The project establishes a platfrom where every ordinary citizen is able to monitor transactions of the state treasury, the day-to-day expenses of each institution, by having access to the amount of expenses, descriptions, beneficiaries and clients of state institutions, be it independent institutions, central government, and local government.
Goal:
The goal of the project is to provide access to well-structured and visualized data on public procurements and spending, supporting citizens and CSOs to participate in a more open government approach
Albanian Institute of Science with its Open Data Albania team, willing to empower both individuals and the Albanian society with information on how taxpayers’ money is spent, has built a new platform known as Spending Data Albania. Through certain applications, the public has the opportunity to learn how each individual contributes through their taxes to the total budget or to specific budgets by sectors. Similarly, an application known as Money Map and Budget provides information on division of budgets by sectors. The most interesting part of the platform is the Treasury Transactions application. This application and the standard of monitoring the day-to-day expenses made by the state administration is a standard that is being offered to the Albanian citizens at a time when countries with much more advanced democracy or models of access to information have not yet managed to achieve.
The information provided by this platform is exhausting regarding every state budget from January 2012 until the current weeks. This application, the range of information and its philosophy enables the society, the media, and the citizens to have access to information about the ways the taxpayers’ money is spent, as well as about the public assets, based on the slogan “Public Money is my Money”. The entirety of transactions includes also those expenses and transfers made to those selected through public procurement.
We invite the public at large to take this opportunity to inform themselves and invite you to write to us so that we may help you with the technical use of the applications available or by making even more detailed analysis of the Treasury Transaction Monitoring.
This Project is supported by:
The goal is to provide a platform where citizens, through several applications, can get information on everything related to public expenditures. Services offered to the public include monitoring of the state treasury; online tax calculation; money map and budget.
http://spending.data.al/
Open Government Data on the Web: A Semantic Approach
/in Publications /by Besi HysaJulia Hoxha
Institute of Applied Informatics and Formal Description Methods (AIFB)
Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany
[email protected]
Armand Brahaj
FIZ Karlsruhe – Leibniz Institute for Information Infrastructure, Germany
[email protected]
Initiatives of making government data open are continuously gaining interest recently. While this presents immense benefits for increasing transparency, the problem is that the data are frequently offered in heterogeneous formats, missing clear semantics that clarify what the data describe. The data are displayed in ways, which are not always clearly understandable to a broad range of user communities that need to make informed decisions. We address these problems and propose an overall approach, in which raw statistical data independently gathered from the different government institutions are formally and semantically represented, based on an ontology that we present in this paper. We further introduce the approach deployed in publishing these data in alignment with Linked Data principles, as well as present the methods implemented to query single or combined dataset and visualize the results in understandable ways. The introduced approach enables data integration, leading to vast opportunities for information exchange, analysis on combined datasets, simplicity to create mashups, and exploration of innovative ways to use these data creatively.
Link to publication:
[JHoxha_ABrahaj] OpenGovernmentDataontheWeb-ASemanticApproach
Utilization Cases of Open Data Albania
/in Publications /by Besi HysaJulia Hoxha` and Aranita Brahaj*
`Institute of Applied Informatics and Formal Description Methods,
Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Karlsruhe, Germany
[email protected]
*Albanian Institute of Science, Tirana, Albania
[email protected]
http://www.ais.al
In this paper, we describe Open Data Albania (ODA) project and concrete cases of open data utilization. ODA aims at providing open datasets of valuable information which can be structured, analyzed and presented in different forms leading to intuitive knowledge representations. Besides the datasets, the project has also produced analytical studies based on the data and insightful visualizations to make the knowledge understandable and easy to utilize by different communities.
The platform where the data is published online is the most prominent one for open data in Albania and very popular between the journalists, who are continuously using data from ODA to provide the public with information on different social-economic aspects. In many cases, the project has been used in direct advocacy initiatives. In this paper, we described a set of cases where the data is utilized by different groups, such as government institutions, NGOs, media, and academia.
To read the paper: https://www.w3.org/2013/share-psi/wiki/images/6/63/ODA-UtilizationCases-SharePSI-Workshop.pdf
ZA’LART 2015
/in Homeposts, Past Projects, Projects /by aranitaZA´LART 2015, is a project where the citizens are invited to denounce (report and alert) on an open source platform (website & app mobile), about problems they encounter during electoral campaigns and electoral day. Citizens are empowered with tools that allow them to participate in a real time monitoring process. This project is a new form of democracy that aims to give voice to the common citizens’ through a crowd source platform.
The Albanian citizens will be heard and have the possibility to express a personal opinion on the electoral process. This project is based on ICT for Fair Election and aim to contribute for active citizenship and democratic process of Local Government Election 2015 in Albania. The facts (audio, photo and video), irregularities and information collected, will provide a clear overview of the electoral process and encourage the interested bodies (civic stakeholders and institutions) to undertake appropriate administrative and politic measures.
Open Spending Albania
/in Homeposts, Past Projects /by adminThe project establishes a platfrom where every ordinary citizen is able to monitor transactions of the state treasury, the day-to-day expenses of each institution, by having access to the amount of expenses, descriptions, beneficiaries and clients of state institutions, be it independent institutions, central government, and local government.
Albanian Institute of Science with its Open Data Albania team, willing to empower both individuals and the Albanian society with information on how taxpayers’ money is spent, has built a new platform known as Spending Data Albania. Through certain applications, the public has the opportunity to learn how each individual contributes through their taxes to the total budget or to specific budgets by sectors. Similarly, an application known as Money Map and Budget provides information on division of budgets by sectors. The most interesting part of the platform is the Treasury Transactions application. This application and the standard of monitoring the day-to-day expenses made by the state administration is a standard that is being offered to the Albanian citizens at a time when countries with much more advanced democracy or models of access to information have not yet managed to achieve.
