ACCESS TO KNOWLEDGE FOR DEVELOPMENT

أمست صحافة البيانات مجالًا  متسارع النمو في مجال صناعة الأخبار، ومع هذا فلم تصل إلى كل مكان، وهو الأمر الذي يحاول صحفيو البيانات تغييره بغرف صناعة الأخبار في بلادهم.

وبالنظر إلى ما يواجهه صحفيو البيانات من تحديات وعقبات، جاءت فكرة إنشاء شبكة صحفيي البيانات العرب، حتى تساعد الصحفيين على مواجهة هذه التحديات وتطوير مهاراتهم وأدواتهم، بغية إنتاج قصص مدفوعة بالبيانات تتمتع بقدر أكبر من الاحترافية، إذ يركز موقع الشبكة في المقام الأول على إتاحة عشرات المقالات والتدوينات التي تتناول أفضل الأدوات الحديثة والفرص والمنح والوظائف الشاغرة المتصلة بصحافة البيانات.

كذلك، تهتم الشبكة بتنظيم ورش العمل والفعاليات المعروفة باسم "هاكاثون" التي تجمع المهووسين بالبيانات وعلماء البيانات والمطورين والمصممين والنشطاء والصحفيين، حتى يتسنى لهم العمل معًا ضمن مجموعة ومناقشة كل ما يتصل بصحافة البيانات داخل المنطقة وخارجها، وقد كان هاكاثون "بيانات من أجل المرأة" هو الأول ضمن سلسلة، إذ تم تنظيمه العام الماضي لأول مرة بالتعاون مع "إنفوتايمز".

وعلى مدار ثلاثة أيام، عمل المشاركون ضمن فرق على موضوعات متصلة بقضايا المرأة، مستعينين في ذلك بأدوات تستخدم في تصميم البيانات، وذلك من أجل الوصول إلى فهم وتفسيرات أفضل، وتم عرض النتائج على مؤسسات محلية ومنظمات مجتمع مدني معنية بهذا الشأن، من أجل تشجيعهم على وضع مسألة اتخاذ خطوات مدفوعة بالبيانات بعين الاعتبار عند مواجهة مشاكل المرأة.

أيضًا، تجري الشبكة دراسات واستطلاعات رأي متصلة بصحافة البيانات في العالم العربي، وقد استهدف أول استطلاع قامت به الشبكة قياس مدى استخدام الصحفيين العرب للبيانات في قصصهم ومدى سهولة أو صعوبة الحصول على البيانات من مصادر رسمية، وقد نُشرت مؤخرًا نتائج الاستطلاع، التي لفتت انتباه العديد من المؤسسات الإعلامية، وتخطط الشبكة إجراء دراسات أكثر عمقًا في المستقبل من أجل متابعة وضع صحافة البيانات في العالم العربي.

وقد نجح مجلس إدارة شبكة صحفيي البيانات العرب بعقد مجموعة شراكات مع عدد من المؤسسات والمبادرات والمشاريع الإعلامية الرائدة لدعم إطلاق المؤتمر الأول للشبكة حول صحافة البيانات، والذي يحمل عنوان "من أجل صحافة بيانات متعمقة"، ولم يكن ممكنًا تنظيم المؤتمر لولا دعم وثقة شركائنا، الذين آمنوا معنا بدور صحافة البيانات في التنمية وأهمية دعم الصحافيين وتطوير أدواتهم ومهاراتهم لإنتاج محتوى صحفي مهني وعلى مستوى عالمي.

A2K4D Travels to Ghana for Open African Innovation Research Partnership (Open AIR) Transition Workshop

8-10 February 2018

Accra, Ghana

 The Open African Innovation Research Partnership (Open AIR) is a unique collaborative network of researchers spanning 14 African countries and Canada that work together on insights to ease tensions between intellectual property and access to knowledge. Open AIR research aims to understand how knowledge-based businesses can take advantage of global opportunities, while sharing the benefits of innovation throughout society. The Access to Knowledge for Development Center is the North African Hub of Open AIR, with other hubs at the University of Ottawa (Canada), University of Cape Town (South Africa), Strathmore University (Kenya), and the Nigerian Institute for Advanced Legal Studies (Nigeria).

Open AIR researchers gathered in Accra, Ghana for a three-day workshop to share research insights and deliberate the future direction of Open AIR research. Dr. Nagla Rizk, A2K4D founding director, along with researchers Nagham El Houssamy, Menna BadrelDin, Sarah El Saeed, and Dana El Bashbisy, attended the workshop. The event aimed to integrate new members into the network’s structure and research activities and to empower and engage Open AIR’s New & Emerging Researchers Group (NERGs). The workshop served as an opportunity to share empirical evidence from case study research. Researchers were also able to identify major cross-cutting issues, which served as an indicator of the future research direction of Open AIR. For policy and practical influence, initial lessons learned were shared and discussed.

Open AIR is currently conducting research on Africa under four main themes: high technology hubs, informal sector innovation, indigenous entrepreneurship, and metrics, laws and policies. The workshop brought together Open AIR case study authors to share key findings and draw commonalities across different research themes. Guided by the project’s overarching research questions, A2K4D is leading the metrics, laws and policies theme. The objective of A2K4D’s work on the metrics, laws, and policies theme is to assess the variety of innovation activities that are occurring in Africa and that are not typically captured by conventional measures. This work is being informed by previous and current Open AIR research, where African innovation is highlighted to a significant extent. A2K4D is also undertaking two case studies, one under the high technology hubs theme and the other under the informal sector innovation theme. A2K4D’s first case study titled Power Relations and Knowledge Governance Systems at High Technology Hubs: the Case of Egypt, examines and analyzes the knowledge governance systems and existing power relations at different types of technology hubs in Egypt. The study also assesses the extent to which these systems facilitate or hinder startups’ ability to scale. A2K4D’s second case study, titled The Maker Movement across North Africa, aims to map and explore the maker movement phenomenon across North Africa, focusing specifically on Egypt and highlighting stories from Morocco and Tunisia.

