| APrIGF 2025 Session Proposal Submission Form | |||||||||||||||
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| Part 1 - Lead Organizer | |||||||||||||||
| Contact Person | |||||||||||||||
| Mr. Nikesh Balami | |||||||||||||||
| Organization / Affiliation (Please state "Individual" if appropriate) * | |||||||||||||||
| Open Knowledge Nepal | |||||||||||||||
| Designation | |||||||||||||||
| Co-founder and CEO | |||||||||||||||
| Gender | |||||||||||||||
| Male | |||||||||||||||
| Economy of Residence | |||||||||||||||
| Nepal | |||||||||||||||
| Stakeholder Group | |||||||||||||||
| Civil Society | |||||||||||||||
| Part 2 - Session Proposal | |||||||||||||||
| Session Title | |||||||||||||||
| Empowering Data for All: Unlocking Trust and Transparency using Open Data Editor | |||||||||||||||
| Thematic Track of Your Session | |||||||||||||||
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| Description of Session Formats | |||||||||||||||
| Workshop (60 minutes) | |||||||||||||||
| Where do you plan to organize your session? | |||||||||||||||
| Onsite at the venue (with online moderator for questions and comments from remote participants) | |||||||||||||||
| Specific Issues for Discussion | |||||||||||||||
| This session will introduce the Open Data Editor (ODE), an open-source desktop application developed by the Open Knowledge Foundation. Built for civil society, journalists, local governments, and grassroots activists, especially those without programming skills, ODE enables users to detect and correct errors in tabular datasets (Excel, CSV, Google Sheets) in offline, low-resource settings. In the Asia-Pacific region, many public-interest actors face barriers to using data effectively due to limited connectivity, digital literacy, and access to privacy-respecting tools. This session responds to these challenges by showcasing how lightweight, user-friendly civic tech like ODE can advance data quality, digital inclusion, and transparent governance. The discussion will cover: - How ODE strengthens trust in public data and supports rights-based digital transformation - The significance of offline-compatible, privacy-friendly digital public goods - Barriers to open data in low-connectivity and multilingual environments - The role of civic tech in promoting transparency and countering misinformation - Real-world applications in gender equality, environmental advocacy, and service delivery Facilitators will share use cases and invite participants to explore how co-creating an inclusive data infrastructure can empower underserved communities and promote accountable digital governance. |
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| Describe the Relevance of Your Session to APrIGF | |||||||||||||||
| This session aligns with APrIGF’s commitment to inclusive innovation, digital trust, and equitable access to digital tools. ODE, as an open-source and offline-first civic tech tool, directly addresses the needs of underrepresented actors in the Asia-Pacific, especially those operating in low-bandwidth, low-literacy contexts. By enabling non-coders to engage with data, the session bridges three APrIGF themes: - Innovation & Emerging Tech: Introduces a civic tech solution that accommodates real-world constraints - Access & Inclusion: Focuses on communities excluded from digital governance due to skill, infrastructure, or language gaps - Security & Trust: Promotes data transparency and counters misinformation through quality and usability Expected contributions: - Raise regional awareness of open-source, privacy-first digital public goods - Empower participants with practical tools for inclusive data governance - Encourage cross-sector collaboration to scale localized civic tech solutions This session is not only a tutorial, but it is also a call to reimagine how public-interest data tools can serve the margins, reinforcing APrIGF’s mission of people-centered digital development. |
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| Methodology / Agenda (Please add rows by clicking "+" on the right) | |||||||||||||||
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| Moderators & Speakers Info (Please complete where possible) - (Required) | |||||||||||||||
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| Please explain the rationale for choosing each of the above contributors to the session. | |||||||||||||||
| The selected contributors are core team members at Open Knowledge Nepal who have led the implementation of the Open Data Editor (ODE) in Nepal. Their expertise spans civic tech development, open data infrastructure, digital rights advocacy, and grassroots capacity building. They have hands-on experience working with local governments, journalists, and civil society organizations in low-resource environments, giving them deep insight into the challenges of data accessibility and literacy in the Asia-Pacific. Their direct involvement ensures that the session is both technically accurate and community-relevant, making them ideal facilitators for this hands-on, capacity-building session at APrIGF. | |||||||||||||||
| If you need assistance to find a suitable speaker to contribute to your session, or an onsite facilitator for your online-only session, please specify your request with details of what you are looking for. | |||||||||||||||
| If needed, we would welcome support in identifying a regional digital rights practitioner or open data advocate from another APAC economy to join as a co-facilitator. This would enrich the session with cross-country perspectives and help contextualize the tool’s application to diverse governance and civic tech environments across the Asia-Pacific region. | |||||||||||||||