The information provided by this platform is exhausting regarding every state budget from January 2012 until the current weeks. This application, the range of information and its philosophy enables the society, the media, and the citizens to have access to information about the ways the taxpayers’ money is spent, as well as about the public assets, based on the slogan “Public Money is my Money”. The entirety of transactions includes also those expenses and transfers made to those selected through public procurement.
We invite the public at large to take this opportunity to inform themselves and invite you to write to us so that we may help you with the technical use of the applications available or by making even more detailed analysis of the Treasury Transaction Monitoring.
This Project is supported by:
The goal is to provide a platform where citizens, through several applications, can get information on everything related to public expenditures. Services offered to the public include monitoring of the state treasury; online tax calculation; money map and budget.
http://spending.data.al/
ACADEMIC´AL – Increasing the Visibility of Scientific Research
/in Homeposts, Past Projects, Projects /by aranitaAs part of the scope to base our projects ICT Solutions, AIS implemented during the first 6 months of 2013 a platform for the Albanian scientific research. The aim of the platform was to increase the visibility of scientific researchers and their scientific works. The project delivery include a central portal that provides information on researchers including activities, projects engaged, relations with other researchers and institutions. The portal contains data of 300 researchers in Albania and more than 500 documents (publications & result-sets of experiment activity).
http://academical.al/
Smart Tourist Albania
/in Past Projects, Projects /by aranitaThis project establishes a social media outlet where citizen-fed information becomes important and stimulates the solution of problems.
Donor: American Embassy, Open Society Foundation Albania
Duration: 2012/2013
Module:
** Web Platform
** Mobile App
** Activism
URL: http://smarttourist.al
Smart Tourist Albania enables the citizens through an Open Source Platform consisting of a Web site and mobile application to report on the problems of tourists related to environment, cleanness, and pollution.
After reporting and communication with the social media, the project marked another success by becoming a movement where dozens of young people were organized on a voluntary basis for cleaning up the beach of “Kepi i Rodonit” in the summer 2012.
Open Data Albania
/in Homeposts, Past Projects, Projects /by adminOpen Data Albania is an initiative that embraces the Open Data principles. The project aims to collect from public offices data on socio-economic indicators, process and publish them based on emerging topics and semantic technologies.
Donor: Open Society Foundation
Duration: Dec. 2013 – Dec. 2014
Module:
* Web Platform
* Advocacy
URL: http://open.data.al
Digitalization of Ethnographic Heritage – “SOTIR” Photo Archive
/in Homeposts, Past Projects, Projects /by adminDigitalization of 14,000 photographic plates of the 20th century in Albania. The project aims to enforce practices on the conservation of ethnographic objects and cultural heritage of the country.
Digital Inventory of the Ethnographic Fund of the Pre-Alps Zone
/in Past Projects, Projects /by Besi HysaThe Albanian Institute of Science has started to implement the “Digital Inventory of the Ethnographic Fund of the Pre-Alps Zone” Project. The project targets the villages of Iballa, MërturGuri, and Arsmiliska of Puka District, Region of Shkodra.The area is very interesting thanks to an entirely autochthone ethnography and culture. It contains the Early Medieval city of Koman (8th and 9th century). The assets of this area are currently being put at extreme risk with the local people leaving the area, and old objects not properly valued. There are still special buildings and ethnographic objects found in this area that represent culture and tradition, and a significant potential for proving the thesis of Albanians being an early European people, and for attracting cultural tourism to the area.
The purpose of the project is to identify architectural objects like tower-like houses or fortified workshops not recognized as monuments of culture, and therefore not registered as part of the National Cultural Assets Inventory Fund Centre. The project also intends to identify well-known ethnographic objects like folk costumes, handicraft tools for producing musical instruments or clothing; musical instruments like lahuta (a traditional type of flute) or flute older than 70 years. Each object shall be registered and entered in a digital inventory. The direct objectives of the project consist in identifying ethnographic and cultural values, but the projectis also expected to have an indirect impact on promoting an integrated tourism to specific areas for their nature and for their anthropological elements.
The program is implemented with the support of the Ministry of Cultures part of the Cultural Heritage initiatives. The Albanian Institute of Science has also implemented other similar projects, including “Digital Inventory of “Sotir” Phototek”, and the “Lahuta of the Albanian Epos” Exhibition.
Program Coordinator Ms. Besjana Hysa [email protected]
Transparenca mbi Shpenzime Elektorale. Modeli Amerikan dhe Problematika ne Republikën e Shqipërisë.
/in Media Coverage @en /by Besi HysaBisedë në Studion e Ora News TV, e ftuar Aranita BRAHAJ, Instituti Shqiptar i Shkencave – Nëntor 2012.
Në rastin e Shqipërisë partitë politike nuk kanë ende kurajë të bëjnë fushata të hapura dhe transparente për mbledhje të fondeve elektorale. Ato mbledhin para por kjo nuk behet publikisht dhe nuk reklamohet në media apo mitingje të hapura.
Procesi i transparencës me Financat e Partive Politike në Shqipëri është proçes për të cilin kemi filluar të punojmë shumë vonë dhe praktikisht është i munguar, Legjislacioni vetëm për dy fushatat e fundit ka parashikuar me disa nene transparencën dhe monitorimin e financave të partive politike. Por parashikimet ligjore nuk janë shumë të qarta dhe lënë shteg për transparencë të vonuar ose jo të plotë.
Ende sot nuk kemi një publikim nga Komisioni Qendror Zgjedhjeve për shpenzime elektorale. Madje disa nga Partitë pjesëmarrëse në dy fushatat e fundit zgjedhore nuk kanë bërë ende procesin e detyrueshëm të auditimit.