“Regional Exchange Project: Public Transport in MENA”

October 1 & 2, 2017 – Cairo

 On October 1st and 2nd, the Access to Knowledge for Development Centre (A2K4D), in collaboration with Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES) co-hosted the “Regional Exchange Project: Public Transport in MENA”, bringing together public transport initiatives from Amman, Beirut, and Cairo. The two-day conference took place at the American University in Cairo’s Downtown Tahrir Campus, bringing together transportation experts and researchers from civil society organizations, urban planning initiatives, and academic institutions. The aim of the conference was to encourage initiatives working on sustainable public transportation in the region, expand networks of support, and exchange local and regional experiences between the different stakeholders.

 As the field of urban mobility and transport is a vast and multilayered one, the conference selected a particular focus on urban public transportation issues, especially those that face cities’ growing demand for socially inclusive public transportation systems. Dr. Ahmed Mosa, a managing partner from MASARAT for Transportation Consultancy, presented on the over-all challenges and opportunities of urban mobility policies in Cairo. His main message was that mobility planning in Cairo needs to meet the needs of users while also integrating the needs of different operators and providers. For Dr. Mosa, the solutions lie in a multi-stakeholder approach whereby a shift towards a network approach rather than a hierarchical approach to transportation planning, needs to be adopted as a practice in a complex city like Cairo.  

 Transport for Cairo (TfC), one of the initiatives represented at the conference, presented their newly developed Index of Adequate Mobility, mapping the parameters of affordability, availability, accessibility, safety, and sustainability for public transport users in Cairo. Through the use of technological tools and working with the public sector, TfC was able to undertake spatial and temporal mapping of informal modes of public transport, with the aim of creating usable and shareable maps of an integrated transportation in Cairo, encompassing informal transportation (such as microbuses) as a main- and much needed- addition.

 Another project, part of the Cairo case study, was A2K4D’s Ring Road project, presented by Yara Sultan. Sultan explained how - in an environment where access to comprehensive data is not easy or guaranteed - novel datasets could be generated by gleaning data from non-traditional sources. Focused on the Cairo Ring-Road, Sultan demonstrated the unique methodology used in the project which aims to source and create datasets measuring four critical dimensions on the Ring Road: Safety, Mobility, Accessibility, and Reliability of Transport. The combination of non-traditional digital tools and qualitative data collection, allows for a more critical focus on the local context, making visible some of the everyday processes that are missed when relying solely on digital tools. The novel datasets can be used for much-needed research and evidence-based planning on the urban highway. The project demonstrated some of the potentials for a more socially-inclusive Ring-Road, accommodating non-private car users, which constitute the majority of Ring-Road commuters.  

 Another initiative presented at the conference was Ma’an Nassel based in Amman. Presented by Hazem Zureiqat, this initiative started in October 2014 as a volunteer project. Zureiqat explained that Ma’an Nassel aims to make public transport a policy priority in Jordan. The organization connects stakeholders, lobbies with the government, and publishes in-depth analyses on the user experience of public transport in Amman. More information on their work can be found here.

 The Beirut Bus Map, presented by Jad El-Baaklini, similarly began as a grassroots volunteer project. El-Baaklini explained that the mandate of the project emphasizes reframing the discourses surrounding public transportation in Beirut. He noted that, while the state is largely absent from the transit system, there are many transit options that exist in the city; these options however, are either ignored or denigrated. El-Baaklini explained that the Beirut Bus Project aims to improve these stigmas by understanding how the existing systems operate in addition to some of the ways in which a culture of public transportation usage can be fostered among commuters across all socio-economic sectors.

 Another fascinating case study was presented by Sarah Williams from Digital Matutus. Williams explained that, like Cairo, Nairobi suffers from severe congestion problems. In response, Williams and her team leveraged the ubiquitous nature of cell phone use to create a GIS dataset which mapped the various routes of Nairobi’s popular informal transportation mode; the Matutus. Williams presented the various applications that have been developed from this dataset, noting that this uptake was a marker of success in their mapping of informal transportation in Nairobi. Along the same line, Amr Ramadan - researcher at the Union Internationale des Transports Publics (UITP), Dubai- presented his own work regarding the regulation of the informal microbus system in Greater Cairo. He heavily noted the potentialities that can be capitalized on by integrating the needs and local knowledge of microbus operators for a more inclusive and integrated public transportation system. Many of the case studies presented throughout the conference highlighted that accessibility of data was a major point of contention in the development of their initiatives.

 A panel discussion on day-two of the conference considered gender, the environment and the socioeconomic impact of public transportation. Panelists included Ahmed El-Dorghamy from CEDARE, Dr. Hossam Abdelgawad from SETS Intl., Jacqueline Klopp from Digital Matatus, and Samar Youssef from the International Transport Workers Federation (ITF). El-Dorghamy noted that one of the biggest issues with public transportation in the Arab region is local pollutants, explaining that most public transportation modes contribute a lot of emissions due to low fuel quality. Moreover, the panel witnessed discussions surrounding the link between access to data and improved accessibility for female commuters. Jacqueline Klopp from Digital Matatus relayed her own experience from Nairobi arguing that having clear information on routes and vehicles was very important for women in the decision-making process particularly when faced with the choice of whether or not to opt for public transportation for their daily commutes.

This blog is part of a series created for a collaboration: ‘Knowledge Sharing for Solar Energy in Egypt’ led by the Access to Knowledge for Development Center and the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (Egypt Office). 

Clean and renewable energy is a building block of any sustainable and resilient city and country. Energy is at the  heart of many development challenges globally - jobs, livelihoods, food security, and safe environments. Access and affordability of energy are central items of policy agendas around the world, and, especially, in the Middle East and North Africa where the threat of climate change is serious, but the potential of clean energy is also immense.

The work by the Access to Knowledge for Development Center, with the International Development Research Center and the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, focuses on dynamics of the emerging solar energy market in Egypt. For the past year, and the upcoming one, we have sought to elucidate the following questions: How have individuals navigated and innovated in the sector, how can we inform policy, what is the best way to advocate for renewables and sustainable energy in Egypt? What knowhow do entrepreneurs need to succeed in the sector and how can they acquire it?

To answer these questions we have gone to new, and utterly exciting, places: the Internet!

DEVELOPMENT GOES DIGITAL

First a bit of background on how we got here.

