A weeklong open data workshop for a section of Comprehensive African
Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) Journalists Network, recently ended
in Nairobi, Kenya, with a call for embrace and more training in media sphere.
REMMY NWEKE who was there for NaijaAgroNet reports.
Prologue:
CONCERNED about
repositioning the continental media in Africa to the buddingopen data
revolution aimed at increasing agriculture growth rates to a minimum of six per
cent annually to create wealth, paved the way for a week-long workshop for
members of the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP)
Journalists Network in the capital of Kenya, Nairobi.
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NaijaAgroNet reports that the training session which held between July
25 and 28, 2016 recognises that CAADP whose growth-focus is on agricultural
development agendaof the African Union (AU) Heads of States and Government.
Welcoming
participant, the Project Coordinator at Technical Centre for Agricultural and
Rural Cooperation ACP-EU (CTA) Ms Isaura Lopes Ramos on behalf of the Programme
Manager, Policy, Markets and Information and Communications Technologies
(ICTs), Lamon Rutten, noted CTA is leading the partnership for the open data
training which is part of the Global Open Data for Impact and Capacity
Development on Agriculture and Nutrition (GODIVAN) scheme, a Department for
International Development (DFID) project.
Partnership
that works:
This project,
Ramos saidis a joint venture of international partners with the aim to increase
agricultural sector production, improved nutrition for consumers and more
evidence-based policy making, in which these desired changes are based on
enabling communities to practically engage with open data.
NaijaAgroNet also gathered that within the context of this project,
CTA in partnership with the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD)
Agencyas facilitated by Local Development Research Institute (LDRI) organized
the 4-day open data training with the goal to build the capacity of media
practitioners so as to monitor progress and report on the implementation of the
CAADP through the use of agriculture data and research, thereby strengthening
reports on agriculture in Africa and developments as well as intensifying the
advocacy efforts of civil society organisations, whilst participants becoming
greater champions.
A head start
to open data journalism exploration:
In his
remarks, the Executive Director, LDRI, Mr. Muchiri Nyaggah called on African
media to adopt open data to allowmore evidence-based story delivery,
underlining the training objectives among others to include enthroning
innovative ways to disseminate news and advocacy content to increased awareness
on the agricultural transformation agenda in Africa.
Nyaggah also
suggested five head starts which could motivate discuss on open data from the
African perspective among media practitioners, so as to encourage improvement
in agriculture produce. His catalogue include the possibility of African media
practitioners focusing on progress in agricultural productivity, stunting in
children under five, domestic food prices, possible advances in agricultural
produce and improving capacity to generate agriculture statistics for good governance.
These
outlines, he said, are doable and could be explored before the end of this
year, mostly collaborating with members of the network. He expressed optimism
that the outcome will be memorable as LDRI and partners are on queue to
technically support participants in order to improve their deployment of open
data in daily newsroom activities.Even as he disclosed, some of the suggestions
will be further espoused on TransformAgriculture.org and selected for the CTA
magazine.
Between
Media, agricultural revolution and Africa we want:
The chief
executive officer, Africa Media Initiative (AMI) Mr. Eric Chinje, in his
remarks at the training described open data as critical to solution of the
Africa’s continent challenges, urging media practitioners to discharge
themselves of the ‘watchdog’ or ‘forth estate of the realm’ maximsif they
cannot use their tools to enthrone good governance and leadership for the
common good of Africans.
According to
him, any supposed dog watching over certain part of the society on behalf of
the people or less privileged must be able to stand up to be counted at all
times through holding of those in leadership or authorities adequately
responsible for the path or direction the society goes to. Stressing,“The
purpose of the media is helping Africa to address the change we all wanted,”
urging media to live above board by
ensuring that they bridge the gap through reportage that are evidence-based and
undisputable by anybody because such a report has sufficient data to show or
vindicate itself.
Chinje was
hopeful that Africa and media practitioners precisely have a brighter future by
offering adequate coverage on what unites the continent more like agriculture
than what divides Africa, adding that such a focus should be on building a legacy
worthy of emulation in no distance future.
Open data
gospel according to Steve Nyumba:
Scaling the
workshop, the co-founding director at the Local Development Research Institute
(LDRI), Mr. Stephen Nyumba offered some insights on how open data concept could
be leveraged through application for the agriculture sector by African media.
