Tunisian “Open Data” Advocates Honored

The Tunisian transparency promotion group OpenGov.tn (Tunisian Open Governance) recently held an awards ceremony to honor prominent Tunisian activists, organizations, and even governmental bodies for making data publicly accessible.

Such data could include material such as budgets, statistics, and reports.

Representatives of civil society praised the initiative and the ceremony, which took place on January 26, was attended by numerous activists and open data supporters. OpenGov.tn, which was created following the popular uprisings of 2011, has grown to consist of over 700 members, including 30 members of the National Constituent Assembly (NCA). Under the strict censorship policies of the former regime, such an initiative would have been impossible.

“Our main goal is to influence members of the NCA and the government to give the public access to information about budgets and reports,” said Jazem Halioui, a member of OpenGov.tn. The categories of nominees included public national and regional organizations, the NCA, civil society, and media.

A new website was launched in order to collect nominations and to give internet users a chance to vote for their favorite open data activists. Three winners were chosen for each category. Those most highly lauded included collective blog Nawaat, constitution-monitoring association Bawsala, the municipality of Sayeda (Mahdia governorate), and the Tunisian Internet Agency.

“We are not an association,” Halioui said. “We are a group of activists as we don’t believe in hierarchy, but rather in cooperation.”