A2K4D serves as the lead center in a region-wide project entitled Harnessing the Economic Power of Data in the Middle East and North Africa (The Data Revolution). It also serves as MENA Node for the Open data for Development (OD4D). These projects are supported by the International Development Research Center (IDRC), as part of a global agenda to mobilize data towards an increasingly complex development agenda. The projects have provided us space to develop and pilot open data technologies in the shape of two case studies led by A2K4D, one concerned with renewable energy in Egypt, and the other that explores transport and urban mobility 

We clearly like our data, a little bit obsessively.

The Data Revolution project is part of a global agenda to mobilize data towards an increasingly complex development agenda. This includes targeted action on how data is produced, managed and used, working towards better outcomes for all. It is part of a growing call to better harness digital technologies for development, as well as for social entrepreneurship, which plays an important role in the region. Similarly, the OD4D is a global network, bringing together local partners, to advance the production management and use of open data in development. The program looks to scale innovation, strengthen initiatives and facilitate coordination between different actors and projects working in open data.

The promise of data in development is apparent. So the following is a pilot digital platform that utilizes this energy towards the development of clean and affordable energy in Egypt.

This project is firmly set in the field of the digital sharing economy. The digital sharing economy has been defined as “innovations that leverage digital solutions, such as the Internet or mobile phones, to engage communities. Communities lead the development of these innovations when they are co-creators in their design and implementation, facilitated by digital tools”.

Community participation is an essential characteristic of the digital sharing economy, often taking place in three main ways: sharing, collaboration and a commons-based approach to resources. Broken down, this means sharing everything from assets to ideas, creating spaces to allow for collaboration on solutions to common problems, and consolidating wide-ranging efforts towards managing a natural resource - in this case solar energy -  for the good of an entire community.

This blog post first provides context to the solar energy sector and challenges facing the sector, followed by a proposition of how the digital sharing economy could be harnessed to achieve growth and equity in the sector.

THE SECTOR AT A GLANCE

The population growth and the increase in energy consumption are considered the main challenges in the world and especially in the Middle East. Egypt faces a deficit in energy production which creates a significant number of power cuts during the summer season, for example. This has a negative overall effect on the economy, creating losses in production. To cover the demand of non-renewable energy, energy production needs to be increased by 6% or 7% per year.

A study undertaken by the Egyptian Center for Economic and Social Rights (ECESR) in partnership with Heinrich Böll Stiftung entitled: “80 Gigawatts of Change,Egypt’s Future Electricity Pathways” identified the advantages of renewable energy. One of the main advantages is the creation of thousands jobs in the sector. According to the study “there are large job markets waiting to be created in Egypt, through a huge roll out of energy efficiency measures, and, from the manufacturing and installation of renewable energies such as photovoltaic solar.” It will furthermore reduce the demand for electricity and reduce the household expenses on electricity. The introduction of this sector in the Egyptian government will decrease the governmental costs on energy and save the environment from the gas emissions.

This potential is stifled by many challenges that prevent the success of the sector:

A lack of incentives that encourage the investments in the sector,  

Lack of skills, know how and pool of local professional experience in this field,

High prices  and lack of awareness of the available systems and their uses

Lack of research on the current experiences to evaluate the advantages of this sector, its limitations and opportunities that help the local and international investments.  

In an attempt to foster a different type of market development, while addressing challenges in the sector, A2K4D has begun work on an interactive data-based online platform.

DIGITIZING DYNAMICS: THE SOLAR SECTOR ONLINE

The community-based platform aims to address the scarcity of information, data and knowledge shared from and within the sector. The project has focused on mapping the solar energy sector’s ecosystem throughout the value-chain of firms, suppliers and users.

The set-up of the digital platform promotes a type of economic development that has potential to be more inclusive, sustainable, and pay regard to environmental conditions and livelihoods of local communities. Taking the potential of those working in the sector to harness new digital tools to create new market products and services, more focused on cooperation than traditional market structures. The digital sharing economy provides an opportunity to produce and market products and services in new ways, moving away from traditional markets.

Data collected from actors along the sector’s value-chain is being shared and visualized as open data on an the interactive online platform, aiming to democratize access to this information, encouraging users to take an active role in the growth of a sector that is crucial for sustainable development. By opening up the sector from clusters of connection-based networks, the platform looks to create inclusive opportunities at a critical stage of development in the sector. Opening up the sector will also help turning it from a connection-based to a knowledge-based sector: this in turn means that companies and start-ups can be judged based on the value they produce - the innovations and the products they create - instead relying on the connections they have previously established.

There are three main objectives to this project:

Objective 1: Facilitate access to information and data.

Objective 2: Encourage entrepreneurship and innovation in the sector.

Objective 3: Engage in community-building to sustain and support the growing sector.

The online platform being developed by A2K4D is based on a Wordpress site, using Open Linked Data. Open Linked Data is used to make the data and information on the platform more ‘searchable’ on the Internet. It connects content shared on the platform to content elsewhere on the web, and ensures content on the platform is easily reachable. Through ‘tagging’, platform users and the general public, are able to find data and information shared on the platform. This data is available freely as Open Data online, supported by a mapping of the sector and data visualizations, providing insight on who is doing what in the sector, and where gaps appear in the value chain.

While this quantitative data is crucial for many in the sector, there is still much to be said on the growth and development of the sector and its different actors. This knowledge and information will help not only in assessing the health of the sector, but provide better cues on policy and planning for the sustainability of renewables in the future in Egypt.

TURNING TO THE NETWORK

An essential facet of the platform is the building of a sustainable network around solar energy in Egypt in order to encourage the dissemination of best-practices and collaboration towards problem-solving in the sector. This network will function around the online platform and the data and knowledge it provides, as well as a series of events that are focused around knowledge sharing in the sector. A network aims to ensure participation and ownership in addressing challenges the sector. The network should additionally serve as advocate for renewables and sustainable development in the region, influence policy reform and facilitate knowledge sharing within the network.

This is where all our readers come in. If you are working in the sector and would like to contribute, or are simply interested in what we are doing - get in touch or come and join us in our future events!

On March 23, 2017, the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), the Industrial Training Council (ITC) and the Ministry of Trade and Industry collaboratively organized and hosted the conference titled, “The Future of Work in Egypt: New Skills, Technology and Business Models”. The timing of the event could not have been better, as it appropriately directed attention towards the changing global dynamics of labor and the new skills and work cultures that encapsulate, as well as necessitate a qualitative shift in the labor environment in Egypt.  

