Open Data in the Caribbean - Initial Study

Open Data in the Caribbean has the potential to provide a powerful catalyst for enabling greater accountability and transparency; improving public sector efficiency and service delivery; and stimulating economic development through the active, participatory innovation between regional governments and caribbean civil society. The initial  Open Data activities in the the Caribbean were implemented through a node of the Caribbean Open Institute, based at the Mona School of Business and Management, UWI and has facilitated several demand-side initiatives:
The inception Open Data project conducted by the Caribbean Open Institute involved the following major components:
  • Build institutional capacity to promote, facilitate and provide sustainable support for open data policies, standards and initiatives across the region
    • Develop Open Data API’s, demonstration applications, tools, and resources 
    • Establish Open data standards, best practices, sample code, open source tools, training tools and standards/formats/vocabulary
    • Caribbean Open Data conference  -  DevCA2012 / 2013
    • Workshops to build awareness and visibility and facilitate Institutional and community capacity building
  • Support the field deployment of open data initiatives in Agriculture and extend actions to other information-intensive sectors (local & regional)
    • Engage regional Governments to formalize and institute Open Data Policies
    • Linkages to “FOIA” and Public Sector Modernization (Service Delivery) initiatives 
    • Field deployment of the mobile and web applications developed as proof-of-concept
  • Develop a research agenda that investigates and informs the use and impact of Open Data in the Region
For more details on the initial Open Data pilot project, retrieve the Project Report.