| Please declare if you have any potential conflict of interest with the Program Committee 2025. | |||||||||||||||
| No | |||||||||||||||
| Are you or other session contributors planning to apply for the APrIGF Fellowship Program 2025? | |||||||||||||||
| Yes | |||||||||||||||
| Upon evaluation by the Program Committee, your session proposal may only be selected under the condition that you will accept the suggestion of merging with another proposal with similar topics. Please state your preference below: | |||||||||||||||
| Yes, I am willing to work with another session proposer on a suggested merger. | |||||||||||||||
| APrIGF offers live transcript in English for all sessions. Do you need any other translation support or any disability related requests for your session? APrIGF makes every effort to be a fully inclusive and accessible event, and will do the best to fulfill your needs. | |||||||||||||||
| No | |||||||||||||||
| Brief Summary of Your Session | |||||||||||||||
| The session, originally planned as an in-person workshop in Kathmandu, was reorganized into a virtual, demo-based session following recent events in Nepal. It was facilitated by Nikesh Balami and supported by James Shrestha. The session began with interactive polling through Mentimeter to gain a better understanding of participants’ backgrounds and experience levels. Since the Open Data Editor (ODE) is designed for non-technical data users, the poll helped confirm that most attendees represented our target audience, civil society professionals, journalists, and community advocates interested in open data. Participants were introduced to the background of ODE - its origins, development team, and key objectives. Following the introduction, they engaged in a hands-on demonstration, testing ODE with real datasets to explore its core features, including error detection, validation, and correction functions. The session concluded with guidance on how participants could contribute to the ongoing co-creation and feedback process for ODE’s future development. Despite being conducted online, the engagement remained highly practical. |
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| Substantive Summary of the Key Issues Raised and the Discussion | |||||||||||||||
| Discussions centered around the inclusivity of data competencies across the Asia-Pacific region and the need for low-tech tools that make data work accessible to everyone. Participants shared experiences reflecting challenges such as limited connectivity, low digital literacy, and the lack of user-friendly tools for data cleaning and validation. The session highlighted “The Tech We Want” approach - technology that prioritizes inclusivity, transparency, and privacy. The facilitator showcases how ODE addresses one of the most time-consuming challenges in data management: correcting dataset errors without requiring coding expertise or a stable internet connection. The conversation also explored the potential integration of AI and NLP technologies into ODE to further simplify data correction tasks. Importantly, facilitators explained ODE’s design choice to use local AI models rather than large cloud-based APIs, ensuring that user data remains private and secure within their devices. This decision underscored the session’s broader emphasis on data privacy, digital sovereignty, and ethical tech design. |
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| Conclusions and Suggestions of Way Forward | |||||||||||||||
| While the one-hour duration was a tight constraint, especially for an interactive, hands-on virtual session, it proved highly productive and engaging. Participants appreciated the opportunity to experiment directly with ODE and expressed interest in continued collaboration and learning. Future sessions could benefit from extended time slots or follow-up workshops to allow deeper engagement with technical features and real-world data use cases. The experience reaffirmed that integrating hands-on civic tech sessions within multi-stakeholder events like APrIGF provides immense value, enabling participants to connect design principles with practical applications in open data and digital governance. Overall, the session emphasized the importance of ongoing capacity-building efforts and cross-sector collaboration to make open data tools more inclusive, privacy-respecting, and community-driven throughout the Asia-Pacific region. |
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| Number of Attendees (Please fill in numbers) | |||||||||||||||
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| Gender Balance in Moderators/Speakers (Please fill in numbers) | |||||||||||||||
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| How were gender perspectives, equality, inclusion or empowerment discussed? Please provide details and context. | |||||||||||||||
| The session emphasized inclusion by showcasing how ODE empowers non-technical users, including women, youth, and grassroots activists, to engage with data for the purposes of accountability and transparency. Discussions also touched on reducing digital and gender divides by promoting open-source, offline-first tools that lower technical barriers to participation. | |||||||||||||||
| Consent | |||||||||||||||
 I agree that my data can be submitted to forms.for.asia and processed by APrIGF organizers for the program selection of APrIGF 2025. |
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