Focusing on what has been termed, “The Fourth Industrial Revolution”, stakeholders from different sectors including civil society, international organizations multinational companies and government bodies, laid out their vision for a better equipped workforce to tackle the multitude of challenges that lay ahead of the incumbent change in the nature of the labor market. Essentially premised on a more central role for information and communication technology (ICT), digital cultures, IoT (Internet of Things) and a tech-savvy work force, the Fourth Industrial Revolution has yet to be fully embraced by local players in Egypt, and this is precisely what the conference had set out to change. The urgency towards tackling this shift also comes from the significant potential loss in jobs as digital tools and communication technology quickly begin to replace human labor across sectors.

 With representatives from the International Labor Organization, The Egyptian Center for Public Opinion Research (Baseera), the Ministry of Trade and Industry, the International Training Center, Dcode Economic and Financial Consulting, Vodafone Egypt as well as academics from Cairo University, the panels exposed a wide range of experiences and opinions on the different aspects of what constitutes a skilled workforce.

 Some of the most prominent issues discussed during the event entailed a larger focus on the laws governing intellectual property, an enabling environment furthered by strong digital infrastructures, improved data management capabilities (specifically big data) and a stronger regulatory environment and legal framework that can better regulate and invite confidence in investment. Reforming the over-all approach towards capacity-building in digital technologies will arguably help in capturing the plethora of work and investment opportunities that can grow out of different sectors.  

 With 60% of Egypt’s population under 30 years of age and with 3.6 million unemployed young men and women, the opportunities that can arise from employing structural changes to educational methods, can have a lasting impact on the abilities of the workforce created and incubated locally. The point remains however, (and a common concern among all stakeholders) is that a lack of confidence in the legal structure and the laws which govern innovation, digital technology (i.e. mobile banking) and access to data, will inevitably limit the extent to which the future of work in Egypt can realistically keep up with the challenges and opportunities offered by a changing global digital infrastructure.

Swedish Institute Alexandria & Arab Academy for Science and Technology and Maritime Transport

13 – 18 March 2017

Aswan & Alexandria

In March 2017, the Swedish Institute Alexandria and Arab Academy for Science and Technology and Maritime Transport in Aswan hosted their first ever “Remake the City” School and Summit, bringing together a group of young urban development practitioners, architects, researchers, artists, and environmentalists from Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. Stressing the urgency of creating more resilient cities worldwide, the School and Summit focused in particular on the development of a sustainable urban vision for Aswan’s historical market place - the Old Souq.

The School, comprised of a series of lectures, interactive workshops, and site visits, covered an extensive array of topics such as architectural heritage preservation, community inclusion, sustainable transport and solid waste management, to name a few. Over a three-day period, participants engaged with experts from different disciplines, learning about the intricacies of each, as well as how they are interconnected.

Heritage

Kicking off the lectures, David Ashraf and Marwa Kamel from Description of Alexandria (DoA), spoke extensively about the importance of cultural and architectural heritage preservation, and the ways in which mapping can serve as a tool for the documentation and classification of protected sites within cities. The duo emphasized the need to engage with and educate communities and government representatives in order to guarantee the sustainability of their protection efforts.

Encouraging the adoption of this practice, a visit was organized to Aswan’s old souq, where participants applied DoA’s three-part methodology: Visual Documentation (sketching and photography); Oral Documentation (interviewing); and Field Surveying. Split into groups, the participants were asked to take note of the physical, environmental, economic, and socio-cultural features of the site, to be used as part of the Summit’s final project output on the souq.

Community Inclusion and Civic Participation

An expert on participatory urban planning, Christina Jimenez started Day 2 off by introducing participants to gaming as a means of challenging exclusionary, top-down approaches and encouraging need-based and human-centered public planning. By virtue of their varying levels of complexity, games can be used for a wide range of purposes, including: gauging and incorporating children’s opinions on the organization of public space; introducing ordinary citizens to the processes and politics involved in urban planning (for example,  The Building Futures Game); and promoting multi-stakeholder collaboration through city-design simulations (as in Play the City).

Turning to issues of governance and civic participation, Clement Steuer from the Centre for Economic, Legal, and Social Study and Documentation (CEDEJ), discussed various international models used to increase community involvement in urban decision-making. In some instances, Clement explained, government decentralization occurs, creating a space for local city councils, citizen panels, and other institutional bodies to emerge. In others, participation takes place on an informal level, with community-led initiatives working instead to lobby for change through their central governments.

Understanding the different opportunities, risks, and challenges involved in community- and civic-involvement, the participants were encouraged to consider strategies of engagement in developing their own group visions for the souq.

Sustainability and Disaster Risk Reduction

Highlighting both the negative impact made by environmental degradation on cities around the world, and the strategies used to counter it, a number of lectures and workshop-sessions were held on Day 2 and 3 of the School.

Ahmed Fouad from the Hurghada Environmental Protection and Conservation Association (HEPCA) introduced the participatory model used by HEPCA in a number of Red Sea towns to address their solid-waste-management(SWM) challenges, after which his colleague, Zakaria Mohyeldin, led a workshop on the advantages and disadvantages associated with a number of SWM strategies, including: 1. Incineration (Waste to Energy); 2. Sorting, Recycling, and Donating Organic Waste for Community Development; 3. Landfill with Flaring; and 4. Sorting and Industrial Biogas Production. Participants were warned against overlooking the potential benefits found in the informal strategies used by communities, including those at the souq.

Turning next to sustainable transport, Ahmed El Dorghamy from CEDARE, spoke in depth about an international strategy known as the A-S-I Approach, or Avoid-Shift-Improve. On a systemic level, Avoid/Reduce refers to the use of strategies that minimize the need for travel, including introducing company work-from-home policies. With regards to mode, Shift/Maintain refers to the encouragement of shifting to more environmentally-friendly modes of transport, including encourage bicycle- and bus-use. Lastly, on the level of vehicles, Improve refers to optimizing the energy-efficiency of existing transport modes and vehicle technology, including investing in the further development of electric vehicles. El Dorghamy also described a strategy known as Travel Demand Management, which consists of: 1. Improving transport options; 2. Introducing incentives to reduce driving; 3. Managing parking and land-use; and 4. Reforming and introducing constructive policies.