He told participants in a paper“Open Data for Agriculture” that in being open
connotes a lot for different people and media practitioners must discern these
to ensure whatever definition they are using is seemingly holistic.
As said by
him, for a data to be open means that the “Open data and content can be freely
used, modified, and shared by anyone for any purpose,” hencehe posited that
concept and application entails that open data and content are often provided
by the publisher with “explicit permission allowing for their use, re-use,
re-distribution or re-purposing with little or no restriction.” Just as Nyumba
canvassed that before any reuse, it is important for the user which in this
case is a media outlet or practitioner, who wants to tell his or her story
differently with infographics to check if the potential content is open or
restricted.
This, Nyumba
said, could be achieved by way of looking critically at the license of the
publication, which very often comes as Creative Commons, otherwise, he advised
that the publisher be asked for permission or clarification, so as to eschew
any kind of legal bottleneck afterwards,therefore affording media the
opportunity to make informed assumptions.
Understanding
files extensions in open data:
In addition,
Nyumba underscored the importance of file extensions in open data, stressing
that their exploration on open data contents cannot be over-emphasised.
According to Tech Terms Computer Dictionary, a file extension or ‘simply
extension’ is the ending of a file that helps identify the type of file in
operating systems such as Microsoft Windows. In Microsoft Windows, the file
extension is a period that is often followed by three characters, but may also
be one, two, or four characters long. For example, the filename “myfile.txt”
has an extension of “.txt”, which is a file extension associated with text
files.
He
highlighted some kinds of file formats open data content come with such as the
Comma Separated Values (CSV), the Microsoft Excel created spreadsheet file
extension known as XLS and assumed the most widely-used spreadsheet programme
which comes in either XLS or XLSX. The XLSX file formats are extensions created
in 2007 and later versions.
As the
Portable Document Format is for (PDF) file extension, he noted that DOC
extension file is an abbreviation of ‘document’ for Word Processing documents,
most commonly Microsoft Word Binary File Format and have since been extended to
even Word Perfect file format. Just as the DOCX file extension is a Microsoft
Word Open XML Format Document file dating from Microsoft Windows 2007, which
comes as part of the Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack.
In addition,
he highlighted that the Extensible Markup Language (XML) file formats do exist,
whereas the JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) is a lightweight data-interchange
format, among others, of which datasets are documented. Pointing out that some
of the extension file formats could sound like jargons, but it is crucial to
know a little of some of these formats, mostly for media practitioners who
stand in-between the data contents and populace who ought to understand the
gist in the story, no matter how complicated the data seems.
He assured of
LDRI determined support for African Union (AU) member states in their efforts
to end hunger, poverty and reduce inequality through data exposition,
emphasizing that with good datasets, good stories could emerge with evidence.
Outsourcing
infographic options:
Equally
sharing thoughts on technicalities of fast-tracking adoption of open data and
application in corporate environment like media, Research Analyst, Gro
Intelligence Kenya, Mr. Antal Neville, said they are ready to accommodate the
outsourcing of datasets into infographics to aid busy professionals in their
service deliveries.
He noted that
by transforming data into information, Gro Intelligence assists customers to
easily search clews to gain intelligence and be better informed in their
decision making, just as Neville enjoined African media practitioners to take
advantage of the entity options to maximize their narratives.
Submission:
After the
weeklong training, some of the participants confessed to NaijaAgroNet
their skepticisms at the beginning from the open data workshop, but eventually,
they can now tell a better story using infographics made out of open datasets
as part of the exercises, which include practical, group works and
presentations.
Therefore,
giving credence to the promise made by LDRI and partners that participants
drawn from CAAD Journalist Network will be trained on how to find, present and
visualise data suitable to journalists’ needs, such as creating charts, maps or
galleries, whereas providing them with essential concepts, techniques and
skills to effectively work with data and produce compelling data stories.
However, the need to continuously keep a tap on
participants with more capacity building on open data through exposure to more
innovations based on active participation in open data conferences and
interfacing with expertsare also critical as much as participant’s individual
determination to embrace new concepts in telling their stories, which
definitely will stand them out among equals, aside the incentivisations along
the side.... Linking agrobiz, sustainable environs, people & technology
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