G-8 International Conference on Open Data for Agricuture

Washington, D.C. - April 29-30, 2013

At the 2012 G-8 Summit, G-8 leaders committed to the New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition, the next phase of a shared commitment to achieving global food security.

As part of this commitment, they agreed to “share relevant agricultural data available from G-8 countries with African partners and convene an international conference on Open Data for Agriculture, to develop options for the establishment of a global platform to make reliable agricultural and related information available to African farmers, researchers and policymakers, taking into account existing agricultural data systems".

Conference Goal

Obtain commitment and action from nations and relevant stakeholders to promote policies and invest in projects that open access to publicly funded global agriculturally relevant data streams, making such data readily accessible to users in Africa and world-wide, and ultimately supporting a sustainable increase in food security in developed and developing countries.

Call for ideas

Are you interested in addressing global challenges, such as food security, by providing open access to information? Would you like the opportunity to present to leaders from around the world?

As part of the conference, innovators have the chance to showcase innovative uses of open data for food security in a lightning presentation or in the exhibit hall. This call for ideas is a chance to demonstrate the potential that open data can have in ensuring food security, and can inform an unprecedented global collaboration. Visit data.gov to see what agricultural data is already available and connect to other G-8 open data sites!

The conference looks for top innovators to show the world what can be done with open data through:

• Lightning Presentations: brief (3-5 minute), image rich presentations intended to convey an idea
• Exhibit Hall: an opportunity to convey an idea through an image-rich exhibit.

Presentations should inspire others to share their data or imagine how open data could be used to increase food security. Presentations may include existing, new, or proposed applications of open data and should meet one or more of the following criteria:

• Demonstrate the impact of open data on food security.
• Demonstrate the impact of access to agriculturally-relevant data on developed and/or developing countries.
• Demonstrate the impact of bringing multiple sources of agriculturally-relevant public and/or private open data together (think about the creation of an agriculture equivalent of weather.com)

Proposals should identify which data is needed that is publicly available, for free, on the internet. Proposals must also include a design of the application including relevance to the target audience and plans for beta testing. A successful prototype will be mobile, interactive, and scalable. Proposals to showcase existing products or pitch new ideas will be reviewed by a global panel of technical experts from the G-8 countries.

More information at https://sites.google.com/site/g8opendataconference/home