September 2015 – Albanian Institute of Science

AIS participant at the Telecenter Europe Conference

29/09/2015/in Events, Press Releases /by admin

Albanian Institute of Science as a member of Telecenter Europe Network participated at the annul Conference held in Beograd between 24-25 of September. Issues of employment in the ICT sector at the european market and the capacity building over different target groups were the main focus of the conference. Moreover the conference served to present the online program I-LINC a program that provides online traning for capacity building in the europenan market. The platform targeted mainly young people from East-Europe. The second day of the conference focused more on the e-Participation and the implementation of e-UROPA program, on which Albania is a beneficiary.

Jora Risto announced as e-Participation Ambassador for Albania

29/09/2015/in Events, Homeposts /by admin

e- Participation awards on 8th of December at the European Parliament in Brussels

Albanian Institute of Science as a member of the Telecenter Europe Network within the e-UROPA project during May–September 2015 organized the online competition “My e-participation Story”. The competition aimed the collection of the most significant stories related to the use of e-participation solutions that raised awareness among the young generation on a social problematic. Twelve winners were announced simultaneously in twelve countries. Awards will be given on 8th of December 2015 at the European Parliament in Brussels. The best compelled story from Albania is submitted by Jora Risto student at the Faculty of Medicine in Tirana. The story is titled “The Albanian November Students” and refers to the civic engagement and protest against the dismantling of Syrian chemical weapons in Albania. There were six stories submitted at the national level that dealt with migration and free movement issues. Furthermore, the winner was evaluated during the annual conference of Telecenter Europe which took place on 24-25th of September. The awarded story will be published in a brochure together with 11 stories from the other European participant countries at the website of Europa Participation. This competition was realized as part of the Europe for Citizens Programme of the European Union.

Read the story here: Albanian November Students

Video:

Pictures from the protest:

Money, Government and Politics, program was presented at TransparencyCamp 2015

22/09/2015/in Homeposts /by admin

September 11-12, Washington DC

Even this year our organization AIS was part of TransparencyCamp 2015 an “unconference” for OpenGov, organized by Sunlight Foundation. Each year the event gather hundreds of people to share their knowledge on the way of using new technologies and policies in making governments more accountable towards their citizens

AIS representative Besjana HYSA engaged in the process by presenting our most prominent program in matters of transparency and accountability Money, Government and Politics. She introduced the attendees with the results and impact of the program, the innovative datasets implemented and the cases of conflict of interest revealed.

Money, Government & Politics

19/09/2015/in Homeposts /by Besi Hysa

Money, Government and Politics project and its activities address issues of abuse, corruption, and conflict of interest in the context of governance and politics in Albania. The program aims at opening data about the wealth of high state officials, expenditures of state institutions, electoral spending and expenditures of the concessionary corporate. Comparison and analysis of such data increases transparency, accountability and public pressure in cases of favoritism, embezzlement of public funds or assets.

Open Corporates / Business Companies

17/09/2015/in Homeposts /by Besi Hysa

This project aims at opening data about business companies operating in the country. Through the Business Companies application, anyone may easily find and use data including the name of a company, its tax number (NIPT), year of establishment and its legal status. Additionally, the annual profit is published for each registered company, along with the type of ownership (i.e. public or private) and the financial transactions from the State Treasury (through a URL link). Special attention is paid to the concessionary companies that exploit public assets. Accordingly, the project will publish the standard open data, the value of their concessionary costs, and the legal ground of the contract signed between the Albanian Government and the respective concessionary companies. Through this project, AIS intends to contribute to the evolution of open data catalogue and culture in Albania by supporting stakeholders who are in search of data for research or business purposes.

Money Government & Politics

16/09/2015/in Homeposts /by admin

Money, Government and Politics project and its activities address issues of abuse, corruption, and conflict of interest in the context of governance and politics in Albania. The program opens up and well-structures data about the wealth of high state officials, and expenditures of state institutions, concessionary corporates, and electoral spending.This process enables to track cases of nepotism, embezzlement, and conflict of interest. Access to such data increases transparency, accountability and public pressure in cases of favoritism, and embezzlement of public funds or assets.

Albanian Institute of Science participates at the OGP Dialogue for Western Balkans

15/09/2015/in Events /by admin

On 10- 11 September AIS participated at the Open Government Partnership Dialogue for Western Balkans. The main purpose of the event was the exchange of experiences and the consolidation of policies on the well-functioning of Open Government Partnership. AIS as a non-profitable and non-governmental organizations through Open Data Albania project has contributed not only to the implementation of OGP principles, but also in establishing good models for open government. As a member of the OGP Albanian Coalition, AIS took part at the Open Data panel that aimed to explore the benefits and challenges of opening up public data in the Western Balkan countries. In addition, AIS has implemented a unique model of open data catalogue where the opening up of governmental data is an initiative of civil society and not of the government itself.

OGP Declaration for Open Governance in Albanian

Call for reporters within the Open Spending Initiative

14/09/2015/in Press Releases /by admin

In addition to our program Money, Government and Politics, AIS invites media representatives and reporters to become part of a network committed to transparency in public spending. Open Spending Initiative consist in creating a network of affirmed local reporters engaged in informing the public about the public expenditures of budgetary institutions in Albania. In this initiative AIS will be involved in the organization of a workshop and a Datathon event with the participation of the network members.

The workshop activity purpose will be:

– Finding sources of information about budget expenditures of municipalities.

– Measure the efficiency of such spending in providing public services

– Identify cases of conflict of interest

While Datathon 2015 will provide for network members the opportunity to present their findings on the governance based on the collection and the visualization of data for the respective municipalities.

A number of ICT tools for transparency in public spending will be targeted and will be available for the citizens, in order to engage them in the monitoring and participation process of budgeting.

The first activity within the initiative will take place on the first week of October, 2015. This network aims to promote Open Data Journalism in Albania.

Reporters are kindly invited to express their interest upon the registration form:

For further information on the initiative contact us at: [email protected]