Top executives, directors and chairpersons of multinational companies, government agencies and departments are among the delegates who will participate in a strategic Executive Leadership Session in Durban this weekend, where open data will come under the spotlight.
The Executive Leadership Session is scheduled to take place on Sunday 25 October, a day before the 10th annual GovTech summit gets under way at the Albert Luthuli Convention Centre, in Durban, from 26-28 October.
The topic under discussion will be: "Open Data and Open Partnerships for Responsive Government, Citizen Empowerment and Economic Growth". Dialogue from this session will form the basis for further discussion during the plenary sessions of the three-day conference.
"The reason for this engagement is to allow for robust discussion among a cross-section of leaders from academia, private companies and government departments," says State Information Technology Agency (SITA) CEO Dr Setumo Mohapi.
Dr Mohapi notes government has a critical role to play in unleashing the potential of open data. Citing the April 2014 McKinsey Global Institute Report (Unlocking innovation and performance with liquid information), he says it has been pointed out that open data has the potential not only to transform every sector of the economy, but also to unleash more than $3 trillion in global economic value annually.
"While businesses and other private organisations can make more information public, we believe that government has a critical role in unleashing the economic potential of open data. Sitting at the nexus of key stakeholders - citizens, businesses, and non-governmental organisations - government is ideally positioned to extract value from open data and to help others do the same."
Dr Mohapi adds the objective of Sunday's executive session will be for business leaders and delegates to realise that much depends on the type of data made available and how it is used.
"Data and Information Management practices are often the best 'unrealised or untapped' opportunities to directly address high-level challenges, especially when it comes to common and shared services," he says.
With transparency and accountability being the focal points, Mohapi believes sharing and opening data in a consumable form can empower citizens, government officials and industry players to foster innovation and reform all-inclusive public services.
As South Africa is a founding member of the Open Government Partnership and will take over the chair of the partnership later this year, SITA anticipates a huge leap in charting a way forward.
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