Lastly, Ragy Saro and Mostafa Nasr from the UNISDR, presented a series of frameworks used to assess and reform existing disaster risk reduction strategies, including the ten essentials for making cities disaster resilient. Challenging the traditionally-used term “natural disaster,” Ragy argued that though hazards may be natural, disasters are often, a direct result of a city’s under-preparedness. In this sense, for a country like Japan, which falls along numerous fault-lines, avoiding a disaster is dependent on its readiness and response-planning. When planning for the souq, potential risks such as flooding and fires, were among the main things participants were urged to consider.

Aswan Souq Vision 2022

Thus, inspired by the government’s planned revamp of Aswan for the year 2022, the groups’ final projects, showcased at the Swedish Institute in Alexandria, consisted of: 1) a model façade redesign for one of the souq’s buildings; and 2) a proposed 10-point vision for the souq as a whole.

Drawing on both the observations and insights gleaned from the various site-visits and lectures, as well as on the respective areas of expertise of each participant, the four groups put together their proposals for the souq, determining: architectural detailing and material-use, pathway and street flow planning, economic restructuring, local community integration, proposed waste-management systems, disaster-risk reduction strategies, and more.

On February 1, 2017, A2K4D hosted an open panel discussion entitled ‘Data, Innovation and our Environment – Current Experiences and Imagined Futures’ at Oriental Hall, AUC Tahrir Campus.

The panel brought together experts from the transport, energy and development sectors to critically discuss data-driven innovation in the region. Panelists included Dr. Raed Sharif, Senior Program Officer, Technology and Innovation, at the International Development Research Center (IDRC), Dr. Hossam Abdel Gawad Director of SETS North Africa and Ahmed Zahran, CEO of KarmSolar. The panel was moderated by A2K4D Researcher Nancy Salem.

 The panel raised questions of how, in the current context of the region, we see innovation with data evolving, particularly in moving towards sustainable and open cities. The open discussion drew on audience experiences from those working in data, and the energy and transport sectors to discuss current trends and how data can specifically be of use to them. The discussion shed light on challenges faced with regards to data availability, and offered the opportunity to calibrate future work and pool resources towards innovation, while success stories set much needed precedence and inspired further innovation.

The International Finance Corporation, in collaboration with the Access to Knowledge for Development Center (A2K4D) and CleanTech Arabia, organized a consultation workshop on February 27, 2017 at the historical Oriental Hall in the AUC Downtown Campus to garner feedback on their paper entitled “Scaling up Distributed Solar in Egypt: Understanding the Business Case.”

The workshop focused on financial, structural, and legal barriers in distributed solar and highlighted a need for increased access to reliable and updated information. Attendees ranged from government representatives to entrepreneurs and financiers, in an organic discussion aimed at identifying ways forward among key stakeholders.

 “When one piece of technology fails in a community, it’s easy to conclude that solar PV just doesn’t work,” one entrepreneur shared. “Increased access to information would remove this suspicion, and will replaced faulty technology with more reputable systems instead of just eliminating them entirely.”

Ahmed Huzzayin, Co-Founder of CleanTech Arabia, emphasized that data “is not just lacking for customers, but for investors and companies. They need to be divided and addressed accordingly, in order to connect them more effectively.”

After the IFC team presented the paper’s findings and gathered feedback, A2K4D announced the launch of their upcoming digital platform which will take place in June 2017. The platform aims to be a hub for knowledge-sharing in the solar energy sector and fills gaps along the value chain.

Thursday December 8th, 2016

The A2K4D team attended KarmSolar’s 1st Annual Forum, where it announced six developments in its work. The event highlighted the ways in which KarmSolar, a small, local company, became a formidable competitor on the market. Ahmed Zahran, CEO, emphasized that the following developments are not “successes” but milestones. They serve as examples of sustainable, long-term strategies for entrepreneurship in Egypt that are still in the process of being fully realized:

1. KarmSolar invented their own personalized water pumping drive with parts that are manufactured locally, rather than importing technologies that are either insufficient to meet the needs of KarmSolar (requiring additional and costly modifications) or are overly complex (thus wasting money on superfluous features). Not only does this mean that imported parts that become damaged no longer have to be sent abroad for lengthy fixes, but that many of these fixes can even be performed remotely via software.

2. KarmBuild, an architectural design firm focusing on energy efficiency and sustainable building designs and subsidiary of KarmSolar, partnered with the prolific Egyptian designer and architect, Azza Fahmy to create “Azza Fahmy Buildings by KarmBuild” at the new Sahl Hasheesh Campus.

3.  KarmBuild and Azza Fahmy created “Azza Fahmy Solar Mounting Systems” that emulate traditional/historical Egyptian designs, to pay homage to Egyptian innovation through the ages.

4. KarmBuild, RiseUp, and Sahl Hasheesh are working to encourage Caireans and Alexandrians to create a technology hub in the Red Sea, with the vision of permanent relocation away from the city. As such, KarmSolar is taking the “first move” by moving its offices to the Sahl Hasheesh. All three bodies are starting a tech startup up in the area.

At Rise Up Summit’16, The Access to Knowledge for Development Center (A2K4D), alongside Inside Out Today, organized a workshop demonstrating the effect of open data on social entrepreneurship.   

While building a business by sharing your company’s data publicly may seem unreasonable, studies have found that opening up your data may benefit not only your company but also the health of entire sectors. Open data is data that anyone can access, use or share. By sharing this data and untapping its vast potential, new business opportunities can be created and many development problems can be solved.

“Data is the current oil. If we get data, we can create new business models and change the world,” said Fady Ramzy, CEO of Inside Out Today that brings the latest digital technologies to the MENA region such as open-linked data.

 Online Exposure

 Ramzy explains that the Internet nowadays is starting to transform from a “web of pages” to “web of data,” in an effort to organize the plethora of information that is given to us across various websites on the Internet.

 For example, in the past, when one would search for key words such as “Cairo weather” online, all webpages that mention these key words would appear. However, by transforming web pages made up of text into web pages made of data, via technologies such as the ones Inside Out Today utilizes, a search engine such as Google would now be capable of giving the user the answer he’s looking for directly without having to open any web page.

 By transforming text into data, any company would subsequently increase its exposure online as it would be framing a product directly towards the needs of the consumers.

