World Bank Open Data evangelist, Dr. Tariq Khokhar will deliver the keynote address at the Opening Plenary of the Mona School of Business-hosted SlashRoots-Caribbean Open Data Conference, which is being presented under the theme, “Developing the Caribbean.”  Describing his interests as being “where technology, transparency, poverty and data meet”, Dr. Khokhar will speak on the topic: “Open Data: The New Revolution”. The Conference which takes place January 26-27, in the Faculty of Law building at the Mona campus, opens on the first day of the University of the West Indies’ “Research Day.”  
 
Open data is a recent and rapidly growing practice of Governments sharing public sector data on the Web in such a way that empowers civil society organizations, businesses and individuals to access, consume and reuse those data to conduct research as well as develop innovative applications that can enhance public and private sector service delivery to citizens. The SlashRoots Caribbean Open Data Conference, will explore the potential for this approach to harness publicly available information with increasingly accessible ICTs as a means of tackling pressing economic, social and environmental challenges which Caribbean Societies share across common areas of production such as agriculture, trade and tourism.
 
MSB’s Dr. Maurice McNaughton, Chair of the coordinating group in Jamaica, says, “The Caribbean Open Date Conference is more than just an event, It is a process of engagement that seeks to demonstrate the power of “Openness”, specifically, Open Data, Open Innovation, and Open Source, as a catalyst for innovation, collaboration, and ultimately value-creation for Caribbean peoples, organizations and the societies at large.”
 
The Conference, which will take place simultaneously, in Kingston Jamaica, Port of Spain, Trinidad and in Santo Domingo, is the first regional Code Sprint of its kind focused on Open Data Web Development. The three events will be synchronized through live video streaming during which all presentations will be shared across venues and on the web. The Kingston leg of the conference is being coordinated by the Mona School of Business, in collaboration with Slashroots, an emerging group of technology enthusiasts geared towards supporting and encouraging technology innovation and fostering a software developer community that directly responds to the needs of the social and economic agenda. 
 
The main highlight of the conference will be a national and regional software developer competition, known as a Code Sprint. Teams of programmers in the host locations of Jamaica, Trinidad and Dominican Republic will have a 24-hr period to build applications which showcase the benefits of open data and increased ICT access, as possible solutions to problems identified in the main thematic areas. Other developer teams from Barbados, Guyana and Cuba will participate virtually in the competition.
 
Consistent with the theme of the Conference, special emphasis will be placed on engaging stakeholders from private, public, and the civil society to “think aloud” about common problems and challenges and generate ideas about the potential use of new information and communication technologies in finding indigenous solutions. This Ideation process will become a catalyst for developers to contemplate solutions to the various problems and ideas over the course of the code sprint and beyond.
Open to the general public, any interested member of the public and private sector as well as NGOs and individuals are all invited to participate in the process. More details and registration information can be found at the Conference website: http://developingcaribbean.org
 
Other contributing agencies include STATIN, TPDCo, RADA in the Ministry of Agriculture and the Spatial Data Management Division in the Ministry of Water & Housing. The conference and ongoing Open Data initiative is sponsored by the International Development Research Centre.