Political Accountability and New Technologies ( POINT 3.0 ) conference took place in Art Cinema Kriterion in Sarajevo from May 22nd to May 24th.
This year’s program offered a variety of great speakers, panels, exhibitions, workshops and screenings.
Among other great speakers, there appeared Michael Slaby, the CTO of the Obama 2008 campaign; Chris Albon from Ushahidi; Sultan Al-Qassemi, one of the most distinguished bloggers and analysts on the Middle East also Ardian Haxha and Drinor Selmanaj from FLOSSK Kosovo in collaboration with Victor Nitu and Ioana Cristea from Ceata Foundation Romania with the workshop about Security and Privacy.
Several panels in the two days of the conference addressed interesting and burning issues, like challenges of open government, humor and satire as means of political activism, measuring truth in the eve of elections and political activism going digital.
Albanian Institute of Science was introduced , in the second day of the conference, with the project of Open Spending Albania/ Open Data Albania. Our representative Besjana Hysa spoke about Open spending Albania – five apps for treasury monitoring. First, money map provides information on the budgets in the past few years (planned and actual!). Bubble tree is an app that visualizes the budget and provides citizens with an overview of budget categories, a cool thing to do, being that budgets can be boring sometimes. Daily bread tells you how much money are you giving to which area through your taxes. Another part of Open spending Albania is Fund diversion. Great feature of this app is that it identifies most discriminated areas of the budget. Also, the most important thing was monitoring of state treasury spending, and although we had problems with transparency from the government, things are now much better.Thanks to several years of work and coordination among the civil society and the public administration in the framework of OGP, Open Data Albania managed to develop an application for monitoring the state treasury. The work for this result has started much earlier than the project itself.Finally, the Albanian state budget is open, and our application offers some information filters based on: how public administration spendsthe Money; where do the funds go; how much is paid for different services; how much Money specific companies receive from specific institutions over a certain period of time; how much Money was spent in a short period of time.
Treasure Monitoring marks the most decisive moment in the process for an Open Government.
Due to the tragic situation caused by unprecedented floods across the country, POINT 3.0 Conference dedicated part of its time to try and help people in need. U.G. “Why not” already established the “Flood Map” website throughout which citizens can report the problems incurred as a result of floods, publish locations help collection, the most important information to contact support services operating in BiH, but also lists of all the bank accounts opened for donation.
POINT 3.0 Conference devote the entire third day of the conference, which is scheduled for practical workshops, to developing new or improving existing platforms for disaster aid.
POINT conference was organized by CA Why not (Zašto ne) from BiH, in cooperation with Center for Research on Transparency and Accountability (CRTA) from Serbia, Metamorphosis from Macedonia, Mjaft from Albania, Center for Democratic Transition (CDT) from Montenegro and IPKO Foundation from Kosovo.
Partners and supporters of this year’s conference were also National Endowment for Democracy, Balkan Trust for Democracy, Embassy of the United States in BiH, Heinrich Boell Foundation, Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, TechSoup, Emerging Democracies Institute, Analitika and Mediacentar.
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.
AIS presents at Samos Summit on ICT-enabled Governance
/in Events /by adminAIS participates at Samos Summit on ICT-enabled Governance, 30 Jun – 02 Jul 2014.
The principal advisor of AIS, Dr. Ing. Julia Hoxha, presented a paper on Open Spending Albania.
Link to the paper
Link to the talk presented at Samos Summit
Below is the abstract of the talk:
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.
OGP Albania – Ministry of Finances Censures the State Treasure Public Data
/in Homeposts, Press Releases /by aranitaIn the name of the principles of Journalism for Public Information, I would like to share with you a concern over a recent case of State Treasure Public Data being censured.
The Albanian Government is obliged by law and by the respective secondary legislation acts to ensure transparency over every single detail about the way that the Albanian taxpayers’ money and monetary public assets are spent. Besides, in the context of its commitments for an Open Government Partnership (OGP), our Government is obliged to publish the daily List of Payments sent by the State Treasury to the Bank of Albania for execution. In addition to the date, total amount, and paying authority, such list includes also the identity of the beneficiary, the legal act on which the transaction is based, and other descriptions. Since February 2012, these data have been updated on the website of the Ministry of Finances, under the section Reports – Treasury. The Prime Minister Sali Berisha, Minister of Finances Ridvan Bode, and the Minister for Innovation Genc Pollo have also referred to this process of ensuring respect for the principles of democracy, good governance, transparency, and rule of law. Although the data were published using a technological model not in compliance with the ‘user friendly data’ principle, they were constantly published online from 1 February 2012 – 30 May 2013. Currently, however, the data for February, March, April, and May 2013 have been removed and censored during the first week of September. These four months of 2013 are significantly important, both because they are the last months of the right-wing Government, and months of an electoral year. In addition, the data for June and July are presented in a defective and non-convertible format.
