Community building around Edo state Open data Portal in NigeriaPRESENTED BYOkwuone NkechiSchool of data Fellow Nigeria@enkayfreda21st November, 2015.

What we will be talking about

1. What is a community

2. Why starting one was important

3. My community building experience

4. Challenges of organizing a community in Nigeria

5. Some generous tips

6. Reference and Resources

Target Audience

This should be useful to ...● Civil Societies

● NGOs

● Tech Communities

● other Enthusiasts

… and anyone that has a pressing social problem and does

not want to solve it alone.

What is a community?

A community: what is it ?

Wikipedia

Why starting one was important..

What is the Open data community like in Nigeria?

● Open data is a very new topic

● Transparency is not a much talked about topic.

● Inclusive and participatory governance has not been our

way of life

● Advocacy and civic engagement is mostly done without

technology

● Edo state is the only state out of 36 states that has an

open data portal

Some problems couldn’t be solved alone

● There was a disconnect between the supply and user

demand of open data

● Demand was being placed on us for open data to

translate into economic use

● The stakeholders (Government, CSOs) were interested

in exploring how this can work.

● Open data is a new jargon in Nigeria and people can’t

just understand what the fuss is all about

My Community building experience

To get a pulse of the open data community?

● We sent out surveys to find like minds

● Did an hangout to create awareness and a community

needs assessment

● We created a communication system (both offline and

online)

● Drew out a road map to actively engage them for the first

6 months.

Lessons Learnt•A community is as vibrant as its leader

•If you are not registered/associated or backed up, you are

not recognized

•You will have to learn on your community and re-strategise

regularly

•The community will always plateau

•Double effort is needed to make a case as to why you have

chosen your goal for starting a community

Lessons Learnt Contd...•Be empathetic but disciplined and focused

•You alone cannot change the world. - Pick a problem and

get good at solving it.

Challenges of organizing a community in Nigeria

Existing challenges

•Literacy level is quite low - 59.6% (wikipedia)

•Internet penetration is low - 30% (network world)

•There are more offline than online people

•People are easily distracted or dissuaded

How we work around these challenges

Low literacy level•We always test our audience with little task to know how

basic we should go.

•We have an agenda but keep it a bit open to cater for side

interests

•When talking about open data - We have more time for

questions than actually teaching

•Use cases are actually our best cases.

Low internet penetration•We use charts, markers, stick notes

•We don't use and online

presentation documents and always

give them a take home folder of

resources

•Get them to document their ideas,

this form as input to next sessions.

•if we have to use the internet, We

always have a plan B

More People Offline than online

● We try to visualize and

conceptualize on paper

● We still use fliers, group letters

and word of mouth for publicity

● Seek for opportunities for

collaboration on their ideas and

projects

● We end events by collecting

their skill needs and hold regular

meetups to address them

Thinking about Nigeria? ● Come with an open mind

● Have a bucket load of patience

● Resilience and consistency is a must have skill

● Never expect too much

● Always have a plan B in all your plans

● You have to be dogged

● Be prepared to go as basic as basic

What do we need?

what would be the outcome?

how will we make it sustainable?

Questions

Resources

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_literacy_rate

2. http://www.networkworld.com/article/2860254/tech-telecom-contribute-

10-percent-of-nigerias-gdp-ict-minister-says.html