Day 1
The conference started with welcome remarks delivered by the Head of Department responsible for hosting the event, Dr. Margaret Bernard. Dr Bernard highlighted the University's commitment to providing opportunities for developers and various stakeholder involved in Open Data to explore the potential for development, innovation and .
It is interested to note, that this conference was held simultaneously with Jamaica. Mr. Paul Kukubo, CEO of Kenyan ICT Board delivered a keynote address on the perspectives of the Kenyan Open Data Initiative. He highlighted via the live stream, the importance of ensuring that Open Data Initiatives be integrated with other ICT programmes of the government. He highlighted the many challenges with keeping data up-to-date and stress the continual provision of value is critical to Open Data success.
Mr. Dave Clement, former Director of the Central Statistics Office, Trinidad & Tobago. Mr. Clement was instrumental in Trinidad and Tobago for ensuring that 2011 Census Data was featured as a pivotal theme in the 2013 Developing Caribbean Initiative in Trinidad and Tobago. He identified that in many cases, the challenges of open information access is not caused by the unwillingness of public servants, but rather is the constraints created by the legal environment in which many of these individuals and institutions operate. He also identified the need for the development of a system that will allow interested parties to access the details required from the census data without giving access to the sensitive and confidential information of individual respondents of the census.
Mr. Sudesh Lutch, Data Coordinator and Local CKan Expert, gave a briefing on the 24 hour Code Sprint event, followed by Mr. Craig Ramlal, Director of Technologies at Slashroots, introduced the concept of "Code for the Caribbean (CFTC).
A break was given, where the Code Sprinters departed to start the 24 hour Code Sprint competition. 14 teams registered for the competition.
The first theme of the conference, Openness, Data and Development was explored with brief words from the Sustainable Economic Development Unit (SEDU) of Trinidad & Tobago on the Socio-Economic Impact of Technological Innovation with the Liberalization of Census Data.
Mr. Eric Nurse, Vice Chair of the Information for All Programme (IFAP) of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) presented on "The future direction and role of Open Data in regional development, The UNESCO experience."
Mr. Sean Paddington, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and Institute of Marine Affairs Trinidad & Tobago (IMA), gave Web Atlases' use and development for web management in the context of open data. He demonstrated tangibly through the various graphs and atlases of the Caribbean coral reefs and other atlases, that were generated only through the use of publicly available data. He identified the need to work with multiple datasets and highlighted the need for standards for ensuring the validity of the information.
Mr. Gerard Best, Guardian T&T, explored the future of Journalism in a Digital Age, followed by Mr. Nigel Henry, Political Simulations, delivered on Reporting through Prediction: A vision of the future through Data.
Mr Gerard Best highlighted that it was important to note that journalism has both the potential to create benefit but also harm. He identified with personal examples how technology has impacted his investigative process and gave examples of how he foresees data journalism play a role in traditional media. He also highlighted the commitment of Guardian TT and identified the media outlet forward thinking attitude demonstrated in its commitment to explore future opportunities with Open Data and Data Journalism with the University of the West Indies.
Mr Nigel Henry gave an comparative overview of his experience acquiring data in Trinidad and Tobago with a similar exercise in the United States for the purposes of analysis and prediction of political results in the respective countries.
After the presentations, an Open Floor, a Panel discussion was started. Members of the Panel comprised Mr. Khafra Murray, Best of TnT; Mr. Anil Ramnanan, Trinidad & Tobago Computing Society; Dr. Patrick Hosein, DCIT, UWI; Mr. Nigel Henry; Mr. Eric Nurse and Mr Sean Paddington.
Second Day
Welcome remarks were given by Mr. Kyle DeFreitas, Instructor at DCIT and Senior Coordinator for this year's Developing the Caribbean Open Data Conference and Code Sprint.
The solutions developed by the sprinters over 24 hours were presented to the panel of judges.
After the presentations and while the judges deliberated, Mr. Ian Alleyne of the University of Trinidad & Tobago gave a rousing talk on Sprinting to the Finish: Inspiring a New Generation of Companies in Open Data.
The Judges Delivered their remarks and gave the Results.
1st Place - More Code (Kailash Maharaj, Yajesh Maharaj)
2nd Place - Protos (Sterling Ramroach, Keshav Bahadoor, Alysia Huggins, Leslie Ann Lai)
3rd Place - Team X (Darryl Grant, Emeka Farrier, Kevan St. Brice)