We build web and mobile tools, which we run as a service, to help fix poverty.

The Akvo team

Headquartered in the Netherlands

Where did the money go?

Knowledge is locked away

Reporting is ineffective

Funding is not transparent

Field surveys done by hand

38Akvo people

Akvo. Shared systems

1. POWER AND EQUALITY. These tools are seductive to governments and bureaucrats as tools of control. But how do these systems ultimately empower people and their communities to have a bigger say?

2. PUBLIC OR PRIVATE? Beware big IT consultancies carving up the “Smart Cities” market between them, targeting government people who aren’t sure what they’re buying. Big data projects should not create the equivalent of public toll roads.

3. THE GOOGLE AND FACEBOOK FACTOR. Beware public data projects that are led by firms underpinned by advertising-based business models. Ask yourself, ultimately, where is the money coming from here? How will that corrupt or enhance the project long term?

4. THE ETHICS OF PUBLIC DATA. How do we develop an ethical basis for data practitioners right around the world? Doctors know how to kill but they have a code of ethics that means they don’t. How do we ensure that data ethics develop, so the less educated, the less numerate, do not suffer at the hands of those with the knowledge, skills and motive to abuse their position?