.gov.my for energy related information

Open data has been a growing global trend in the last five years. Governments around the world increasingly realise the benefits of open data not only for improving transparency and accountability, but also for spurring innovation needed for economic growth. They, like Malaysia, started to release data voluntarily to the public. A large number of countries in fact have seen its benefits. The United Kingdom, which was regarded by the Open Data Barometer as the leader in the field, is witnessing the emergence of many tech-businesses that source 70% of it's information from government open data. Malaysia is still far from fully benefitting from open data. The Open Data Barometer suggests that Malaysia’s initiative is still one-sided, with the government releasing certain data but the release is not matched by its effective use by both businesses and civil society organisations. The type and quality of information released as well as the social, economic and political context have influenced the limits of open data benefits in Malaysia. This seminar will therefore be a platform to discuss these limitations and facilitate discussions between various stakeholders on how to move forward. WHAT OUTPUTS WILL WE DELIVER?

● One day seminar involving various stakeholders including non-government organisations, businesses, government and media

● One day exhibition of the use of Open Data and access to information by Malaysian NGOs and Businesses. The exhibition will be open to the public and the materials for the exhibition will be made available online after.

● A policy brief highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of current open data initiatives by the Malaysian government which also recommends ways for moving forward.

● Video recordings of the speakers’ speeches which will be disseminated in social media channels of IDEAS and its GIAT partners.

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WHO ARE WE TARGETING? We are targeting to have around 50-70 people from various sectors including civil society organisations, business, government and the media attending the seminar. WHAT IS THE TIMELINE AND AGENDA? We plan to organise the seminar and exhibition and release the publication on Monday, 18 August 2015.

AGENDA

Time Programme

09.00-09.30am Registration Refreshments will be served. Participants are free to view the exhibitions by GIAT members

9.30-10.00am Opening Remarks YB Datuk Paul Low, Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Her Excellency Victoria Treadell, High Commissioner of the United Kingdom to Malaysia

10.00-11.15am Session 1: What is Open Data and How Can it be Used? Open Data and its Promotion of OGP Values of Transparency, Accountability, and Civic Participation by Michael Canares, Regional Research Manager, Open Data Lab Jakarta Michael will speak about open data and its potential for positive change from improving the quality of public service to increasing collaboration between government, civil society and businesses. How Open Data Spurred Innovation & Increased Government Accountability in the United Kingdom by Andrew Stott, Senior Open Data Consultant, World Bank (TBC)

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Andrew will relay his experience in establishing data.gov.uk and how the data has been used to generate business, improve communication between government and the public as well as increase civic engagement. Malaysia’s Open Data Project by YBhg. Dato’ Yasmin Mahmood, Chief Executive Officer, Multimedia

Development Corporation (MDeC)

YBhg. Dato’ Yasmin Mahmood will discuss Malaysia’s current initiatives on open data efforts via data.gov.my and the government’s plans for further improvements. Questions and Answers

11.15-12.30pm Session 2: Panel Discussion on Open Data for Good Governance and Civic Engagement in Malaysia Moderator: Jeffrey Phang, Chairman, Friends of Kota Damansara Y.B. Hannah Yeoh, Member of Parliament will relay the Selangor government’s current initiatives on promoting open data and how this information can be used. Khairil Yusof, Co-Founder of Sinar Project who will speak on how open data can be improved and be better utilized in Malaysia by members of civil society. Cynthia Gabriel, Centre to Combat Corruption and Cronyism and City Councilor at PJ City Council who will speak about the importance of open data at a local council level

12.30-1.30pm Governance, Integrity, Accountability and Transparency (GIAT) Coalition Introduction and Launch by Representatives from GIAT Lunch

1.30-2.45pm Third Session: Panel Discussion on Open Data and Economic Growth and Benefits to Business

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Moderator: Wan Saiful Wan Jan, CEO of IDEAS Sandra Hanchard, Co-founder of Big Data Malaysia will discuss the current interest in big data and what types of companies use open data for their business. Sajith Sivanandan, Google Malaysia, Managing Director will reflect on how Google benefits from open data and how it uses the information to grow as a company Anthony Tan, Founder of Grab Taxi will relay a personal account on how Grab Taxi grew as a start-up using data available to them.

2.45-3.00pm Reflections and Closing Led by Representatives from GIAT

3.00pm End of Session Networking and Refreshments. Participants may visit exhibition booths

EXHIBITION The exhibition will also be organised on 18 August 2015. Each organisation in GIAT will be given space to feature works/projects that relate to access to information and the use of open data. The exhibition will show to the public currently available information from the Malaysian government and the ways to use and improve them.

● IDEAS for example can show currently available information on procurement and how this information can be improved.

● TI-Malaysia can showcase its project on beneficial ownership ● Sinar project can show its corruption tracker and parliamentarian database. ● C4 can show its work on the AG’s Report and Freedom of Information project. ● Friends of KOTA Damansara can show the Environmental Democracy Index ● CNBM can present its work on corporate governance

We will also invite businesses that have been using open data to feature their works.

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Organizers,

In support of, Coordinators,

Sponsors,

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Useful references

● http://data.gov.my/index.php: Malaysia’s open data initiative ● https://tramdas.wordpress.com/2014/07/17/analysing-data-gov-my/: short analysis

on data . govt my ● http://barometer.opendataresearch.org/report/about/index.html Open Data

Barometer, the organisation that evaluates the impact and quality of open data initiatives around the world

● http://barometer.opendataresearch.org/report/analysis/explorer.html Open Data Barometer on Malaysia

● http://bigdataanalytics.my/ part of Malaysian Government’s open data initiative ● http://poseidon01.ssrn.com/delivery.php?ID=576121020003020081110098030085

072064032043077033024024075122122067085068070080097000011050026016049049112003113104115120088024048026026076017088091004092106086081010095002080021064082021003089125065016083081092066068080107082095093124006085119127083&EXT=pdf&TYPE=2 Interesting paper on linking Access to Information initiatives and Open Data Initiatives

● http://www.opengovpartnership.org/groups/opendata/workplan OGP’s Open Data Working Group

● http://globalopendatainitiative.org/: ● http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/22b3afc4-0600-11e5-868c-00144feabdc0.html#ax

zz3byyIEue7 : the article that tells the story of UK’s open data initiatives ● http://index.okfn.org/place/: another organisation that evaluate open data initiatives

of countries around the world ● http://theodi.org/about-us: Open Data Initiative, an organisation in the UK working

on maximizing the benefits of open data especially for bussiness. They have been working with Malaysian government too.

● https://www.techinasia.com/malaysian-startups-2015/: list of start-up company

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