Open Data in Trinidad and Tobago

What is open data? Open data is free to use and share and made available in standard formats that facilitate this. The data is available without legal, technological or social restrictions.

Why open data? At a high level we are looking at ease and facilitating data driven decision making and its benefits. We looking at accountability, efficiency and innovation. The open knowledge foundation does a good job of answering this question in their open data handbook under why open data?

As a coder and web developer, I am particularly interested in the apps, visualisations and infographics, among other things, that can be created. At the recently held GDG POS firebase study jam I saw examples of how the Trinidad and Tobago Ministry of Health covid-19 stats could be nicely graphed and filtered. That data had to be scraped and manually entered instead of being accessible in an open data format.

We are ranked 67th (out of 94) in the 2016 Global Open Data Index with a score of 21%. That is pretty dismal and leaves a lot of room for improvement. From the Open Data Barometer website we see that the data exist and most is available online BUT not in machine readable and useable format. We have data.gov.tt and data.tt with very little to show. Where is CSO in all of this? They have a nice enough website and platform and some useful stats. Can't be too hard to extend this. Every Ministry should be mandated to provide at least 10 open data feeds as part of their website development to get the ball rolling so to speak.

While researching for this blog post I came across this link that says that Trinidad and Tobago has been withdrawn from the Open Government Partnership. It states that, "This decision follows the 2018 resolution of the OGP Steering Committee to designate Trinidad and Tobago as inactive in OGP due to failure to deliver an action plan since 2016." Open data is a big part of open government.

Open data and open government are things that we should be prioritising. The benefits and needs are clear but we seem to be lacking the will power and guidance. I want to see a dedicated Minister of Technology. Someone who appreciates the importance of open data and who could pick up the slack.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

My notes from the book "Lessons from my life"

My notes from this book. If you are interested in what I noted then give the book a read. This is the best book I have read to date. I loved all of it and I will work to put what I learnt into practice. God bless the author Ahmad. Free on Amazon Kindle - https://a.co/4FW6x4L Faith is not theoretical, it must be lived by Focus on improvement Treat others as you would like to be treated Values-based vision guided by faith in God Aim to mitigate the daily struggles of others There is potential within us all Life comprises of faith as the inner dimension and practice as the outer dimension Believers must be exemplars The true value of the Quran is in its ability to change people's lives Islam is a religion of unity We must deal with differences of opinions in a civilised manner Do what you can and when you can because perfection is an attribute of God alone Believers are constant givers Success = the coming together of souls and ideas Humility is required for this type of work (dawah w
Read more

My notes from the book "Micro Habits"

My notes from this book. If you are interested in what I noted then give the book a read. I love self help books. Change begins with me. I love learning from others. I will review this list every morning and see how many I can accomplish and even add my own micro habits from time to time. Really has me thinking about how small steps can lead to big results. Free on Amazon Kindle - https://a.co/fzfRhjX Turning our life around takes time Small and manageable steps can help us avoid giving up early in the game Focus through minimising distractions and temptations Do some small exercise as soon as you wake up The effectiveness of working out in the morning is backed by several studies Morning workouts can help curb your appetite Try less sugar. Sugar masks the taste and flavour of the food. Try balancing on one leg at a time while doing a task like making a cup of tea - a great exercise for the brain apparently Have good posture when sitting Take regular breaks from staring at the screen D
Read more

Contentment

Last night my friend said to me I want to know what paradise is about I answered I think paradise can be imagined from this viewpoint [human existence] as everything you want The feeling [of having everything you want] that is and not the actual things ... [I imagine wants and things will be different in paradise] Contentment in this world can bring you closer to that [feeling] My friend said that was wisely said I woke up this morning and I decided to write and I remembered what I had said the night before. I decided to Google "paradise contentment hadith" and the first result that came up led me to this Al-Sarri ibn Hassan reported: Abdul Wahid ibn Zayd, may Allah have mercy on him, said, "Contentment is one of the greatest doors to Allah, the Paradise of this world, and the repose of the worshipers." And that is exactly what I was trying to say. Contentment is the Paradise of this world. Another way of thinking about contentment is thinking about gratitude. I not
Read more

Mask

I was scrolling through facebook and came across the Afritondo Short Story Prize 2025. The theme is "masks" and the first thing that I noticed is that the word mask contains the word ask. And that is what I will write about. There is a proverb that goes like this, "closed mouths do not get fed." Many of society teaches us that we must be strong. We must be able to stand on our own. We must fight our battles individually. No one cares. Everyone is busy fighting their own battles. We wear our battle masks to face the world full of problems and strife. We pretend that we are strong and that everything is going well. As someone who lives with mental illness and who has battled for more than twenty years, the best advise that I can give, is to ask for help. Take off the mask and ask. Ask for help from God. Ask for help from relatives. Ask for help from the professionals. Ask for help from the internet. Ask for help from the books. Ask for help from wherever help is avail
Read more

My Experience Setting Up FLOW's TG2492LG-FLO WIFI Modem

Image
Note : I get a lot of views on this blog post. It helps with future updates, if you message me stating what you need help with. See video on how to change password - Change Flow Trinidad Wifi Modem Password - TG2492LG-FLO I had one of the early purely modem devices for about 7 or more years now. I connected this to my Linksys router and I was set. The router is old and does not have all the features of modern routers but it worked. Did a house call the other day and saw that the person had the WIFI modem with their AVS setup. Then it occurred to me that I should switch out my modem for a WIFI modem. That way I wouldn't have to worry about buying a new router when it was time for that. Made some notes after setting up my device and I am sharing it on my blog here. I access the settings using the https link so that credentials entered are encrypted while communicating with the router - https://192.168.0.1/ The username is admin and the default password is printed on the bottom of the
Read more