 “Stop thinking about building a website. Start thinking about structuring data and start thinking about open data not just web pages,” Ramzy said.

 Social Entrepreneurship

 While the previous example may demonstrate how a company may benefit on an individual basis, A2K4D’s Nancy Salem goes on to explain that firms can utilize their data in ways that can be of value to the business itself as well as society in general.

 By opening up data about transportation, education, health care, and more, governments and businesses can help app developers, civil society organizations, and others to find innovative ways to tackle urban problems.

 This idea has been applied here in Egypt via the Egyptian startup En2ly. En2ly is an online freight transportation service provider that connects shippers in need of quality transportation service to carriers looking to increase their truck utilization at competitive rates. By collecting data on empty trucks that would’ve been normally ignored, the service was able to utilize otherwise idle resources and made sure trucks didn’t waste time driving empty.

 On an international level, open data has been utilized in applications such as a system that predicts which fields are most promising in New York City based on salaries and growth potential, via NYC Hired, as well as a system that tells brick and mortar businesses in the city about road closures or local events that would affect them.

 “Social entrepreneurship is not just about making money for yourself but it is also about creating value for the society as well,“ said A2K4D’s Stefanie Felsberger.

 Privacy

 Open data, however, would be most effective if everyone, from businesses and governments, are willing to share otherwise private information. From a business perspective, many companies would be weary of sharing their data with their competitors. One question often remains, if everyone shares their data, all companies would have access to the same resources - how would a company position itself?

 “It’s not a zero-sum game,” explains Felsberger, at all companies could eventually benefit by sharing data with competitors, as it would allow for  collaborative effort.

The Access to Knowledge for Development Center (A2K4D) organized an Open African Innovation  Research (Open AIR) Distinguished Speaker Event at RiseUp Summit, hosting Endeavor Entrepreneur and Luminus Education CEO Ibrahim El Safadi. 

Ibrahim Al Safadi came from a well-to-do family who had a successful wood trading business in Saudi Arabia. During his school years, he learned how to juggle schoolwork with work at his family’s business. Once he moved to Jordan for his college degree, it didn’t take him long to realize that a university education was not for him.

 Failing to see how a college program would help him in the real world, he dropped out and decided to opt for vocational training. This experience has led him to devote all his efforts in building Luminus Education: An association of several colleges that offer high-quality technical and vocational training in the MENA region. Today, the educational institute hosts 8000 students with almost an 80% employment rate for its students.

 “We are not big believers of the Thanaweya Amma exams. We are against it,” said El Safadi.  He explains that he had always had a problem with the traditional route to education in the region “In the Middle East, you either succeed or you fail. This is how the culture here works. I believe that this is one of the reasons behind the decline of the Arab World,” he said, adding that he had seen students that did not do well in high school but excelled in vocational schools.

 Luminus Education, therefore, operates with the model “education for employment” and holds a firm belief in demand-driven education that can guarantee employment to its students. Hence, they tend to work very closely with the private sector, regularly inquiring about their needs. “Everyday, we visit ten employers to make sure our students get jobs,” he added.  

 Unemployment has been one of the most severe ills of the region, with the Middle East and North Africa regions recording the highest youth unemployment rates in the world at 28.2 and 30.5 percent, respectively, according to a 2015 report by the International Labor Organization. The global youth unemployment rate, meanwhile, stands at 13 percent. An institution such as Luminus has targeted those that are most vulnerable to unemployment (low- and middle-income classes aged 16 years or above), and placed them in an “enabling environment.”

 Luminus has also addressed one of the pressing problems currently facing the global economy: the migrant crisis. They have recently launched a makerspace ten minute away from the Syrian governorate of Daraa, which lies on the Syrian border with Jordan, the headquarters of Luminus. A Makerspace is a collaborative workspace that is equipped with high-end equipment, such as 3D printers and laser cutters, where people can share expertise while creating their projects. “There are around 350,000 refugees and one and half million Jordanians. We want them to work together and eventually develop their own companies,” El Safadi said. Luminus only acts as a mentor, but if they see potential in an idea they could provide them with funds of up to USD 50,000, in addition to providing them access to export to Europe and the U.S.

 “I learned by trial and error from working with my father. That’s what I was trying to do with the makerspaces,” El Safadi said.

 Luminus Education had managed to create a revolutionary business model that has survived for nearly 35 years. El Safadi attributed the company’s success to the fact that they constantly adapt by the needs of the private sector. They now have three campuses in Amman and one in Iraq and plan to open their first campus in Egypt in three years. They are also hoping to house 20,000 students by 2020, and increase their employment rates to 90%.

The official launch of FabLab on Wheels took place on 4 December 2016 at the Greek Campus in downtown Cairo amidst an atmosphere of anticipation and excitement. FabLab on Wheels is the first initiative in Egypt providing a moving makerspace. The FabLab bus is equipped with fabrication equipment and will be touring Egypt’s governorates to provide training workshops to enable local community members to materialize their ideas. The first two governorates to be visited by FabLab on Wheels are Minya and Sohag. After spending two months in each governorate, the FabLab on Wheels team hopes to pass the maker space torch to well-trained individuals that will be able to start FabLabs in these governorates. Fab Lab Egypt will support the newly established maker spaces by providing them with the needed equipment free of charge and mentoring services, in addition to financial support for one year. Interestingly, a representative from FabLab Egypt mentioned that the newly established products could help the country by reducing the need for imports, and thus saving foreign currency outflows.

A2K4D Director Nagla Rizk, A2K4D researcher Nagham El Houssamy and SSHRC Research Fellow Mohamed Hosny attended the launch event and took a “bus tour” before the FabLab on Wheels begins its journey. The bus is equipped with a 3-D printer, in addition to other fabrication equipment. The majority of the equipment is identical to those found in other makerspaces in other parts of the world. FabLab on Wheels is an excellent initiative that aims to spread the culture of maker spaces and unleash creativity.

FabLab on Wheels is supported by Giza Systems, Dell EMC, Educational Exploratory Centers, and Fab Lab Egypt.

(Professor Doris Jones and our two Data Revolution researchers, Stefanie Felsberger and Nancy Salem.)

The Common Reading Program, organised by the Rhetoric and Composition Department at the AUC, aims to encourage reading among Freshmen students by selecting a book each year for interested students and faculty members to collectively read and discuss.

