The International Open Data Day is a gathering of citizens in cities around the world to develop applications, liberate data, create visualisations and publish analyses using open public data to show support for and encourage the adoption of data policies by the world’s local, regional and national governments.

Open Institute is excited to be hosting Kenya’s edition of Open Data Day in a hackathon event taking place simultaneously in 3 cities: Nairobi, Kisumu and Mombasa. We’re even more excited that we’ll be hosting the event to a full house, with tickets for all three cities already sold out! (Don’t worry if you missed out on a ticket, you can still join the waitlist). We’ll be providing the food, drinks and data for this great opportunity to meet new people, learn new skills and have a good time.

All of this would not be possible without the fantastic set of community organisers that have been working hard to set everything in motion in all three cities:

Kisumu

Organised by LakeHub‘s co-founder Evan Greene-Low

Where: Maseno University Town Campus (Varsity Plaza)

Mombasa

Organised by Ahmed Maawy, Mombasa Tech Community Lead

Where: Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology Mombasa Campus

Nairobi

Organised by Open Institute‘s Community Lead, Simeon Oriko

Where: PAWA254

Whether you’ve registered to attend the event or not, here are three things you can do right now to make Open Data Day awesome:

1. Submit your ideas for projects you want to work on

Do you have an idea of what you’d like to work on during the event? Share it on the homepage of the event website (http://opendataday.co.ke/) and fill in the Google form at the bottom of the page. You can also see the list of submitted projects here: http://opendataday.co.ke/project-ideas

2. Send us any (and every) data you have

What would Open Data Day be without data? If you have any data, please add it to this folder on Google Drive: https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0Bwjxv9I45D1yM0JtSFRRcVVfZlk&usp=sharing

3. Sharing is caring

Spread the word about Open Data Day! Let’s get others to participate by publicising this information. The official hashtags for the event are #ODD14 and #ODDKenya, with specific cities also tweeting on #ODDKisumu, #ODDNairobi and #ODDMombasa.

Kudos to the Kisumu local team! They made this really cool poster for participants to share on their social media accounts and blogs for the event

We’re really looking forward to the event and hope you are too. If you have any questions about the event, feel free to email us at hello@openinstitute.com. Tweeting? We’ll be responding to queries on @Open_Institute.

Want to know more about Open Data Day? Watch this 30-minute hangout of with the founders Open Data Day explaining the history of the global event and sharing their tips on preparing for a successful hackathon. Bonus: This hangout also features our very own Simeon Oriko (skip ahead to the 18:40 mark) who describes why we’re so excited to host Open Data Day simultaneously in the three cities.

Need some inspiration? Have a look at David Eaves blog for great ideas of what to do on Open Data Day. 

Happy hacking! 🙂

How will you be taking part in Open Data Day? Tell us in the comments section below.