ATD Blog
Hacking for Hunger: USAID’s 48 hour Food Security Open Data Challenge
Fri Nov 08 2013
Over a two day period, in this “open data” initiative USAID development specialists and computer programmers came together to build food security software apps to address the critical problem of food safety. Tools were built to analyze data to give real-time crop disease alerts and make suggestions for farming best practices; provide famers with precise suggestions on what crops to plant and where to plant them; and a website was created that links the importance of nutrition to local farming practices. This report is geared toward helping others within government who would like to run a challenge of their own that involves crowdsourcing and volunteer participation in government work.
USAID’s first Open Data Initiative, targeting the use of food security data to get useful information into the hands of farmers in developing countries, was launched by Kat Townsend, a transparency, accountability, and open data advocate serving as Special Assistant for Engagement at the United States Agency for International Development.
Read More:
http://issuu.com/usaid/docs/hacking\_for\_hunger\_case\_study
| Katherine Townsend is a transparency, accountability, and open data advocate serving as Special Assistant for Engagement at the United States Agency for International Development. She focuses on the impact and potential of connectivity in developing countries and emerging economies and its influence on U.S. foreign policy. Currently she is working on designing and structuring USAID’s approach to the implementation of the U.S. Government Open Data Policy, which makes transparent, useable, and accessible information the norm for all government agencies, including international assistance. In May 2012 she launched USAID’s first Open Data Initiative, targeting the use of food security data to get useful information into the hands of farmers in developing countries, which followed closely with the White House’s first Development DataJam and the G8 International Open Agriculture Data Conference. Katherine has been awarded as a Young Professionals In Foreign Policy “Top 99 Under 30” youth leader. She provides regular updates on Twitter @DiploKat |