This year, in collaboration with the Library and the Access to Knowledge for Development Center (A2K4D), as well as through support from the School of Sciences and Engineering, the theme of Big Data was selected.

Under this theme, three books were chosen:

Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other by Sherry Turkle;

Matters of Life and Data: A Memoir: the remarkable journey of a big data visionary whose work impacted millions (Including You) by Charles D. Morgan; and

Too Big to Know: Rethinking Knowledge Now That the Facts Aren’t the Facts, Experts Are Everywhere, and the Smartest Person in the Room Is the Room by David Weinberger.

In order to allow participants to engage further with the readings, a skype talk was organised with Dr. David Weinberger, Fellow at the Berkman Centre for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School, and author of Too Big to Know, on the state of information and knowledge in the age of the Internet.

Participants read Chapter 1 of the book, and sent in a number of questions for Dr. Weinberger to address. Below you will find a short review of the chapter and an e-book download link here. The students’ questions are at the end of the review. We are curious to hear what questions you have as well!

Chapter 1: Knowledge Overload

At the very outset of his book, Weinberger introduces readers to what he refers to as the crisis of knowledge, carefully tracking knowledge’s transformation from a domain centered around expert opinion and carefully curated information, to an unbounded network of information accessible to all in its creation and use. According to him, this transformation occurred as a direct result of the move from traditional mediums of knowledge - namely books, with their finite storage capacity, to the Internet - unlimited in its size and scope.

In comparing its contemporary form as networked knowledge to the triangular knowledge structure of the past, Weinberger acknowledges many of the concerns expressed by people regarding the validity and reliability of information today. The familiar argument goes as follows: whereas knowledge used to be developed by experts, reviewed by others, and filtered by still more, on its way onto one of the many library shelves around the world, today anyone with an Internet connection and electronic device can create and disseminate potentially inaccurate, deceitful, and harmful information, reaching the eyes and ears of anyone with just a few clicks.

Accordingly, he states, popular anxieties have been transformed from fears surrounding “information overload”, an oft-propagated notion in the 1970s, to ones about the absence of accurate and reliable information today. (36)

However, Weinberger argues, the move towards an open network of knowledge has also allowed for more thorough and consistent fact-checking (think US elections), an increase in the availability of diverse perspectives on important issues (think DemocracyNow!), and a growing amount of contributions from, and collaborations between, individuals around the world (think OpenIDEO).

“Networked knowledge is less certain but more human. Less settled but more transparent. Less reliable but more inclusive. Less consistent but far richer.” (18)

Furthermore, he states, unlike the filtering process that took place in the publishing houses, libraries, journals, and news outlets of the past - through which things that were deemed unimportant, inaccurate or unworthy of dissemination were excluded, today’s information filtering process works instead through a process of promotion. This Weinberger refers to as filtering forward.

“Filters no longer filter out. They filter forward, bringing their results to the front. What doesn’t make it through a filter is still visible and available in the background.” (40)

Consequently, save for direct censorship, any information and knowledge made available online can technically be accessed by anyone. Thus, Weinberger appears to claim, the Internet has triggered a democratisation both of the creation of new forms of knowledge, and of the access to and use of it.

Finally, Weinberger addresses the impact that this new type of knowledge has had on knowledge-based institutions. Beyond almost rendering traditional libraries and scholarly journals obsolete, it has, he purports, also transformed the way more advanced institutions, such as consulting firms and think tanks, operate. No longer relying on a number of “credentialed authorities” for expertise, many firms are now embracing a method that places a higher value on integration, diversity, and disagreement. Bringing together people from diverse backgrounds, and in this way, further solidifying the transformation of knowledge from a pyramid into a network.

Questions from Students and Faculty Members:

1. Student - Computer Engineering

In your book, you argue that human beings became the dominant species on our planet due to the filtering systems we have created. What exactly are those filtering systems and how do you think we came to develop them?

2. Student - Construction Engineering

Since the Internet provides information to the public in overwhelmingly uncensored amounts, can the benefits include elevated levels of wisdom; or an unattainability of useful information that pushes us down the DIKW hierarchy? (Data-Information-Knowledge-Wisdom)

3. Student - Accounting & Financial Analysis

How can we develop education to boost the concept of critical thinking and questioning about what we know?

4. Student - Electronics and Communications Engineering

In a world where the Internet is expanding and data is everywhere, is there a possibility we can secure data and knowledge online, to minimise misleading information?

5. Student - Architecture Engineering

What are the criteria to filter the good and bad data without potentially neglecting and/or excluding important information?

6. Student - Construction Engineering

Due to the increasing amounts of online data, some important information may be lost or difficult to reach. How can we make relevant data more recognisable?

7. Student

The philosophers Plato and Socrates argued that wisdom requires that you know nothing. In what ways is the Internet spoon-feeding us with information that others have sacrificed to discover?

8. Student - Construction Engineering

In Chapter 1 of your book, you appear to argue that the large amounts of information found on the Internet, is in some ways causing problems. But yet we cannot live with only a limited amount of information. Where and how can we find the right balance between too much and too little information?

9. Student - Mechanical Engineering

What do you mean by “information fatigue syndrome” and how can an overload of data help minimise it?

10. Student - Business Administration and Integrated Marketing Communication

In Chapter 1 you argue that since there exists such a diverse range of knowledge, as a medium, the Internet is big enough to contain it. Yet, is the Internet a proper medium for storage and retrieval of knowledge acquisition without risking the loss of integrity?

11. Faculty Member - Centre for Excellence for ME & Arab Cultures

In answer to the question “Is the Net making us stupid,” you seem to reply “No, not if we create a culture of openness, and train ourselves to examine critically the ‘metadata’ of whatever the Net presents us with.” Is that a fair summary of your conclusion?

You seem to take a stand against techno-determinism; is it not true, however, that technology limits the way in which we can interact with things? We can “like,” but not “dislike,” for example. We may also be subject to limitations imposed by the state (no YouTube in China, or WhatsApp in Turkey!), or more subtly, to limitations of language - knowledge gained from the web looks radically different for speakers of English, and of Arabic, for example.

17-19 November, 2016 | El Gouna, Egypt

Egypt’s 2016 Entrepreneurship Summit was part of a series of events that took place in Egypt in conjunction with the Global Entrepreneurship Week.

