DiploHack Tirana 2018

How to enhance public and civic accountability in Albania?

Diplohack Tirana 2018 will take place the 3rd and 4th of December 2018, organized around the theme of civic and public accountability. By bringing together the expertise of diplomats, social entrepreneurs, tech developers and designers, journalists, academics, NGOs, businesses and citizens, we will focus on hacking the problem of endemic corruption and state capture in Albania focusing on the approach of enhancing accountability as an empowering tool for common citizens. The objective of the Diplohack is engaging, creative thinking and learning. It is expected that some great ideas will come out of this event, but the greatest benefit is for the participants and citizenry in general. When participants walk away with a fresh perspective, innovative ideas and motivated to make a difference, the event will be a success!

What is a DiploHack?Organizers & Partners Awards Who & How to participate? Project Background Evaluation Criteria Question and Answers

Diplohack is an event of co-creation and innovation. It is a hackathon focused on creating synergies between the skill sets of people from a wide variety of backgrounds, such as diplomats, developers, designers, and NGOs. Through collaborative and creative methods, participants will explore social, institutional and/or grass-roots approaches and initiatives that can contribute to addressing a local issue with a methodology that empowers and strengthens civic governance.

In Tirana, for two days, a number of teams will work on an answer to the question: “How to enhance public and civic accountability in Albania?”

The event will start with two teleconference webinars where the key topics will be discussed with the participants and a set of selected experts. This will prepare the ground for the co-creation process.

A more detailed information on this DiploHack and the organizers you can find in this Concept Paper

Organizers:

The Albanian Institute of Sciences and OTTOnomy , with the support of the embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Tirana

Partners in this event include:

Oficina Entrepreneurship and Innovation Hub
Accountability Lab
Nansen Centre for Peace and Dialogue
Kafka Brigade
Embassy of Canada Rome
Other Institutional and Individual Partners will be added as soon as their participation is confirmed.

Facilitated by:

Diego Osorio, Concept consultant, facilitator and implementer Diplohack Medellin 2016

Besjana Hysa, Co-facilitator; Ideator and Moderator of DiploHack Tirana 2016.

Ina Kërciku, Assistant; Representative of Nansen Centre for Peace and Dialogue

Lorena Pullumbi, Fellow Moderator.

Develop a specific proposal that leverages social, technical and institutional technologies to empower citizen action in public civic accountability answering the question: “How to enhance public and civic accountability in Albania?” and have the possibility to win one of the three Awards. Teams will have 24 hours to design and build an innovative solution. This can be a policy intervention, communication campaign, a technology, or all of the above.
Awards:

Each of the Awards consists on a 500 EUR (gross amount) price.

The Jury Award for the best innovative solution

In honor of Diplohack Tirana 2018, the Jury will award the “Jury Prize 2018” to the team with the most innovative idea for hacking the problem of endemic corruption and state capture in Albania and empowering individuals to become positive agents of change that can transform corrupt structures into an ecosystem of accountability. The winning idea must have CREDD: clear goals and objectives that define beneficiaries and intended outcomes; an assessment of both the potential to transform corrupt structures and possible risks to stakeholders; include hard evidence/data (or specify challenges to obtaining data and need for further research); be do-able and sustainable; be innovative and able to disrupt current systems/structures of corruption.

The Jury, composed of distinguished local and international experts, will select the winning idea.

This is a team award and has the monetary value of 500 EUR (gross amount).

Diplohack Tirana is organized by AIS and OTTOnomy, with the support of the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Tirana.

AIS, grantor of this award, is a not-for-profit organization, co-organizer of the second edition of Diplohack Tirana. The mission of AIS is strengthening Transparency and Accountability; developing Civic Technology and increasing Citizens’ Participation.

Hashtag: #DiploHackTirana ; #DiploHack ; #Tirana ; #TheBestHackerAward ; #Tirana #CivicTechnology

The Participants’ Award for the best team

The “Participant Award” will be granted to the best team participating in Diplohack Tirana 2018. The value of this award is 500 EUR (gross amount) and the participants themselves will vote for the winning team. Ultimately, the participants will decide on the winner based on their perceptions, feelings, and opinions. While there are thus no strict “evaluation criteria,” the organizers suggest that each individual, when voting, reflects on which team has concretized the best solution; has clearly presented its idea; has carefully analyzed the impact on its beneficiaries; has highlighted difficulties and targeted solutions. In the end, a key criteria for selecting the Best Team should be the cooperation between team members and their ability to interact among individuals of different fields.

The selection process of the winning team will be the following: Each participant will be given a ballot paper at the beginning of the teams presentations of ideas. All participants shall cast a ballot, though each has the right to Vote or, by leaving the ballot blank, to abstain. Participants will be asked to provide Name, Surname and the name of the team of which he/she is part on the completed ballot paper.

