Open Data Day 2019

Celebrating the benefits of open data around the world

Mapbox

By: Mikel Maron

Happy Open Data Day! Thousands of people at over 250 events around the globe are gathering to create, build with, and promote open data in government, civil society, and business. Mapbox partnered with the Open Knowledge Foundation for a second year to sponsor mini-grants for projects and events in the Open Mapping theme and we can’t wait to see what everyone builds.

Last year we saw activists in Côte d’Ivoire work on geographic data for transparency mining and oil exploration, the students at National University of Engineering in Managua mapped an inventory of informal housing construction types in OpenStreetMap, and Fogos.pt used public datasets and Mapbox to build the most popular website to track fires in Portugal. And there were more amazing efforts in Tanzania, Namibia, Denver, Rwanda, Helsinki, Poland, and Washington DC.

Here are some projects that we’re excited to follow this year:

• Open Knowledge Brasil will build a database of existing dams in Brasil following Brumadinho dam disaster.
• OpenStreetMap Kenya will share how open data can be created and used for urban planning and architecture.
• OpenStreetMap Taiwan and Wikimedia Taiwan are hosting events to improve the geographic data for hospitals, educational institutions, and infrastructure important to women.
• Code for Columbus will use the city’s new open data portal and open data from the regional planning commission to investigate social problems in the city.

Check out opendataday.org for a full listing of events.

Close to home for us, Mapping DC is hosting a mapathon today to improve open data on bike lanes across Washington D.C. And Code for San Francisco is hosting a full-day event on Sunday with projects and workshops from DataSF, MUNI Challenge, SF Bike Lane Breach, and ShelterTech to tackle challenges of homelessness, transit, and bicycle infrastructure using open data. We hope to see you there!

Share your projects with #OpenDataDay and #odd19, and reach out to the Community team for support on your open data projects.