A2K4D’s Senior Research Officer, Nagham El Houssamy, participated in the summit, speaking on the Data-Driven Innovation Panel on Friday 18 November:

Nagham el Houssamy of @AUC 's Access to knowledge for development centre on #data driven innovation panel#GEWEgypt #GEW2016 pic.twitter.com/ipS08Y2lpc

— Nahdet El Mahrousa (@NahdetMahrousa)

November 18, 2016

This is the second Egypt Entrepreneurship Summit to take place, and the first in which A2K4D has participated. The Summit was well attended, with numerous stakeholders from the entrepreneurship ecosystem, including academics, practitioners, and young entrepreneurs. The opening plenary session included welcoming remarks by the event hosts and organizers and distinguished speakers, including Mr. Peter Van Rooij, ILO Cairo Office & North Africa DWT Director; Dr. Luca Iandoli, International Council for Small Businesses President; Mr. Troy Lulashnyk, Ambassador of Canada to Egypt; and H.E. Dr. Sahar Nasr, Egyptian Minister of International Cooperation. The speakers stressed the important role of entrepreneurship in the creation of more and better jobs for Egyptians, going on to refer to entrepreneurs as agents of change. Dr. Iandoli raised an interesting question, asking whether it is best to pursue a quest for economic development based on social justice or pursue a quest for social justice based on economic development. To the panel, the optimal path was to pursue both simultaneously by encouraging  and enabling entrepreneurship.

The Data-Driven Innovation Panel took place on the second day of the Summit. The panel was moderated by Dr. Raed Sharif, Senior Program Officer for the Technology and Innovation Program at IDRC, and included Dr. Hossam Abdelgawad from SETC Egypt, Ms. Basma El-bana from GIZ, Egypt, Mr. Chris Celiberti from Heal R World USA, and A2K4D’s Nagham El Houssamy. The objective of the panel was to explore the existing and potential possibilities for business generation around data (i.e., data-driven entrepreneurial activities), where future career-building and job growth are foreseen. Speakers discussed the ways in which digital entrepreneurship and data-driven innovation can contribute to the future of career-building and job creation for youth in Egypt. 

(Photo: Dr. Raed Sharif via @SherineCairo on Twitter)

Dr. Sharif began the session by showing a short video explaining the value of data for entrepreneurs (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ST9AUlBKS_4). “Data is the world’s greatest free resource”, he explained to the audience, “helping thousands of entrepreneurs around the world launch new businesses and come up with products and services”. GIZ’s El-bana spoke next discussing a training program organized by GIZ on “How to become a Data-Driven Business” that took place a week earlier. El-bana explained how valuable this training was to both entrepreneurs and data professionals. Entrepreneurs learned how to package their businesses in a data-oriented framework, in addition to learning how to tell a data-driven story and thus become a more convincing entrepreneur. Data professionals learned how to connect data and metrics to business objectives, with exposure to real-life cases.

El Houssamy spoke next on research she conducted with A2K4D’s Nadine Weheba on digital entrepreneurship in Egypt. El Houssamy and Weheba interviewed 8 prominent digital startups in Egypt, surveying the digital start up scene, and developing a framework of enablers and obstacles that digital entrepreneurs face. In the interviews, data had come up as a means of improving businesses, creating further revenue streams, for developmental purposes, and to benefit other aspiring entrepreneurs. The digital startups interviewed brought to attention a second generation of data driven innovation based on new data that was digitally born from startups’ business models. Startups have actually been creating new data sets as a result of their business models, which has in turn created sustainability for their businesses by providing an additional revenue stream. Dr. Abdelgawad was the next panel speaker, sharing with the audience several visuals made from Google Traffic data on Egypt. Through his visuals, he illustrated one of the many potential utilizations of open data. Finally, Mr. Celiberti spoke about his experience with his data-oriented business Heal R World.

How Much Data Is Generated Every Minute?

Data is constantly pouring out of our smartphones, smartwatches, smart TVs, and countless other devices that are all connected—and it continues to proliferate at an astounding rate. But just how much data is generated every minute in 2016?

Dr. Sherif El-Kassas gave an interesting talk about privacy and security in the digital age and we want to highlight some interesting quotes and pieces of information.

He started by asking:

“Have we accepted surveillance as a business model?”

While this might be a rather disputed statement, it shows how technology is mediating every bit of online conversation and how this gives rise to many opportunities for surveillance. Granted technology also enables access to knowledge and information as well as brings countless benefits. But both the positive as well as the negative aspects are built into the very fabric of technology: These are related to the way the network is set up which means that your message has to go through many notes in the network - each retaining a copy of your message and meta data on your message. In short your activities are being tracked and monitored.

Dr. Sherif El-Kassas asked many questions that made us think. Most importantly, he asked:

How free are the ‘free services’ on the Internet and why should we care?

Google, Facebook and others make money from advertising, so what appears as free actually means that you are paying with your data. Is this a win-win situation?

In conversation with his students, Dr El-Kassas said that they thought that privacy was dead: Security and privacy are trumped by convenience and functionality.

He cautioned that this was due to the fact that we don’t understand the implications and extent of information that can be deduced from this data.

One example he provided concerned a psychiatrist and her patients: Facebook ended up recommending that one psychiatrist’s patients should become friends on Facebook. This suggestion - based on location data - was not intended to reveal confidential information that is covered by doctor-patient confidentiality, but in the end it did.

How reliable, secure and safe is the connected world?

The second half of his presentation focused on the our dependability on the connected world. Dr El-Kassas brought several examples of security breaches and hacks, indicating that this digital infrastructure isn’t as secure as we would think.

This picture below shows a map of data breaches, each blob represents a topic and the size of the breach.

Finally, the question about Internet surveillance was raised. After the revelations of Eduard Snowden, we know that pretty much everything that happens on the Internet is monitored. It was pointed out that this pervasive monitoring is legally covered and even if one might get rid of the infrastructure in one country, there are similar infrastructures in place in others. 

This leads us to a situation in which privacy, security and democracy need to be debated. Richard Stallman asks,

How much surveillance can democracy stand? 

The question about the way forward offers several potential pathways:

Technology: protection for privacy must be technical

Economics: privacy must become part of business models

Politics: privacy needs to be discussed and re-evaluated as a principle in public discourses