The Treasury data have to be published even as a result of a very expensive project for introducing AMoFTS, a modern system for processing the transactions of the Central Government based on international standards and practices for financial reporting, and efficient, effective, and transparent use of public money and assets.
The Open Data / Spending Albania staff notes that this is a case of flagrant censorship to the detriment of public information. This type of censorship affects one of the largest responsibilities of a Government, i.e. the responsibility for efficiently using public finances and assets. The Albanian citizens have the right to know how their money is spent, and whether that money is used in the public or political and personal interests. Likewise, every citizen of the Republic of Albania has the right to know who the suppliers of the state and public institutions are, and who benefits from the taxpayers’ money. The removal of the data for four months, and the continuous defective publication of these data shows a case of misuse of duty, if not the fact that the respective state officials do not feel comfortable facing the public over this period of their governance.
A democratic state ensures transparency and accountability for the ways it spends public money. With hopes of having your attention and media awareness through your website and programs,
Respectfully,
Aranita BRAHAJ
Open Data Albania
Web: http://open.data.al
Email: [email protected]
Media Coverage- “Castles of my coast” action in Borshi Castle
/in Media Coverage @en /by Besi HysaThe event was covered on TV through spots that promoted citizens’ reaction and action.
RTV Ora News : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIdsHZ0ELto&hd=1
UTV News : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUtgCCpUotc
Voice of America, Albanian Edition : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i85VAL_bbds
Radio Tirana : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqLqKMoZcVc
or in Newspappers :
Gazeta Shqiptare : http://www.balkanweb.com/gazetav5/artikull.php?id=139427
Gazeta Start : http://www.gazetastart.com/index.php?p=hg&hid=15992
Gazeta Standart : http://www.standard.al/reportazh-borsh-aty-ku-vullnetaret-i-bashkohen-aksionit-kalate-e-bregut-tim/
AIS attended the conference: Political Accountability and New Technologies ( POINT 3.0 )
/in Events, Press Releases /by Besi HysaThis year’s program offered a variety of great speakers, panels, exhibitions, workshops and screenings.
Among other great speakers, there appeared Michael Slaby, the CTO of the Obama 2008 campaign; Chris Albon from Ushahidi; Sultan Al-Qassemi, one of the most distinguished bloggers and analysts on the Middle East also Ardian Haxha and Drinor Selmanaj from FLOSSK Kosovo in collaboration with Victor Nitu and Ioana Cristea from Ceata Foundation Romania with the workshop about Security and Privacy.
Several panels in the two days of the conference addressed interesting and burning issues, like challenges of open government, humor and satire as means of political activism, measuring truth in the eve of elections and political activism going digital.
Albanian Institute of Science was introduced , in the second day of the conference, with the project of Open Spending Albania/ Open Data Albania. Our representative Besjana Hysa spoke about Open spending Albania – five apps for treasury monitoring. First, money map provides information on the budgets in the past few years (planned and actual!). Bubble tree is an app that visualizes the budget and provides citizens with an overview of budget categories, a cool thing to do, being that budgets can be boring sometimes. Daily bread tells you how much money are you giving to which area through your taxes. Another part of Open spending Albania is Fund diversion. Great feature of this app is that it identifies most discriminated areas of the budget. Also, the most important thing was monitoring of state treasury spending, and although we had problems with transparency from the government, things are now much better.Thanks to several years of work and coordination among the civil society and the public administration in the framework of OGP, Open Data Albania managed to develop an application for monitoring the state treasury. The work for this result has started much earlier than the project itself.Finally, the Albanian state budget is open, and our application offers some information filters based on: how public administration spendsthe Money; where do the funds go; how much is paid for different services; how much Money specific companies receive from specific institutions over a certain period of time; how much Money was spent in a short period of time.
Treasure Monitoring marks the most decisive moment in the process for an Open Government.
Due to the tragic situation caused by unprecedented floods across the country, POINT 3.0 Conference dedicated part of its time to try and help people in need. U.G. “Why not” already established the “Flood Map” website throughout which citizens can report the problems incurred as a result of floods, publish locations help collection, the most important information to contact support services operating in BiH, but also lists of all the bank accounts opened for donation.
