The Open Data Anniversary: A Decade of Change event was organized by Holka’s partners within the project ReCharge UA is in your power — the DEJURE Foundation in cooperation with the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine, with support from the Federal Foreign Office of Germany.
Open Data: 10 Years of Ukraine’s Growth. Who Creates New Challenges for Transparency During Wartime?
This October marks ten years since the Ukrainian government adopted Resolution No. 835 on open data. Today, around 50,000 people work in the open data sector, which generates 4% of Ukraine’s GDP, according to Nataliia Chornogub, Head of the GR Department at YouControl, who spoke at the event “Open Data Anniversary: A Decade of Change.”
At the same time, representatives of several civil society organizations emphasized that during wartime there are growing cases where such data is being unjustifiably restricted. In particular, a number of civil society representatives criticized the initiative of MP Ihor Fris (Servant of the People), the main author of a law that limits access to data from the Real Estate Register.
Another serious issue is non-compliance with existing legislation by authorities at various levels. Nadiia Babynska, an open data expert and founder of CDC, called on citizens to monitor government actions and demand that officials comply with what the law requires.
Yevheniia Drozdova, Head of the Data Journalism Department at Texty.org.ua, noted that data providers sometimes feel discouraged when their datasets receive little attention:
Yevheniia Drozdova
Head of the Data Journalism Department at Texty.org.ua
Of course, preparing data takes a lot of resources. When a dataset creator sees only five views, they might reasonably ask: why bother, and who even needs this? But I advise everyone to treat open data like a first-aid kit — a Data Aid Kit. When we analyzed public transport movement in Kyiv, we discovered that even after an air raid alert ends, it takes several hours for transport to resume normal routes. Data helped us identify and visualize a real problem.
That’s why access to data should remain open, so we can respond to society’s questions and illustrate key issues whenever needed. As for dashboards, they don’t replace the data itself. If there’s a chance to make them — fine, but there must always be a link to the dataset, not just a dashboard instead of an API.
That’s why access to data should remain open, so we can respond to society’s questions and illustrate key issues whenever needed. As for dashboards, they don’t replace the data itself. If there’s a chance to make them — fine, but there must always be a link to the dataset, not just a dashboard instead of an API.
Vasyl Zhuk, backend architect at the civic initiative Holka and developer of the tool ReCharge UA is in your power — a single digital window for civil society advocacy — shared the challenges of working with parliamentary data from the Verkhovna Rada website:
Vasyl Zhuk
backend architect at the civic initiative Holka
Our tool is essentially a visualization of MPs’ conscience in a way understandable to their future voters.Voting for a beneficial bill? A green battery — plus to karma. Voting against a useful initiative, or for a harmful one? Red battery — minus to karma.Yellow means abstained, gray means skipped or avoided responsibility. The main challenges, apart from the technical accessibility and quality of the voting data, include developing an objective model for evaluating bills, with input from the most competent experts. We’re working on this together with our partners from the Center for Innovation Development.
How the System Distributes MPs’ Votes After Each Session
Marta Bereza, a lawyer at DEJURE Foundation and an open data expert, stated:
Marta Bereza
a lawyer at DEJURE Foundation and an open data expert
Over ten years of open data development in Ukraine, we’ve seen that open data is an essential foundation for public oversight, investigative journalism, startups, and everyday digital services used by Ukrainians. At the Open Data Anniversary event, we saw only a fraction of the incredible projects created using open data. Our main challenge now is to preserve these achievements and protect open data from being shut down — a process that some MPs and government officials are ‘successfully’ pushing under the pretext of protecting information from the aggressor.
