Ukraine's government agencies collect reams of data. And yet, the vast majority of it remains inaccessible to citizens and businesses that could put the information to good use.
Denis Gursky, founder of open data nonprofit group SocialBoost, and an adviser to Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk, has an answer.
His project – 1991 Open Data Incubator – aims to take the bundles of data produced by Ukraine’s bureaucracy and streamline them for a mass audience.
“Our goal is to help the government…build the data infrastructure of Ukraine where we know how the information is being collected, how it’s being stored, and how it’s being shared,” Gursky told the Kyiv Post during an interview at the incubator’s central Kyiv office.
The project will be the first non-profit technology incubator launched in Ukraine. The center will host a group of programmers from around Ukraine, who will be able to devote their time to making applications that effectively display government data.
Gursky, 31, said that he wants to “create a Ukrainian app store of Ukrainian services for Ukrainian citizens and Ukrainian businesses.”
“We’re supposed to have e-government, but at the same time, we don’t,” he added.
Hackathons to come
Collaborative computer programming sessions will he held nationwide in order to identify residents of the incubator.
The first event will be held in Kyiv on Feb. 6, with SocialBoost and Microsoft participating.
Further hackathons are planned in Lviv and Odesa, though dates have not yet been set.
Selected winners will work in the incubator’s office, taking unorganized government data and transforming it into tools for Ukrainian citizens and businesses to search through the information.
Data from government and money from investors
Ukrainian officials will supply the incubator with data as well as advice on what areas are in need of technical support from the project, according to a Jan. 13 government news release.
Gursky’s SocialBoost NGO also created the government’s open data portal, data.gov.ua, in 2014. He said that the agricultural and energy sectors don’t effectively present their information publicly.
“Most data is nothing for the average citizen – usually, people consume data through tools,” Gursky said.
However, the government is not providing any financial support for the project.
Instead, private equity firm Western NIS Enterprise Fund, founded by the U.S. Agency for International Development, provided a $50,000 grant for the project.
“We like that it’s a public-private partnership,” Director of Western NIS’s local economic development program Iryna Ozymok told the Kyiv Post in a telephone interview. “We want people to be able to communicate with the government and with business.”
The grant money covers expenses for project organizers, Ozymok said.
“We really want these young people to see that they can contribute to the state, and I think that’s the biggest benefit,” she said. “We want this bureaucratic machine to be more open.”
Microsoft Ukraine, whose offices are adjacent to 1991 Open Data Incubator’s, is providing additional help, including the office and software.
Government connections
Part of what has enabled the project to get this far comes down to extensive connections within the Ukrainian government.
As Yatsenyuk’s advisor on matters involving open data, Gursky meets with the prime minister and the Cabinet of Ministers on a monthly basis.
The meetings have gone on since April 2015, when parliament passed a law mandating that government agencies provide regularly updated data on their websites for public access.
Saying that the ministers were “enthusiastic,” Gursky added that local governments in Kyiv, Odesa, and Lviv all supported the project.
From the president’s office, Deputy Chief of Staff Dmytro Shymkiv, who worked as CEO for Microsoft Ukraine in 2009-2014, has also supported the initiative.