POINT 3.0 Conference devote the entire third day of the conference, which is scheduled for practical workshops, to developing new or improving existing platforms for disaster aid.
POINT conference was organized by CA Why not (Zašto ne) from BiH, in cooperation with Center for Research on Transparency and Accountability (CRTA) from Serbia, Metamorphosis from Macedonia, Mjaft from Albania, Center for Democratic Transition (CDT) from Montenegro and IPKO Foundation from Kosovo.
Partners and supporters of this year’s conference were also National Endowment for Democracy, Balkan Trust for Democracy, Embassy of the United States in BiH, Heinrich Boell Foundation, Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, TechSoup, Emerging Democracies Institute, Analitika and Mediacentar.
AIS promoting Get Online Week Albania
/in Media Coverage @en /by adminJava Europiane e Përdorimit të Internetit 2013, në Shqipëri ka diçka të veçantë. Për shkak të emigracionit në vendin tonë interneti përdoret sëtepërmi edhe nga nga mosha e tretë. Historia e dy të moshuarve nga qyteti i Vlorës të cilët paguajnë një të pestën e pensionit mujor për të pasur lidhje interneti në banesë është një histori frymëzuese. Në Javën Europiane të Përdorimit të Internetit, AIS sensibilizon për më shumë vëmendje për aftësim në përdorim me dobishmëri tek moshat e treta apo tek të rinjtë.
YouTube Video
Gjysher ne moshe interneti.
Get Online Week – Employment Perspective of Albanian Youth in ICT Sector
/in Homeposts /by adminAIS and WorldVision organized a meeting with 100 young Albanians from Kurbini to discuss opportunities of employment at the ICT sector.
This activity is part of the Get Online Week project.
AIS at the Open Society Initiative for West Africa
/in Homeposts /by adminAlbanian Institute of Science. represented by its Executive Director Ms. Aranita Brahaj, is participating in the event organized by Open Society Initiative for West Africa to present
“Making Elections Count: A Guide to Setting Up a Civil Society Election Situation Room”.
The event takes place 25-28 May, 2014 in Senegal, Dakar.
More information on http://www.osiwa.org/en
Java e Përdorimit të Internetit – Get Online Week Albania 2012
/in Press Releases /by aranitaInstituti Shqiptar i Shkencave në partneritet me Telecentre Europe organizon për herë të parë në Shqipëri fushatën: Get Online Week 2012 – Java e Përdorimit të Internetit 2012. Kjo fushatë organizohet prej tre vitesh në vende të Bashkimit Europian. Qëllim i kësaj fushate është nxitja dhe aftësimi i sa më shumë personave në përdorimin e internetit. Këtë vit Telecentre Europe ka mbështetjen e drejtpërdrejtë të Komisionit Europian dhe disa organizmave të rëndësishëm ndërkombëtar. Synimi është shtrirja e kësaj fushate në vende të ndryshme të Europës. Instituti Shqiptar i Shkencave do të përcjellë dhe konkretizojë në Shqipëri qëllimin e fushatës për dobishmëri dhe zgjerim të përdorimit të internetit nga qytetarët. Në fushatën 2012 në fokus qëndron aftësimi i grave për të përdorur internetin, si dhe tek përdorimi i internetit në punësimin e të rinjve.
Sipas Eurostat Europa është ende larg për të arritur përdorimin e gjerë të internetit nga popullsia e saj. Vitin e fundit niveli i rritjes ishte vetëm tre përqind duke shënuar kalimin nga 65% tek 68%. Kjo dëshmon që ka shumë për të bërë. Në Shqipëri niveli vjetor i rritjes është shumë më i lartë, por numri i përdoruesve të internetit dhe përdorimi për aftësim dhe dobishmëri janë proçese dinamike që kërkojnë vëmendje dhe kontribut. Gjatë kësaj fushate një javore në 30 vende evropiane, nëpërmjet 15 000 qendrave të internetit synohet të realizohet aftësimi në përdorim i rreth 200 000 personave. Në Shqipëri fushata Get Online Week 2012 synon nxitjen e mbi 500 qytetarëve në përdorim apo aftësim të mëtejshëm në internet. Instituti Shqiptar i Shkencave fton qytetarët, organizatat jofitimprurëse, institucionet e edukimit, median dhe këdo tjetër të interesuar të përfshihen dhe bashkëpunojnë në Javën Shqiptare të Përdorimit të Internetit 26 – 30 mars 2012.