The participant can vote for only 1 team. He/She can not vote for his/her team. The counting process will be public. In order to verify the validity of the ballot papers and to tally the points, a secretary will be appointed, selected from three persons amongst the organizers.

Hashtag: #DiploHackTirana ; #DiploHack ; #Tirana ; #TheBestTeam; #Tirana #CivicTechnology

Best Hacker Award- AIS Award accorded to the Best Developer. This is an individual Award.

In honor of Diplohack Tirana, AIS will reward the “Best Hacker 2018” award. This prize will be awarded to one of the individual participants in Diplohack, irrespective of whether she/he is a developer, designer or programmer. AIS staff will select the participant, following the presentation of the ideas and results of the groups on December 4th.

This is an individual award and has the monetary value of 500 EUR (gross amount). The winner will be selected among Diplohack participants and will need to finalize and present a technology solution. He/She needs to be concise, clear, innovative and original in his/her work. The winner should have a clear idea of the sustainability of the technical solution that she/he is proposing. Diplohack Tirana is organized by AIS and OTTOnomy, with the support of the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Tirana.

Hashtag: #DiploHackTirana ; #DiploHack ; #Tirana ; #TheBestHackerAward ; #Tirana #CivicTechnology

Webinars

If you want to know more about what was discussed on the first webinar please click here and for the second webinar plese click here .

The event will establish multi-skilled teams based on the different profiles who are present. These can include diplomats, journalists, developers, designers, students, citizens, civil society actors, social entrepreneurs, academics and basically anyone who wants to hack a very current public and civic issue.

Applications can be submitted until 21.11.2018 at 24:00 o’clock.

Apply Here

Diplohack Tirana 2018 focuses on novel ways to address corruption and create accountability, coupled with a Dialogue Workshop between civilian actors of all streams about how to operationalize the ideas that emerge from the diplohack. Two webinars in advance of the diplohack will prepare the participants for the intensive immersion event in Tirana, Albania. The sequence of events will function as a co-creation laboratory that can evolve novel, innovative, and sustainable accountability practices, with an emphasis on: integrating all sectors of society into an ecosystem of accountability; empowering individuals to become positive agents of change within existing structures; helping people to imagine and design tools to help change corrupt structures; and developing a resource database and support networks for accountability.

Throughout the Diplohack participants will have access to background resources, social media and external expertise. Experts and mentors will circulate among the teams or be available through teleconferencing providing insight and professional advice on a wide range of issues related to the topic.

Diplohack Tirana 2018 will draw on AIS’s previous experience organizing Diplohack Tirana 2016, supported by the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Diplohack Tirana 2016 brought together diplomats, programmers, and civil society representatives to create ways to use open data and technology to strengthen civil society advocacy. For more about Diplohack Tirana 2016, see: here

DiploHack Tirana 2016 Award

To succeed, your idea must have CREDD¹

Clarity — The goal, objectives, intended beneficiaries and outcome must be clear and compelling.

Risk Assessment — Your idea’s innovation, and potential to disrupt conflict needs to be balanced against potential risks to your beneficiaries, and your end goal.

Evidence — Demonstrate that your idea is sound by providing facts and supporting evidence. If hard data is lacking – enumerate the challenges and areas for further research.v

Do-ability — Show how your idea could be put into action and sustained; Will intended beneficiaries welcome the idea? How will you assess impact?

Disruption — How innovative is the idea and proposed outcome?v

_{¹ SecDev Diplohack 2016, Ottawa, Canada}

Find below some Questions & Answers. If your question has not been answered and you need further information please fill in the contact form.

Regarding both awards “The Jury Award for the best innovative solution” and “The Participants’ Award for the best team” how will the monetary value be divided among team members?
Answer: The award is 500 EUR gross, and is foreseen within the budget of the MGP project, which is financially supported by the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and implemented by AIS. The team members will unanimously decide whether the check with the total amount will be released to one of them or there should be prepared checks for each of them with the proportionate value. If any of the team members resigns from the monetary value in favor of other member or in favor of further implementation of the solution, they should declare it.
If both the Jury and the Participants have awarded the same team, how will the awards be distributed? Does this team receive both awards?
Answer: AIS thinks that in such case it is up to the members of the Jury to decide. They are competent individuals, with integrity and neutral in evaluation.
Is the “Best Hacker” award an individual or team award?
Answer: The “Best Hacker” award, with 500 EUR value, will be granted to an individual. The team of the individual, in this case is valued for the support and collaboration, but it is not a direct winner.
The granted awards are Net or Gross?
Answer: The granted awards are Gross. According to Tax Legislation, 15% value of the awards will be deducted from taxes. The remaining 425 EUR is the Net value.