Uruguay’s open data challenge moves forward

5 teams were selected to receive seed grant to develop data and climate change projects

By Mercedes de los Santos, Project Manager, Open Data Charter

September 1st — Pitch day 27 de julio — Lanzamiento del Concurso de Datos Climáticos Abiertos

The Ministry of Environment and the Agency of Electronic Government and Information Society (AGESIC) of Uruguay, with support from the Open Data Charter (ODC), the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the Open Data Institute (ODI) and Microsoft, selected five teams to participate in Uruguay’s Open Climate Data Challenge. The initiative seeks to promote the use of public climate data for the development of projects that contribute to transparency, participation and citizen collaboration, as well as data and/or research projects that promote better public policies capable of addressing the impact of climate change.

On 27 July, the competition was formally launched. Aimed at students, developers, entrepreneurs, journalists, communicators, activists, researchers, private organisations and civil society organisations, the event was attended by the IDB representative in Uruguay, Matías Bendersky; the General Director of the Secretariat of the Ministry of Environment, Diego Iglesias; the Executive Director of Open Data Charter, Natalia Carfi and the Executive Director of Agesic, Hebert Paguas.

July 27th — Launch of the Climate Open Data Challenge

The call was open for more than a month on the official website of the Ministry of Environment of Uruguay and more than ten proposals were received focused on the use of new technologies to take advantage of and improve the data published on the Open Data Portal. During that month, public talks were held on the specific topics of the competition and on the open data available so that teams could expand on their ideas.

Elevator Pitch and mentorship process

Pitch Day took place on September 1st. 7 teams presented their projects to the Jury, composed of representatives of the Ministry of Environment, AGESIC, IDB and Open Data Charter, in a face-to-face event at the Government House. The presented an “elevator pitch”, outlining their main ideas concisely Of the seven projects, five were selected to move on to the next stage of incubation:

• Organic Uruguay: The project proposes the development of a platform to raise public awareness about the ecological footprint of our food production system. Through visualisations and an interactive map of the environment we live in, this project aims to provide information on local organic food production available.
• Multimedia platform: Using investigative journalism, the project aims to develop a microsite that clearly visualises the threats, problems and solutions that Uruguay has found regarding Climate Change.
• Cyanobacteria: Based on available data regarding the presence of toxin-producing cyanobacteria (microcystin) in Uruguay’s water reservoirs, the project aims to raise awareness for microcystins and their health risk factors. The initiative will include proposals for preventive measures to minimise water deterioration in order to avoid health, ecological and economic damage.

September 1st — Pitch day: project’s presentations

• CEMPRE: The team proposed to develop an interactive map that integrates data on waste generation and management as well as perceptions on waste, zonally and by municipality. This data will be cross-referenced with information on greenhouse gases produced by waste.
• Uruguay 2100: The development of a web visualisation application to raise awareness among the Uruguayan population about the impact of climate change on the coastal zone and changes in the ecosystem at a nation-wide level.. The application will showcase an interactive map with different scenarios that can be sorted according to temperature levels, sea levels, and international commitments, among others.

The selected teams were given seed capital of $2,000 USD for the incubation stage. This stage will span two and a half months and consists of mentoring to strengthen the process of ideation and creation of the project. The teams will be guided by mentors that will help the development of the projects, including data scientists from Microsoft and the ODI´s specialists on data ethics, data infrastructure and data ecosystem mapping. At the end of this process, Microsoft will award the winning team with a $5,000 USD cash prize.

Watch the talks that were held on the specific topics of the Open Climate Data Challenge on our Youtube Channel.