START OF THE SECOND OPEN YOUTH ACADEMY

For the second year in a row Istria will host the Open Youth Academy, that will be held from 28th August to 3rd September at Studentski centar Pula, organized by the association Code for Croatia (HR Open) and supported by the Information Commissioner.

The Academy, with its main topic considering the use of open data for the sustainable local development, is intended for the youth aged 15-30 who share the same interest in IT and re-use of public sector information (open data). The goal of this gathering is to educate young people in the area of transparency and openness through the open data, particularly data of local self-government and to enable networking and meeting local and foreign experts in the field of open data in order to find potential solutions and new perspectives for commercial use of public administration data, on behalf of local communities and citizens.

30 young experts (aged 17 to 30) from Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, South Africa, Kosovo, France, Serbia and the United Kingdom will have the opportunity to learn about the use of local units data, goals of sustainable development and regional projects and to socialize and share their ideas with the young people who have similar interests. Experts in the field of open data will provide to participants a variety of useful and interesting lectures, workshops and discussions, in order to make the youth, in teams and helped by the mentors, put the theory into practice.

A precondition of this project’s success is opening data of the public authorities, specifically units of local and regional self-government, which is at the same time the obligation prescribed by the Law on Right to Access the Information, in accordance with the EU Directive on re-use of public sector information. At the same time the process of opening up the data in Croatia is part of the Action Plan for implementation of the Open Government Partnership 2014-2016, and therefore this global initiative (Open Government Partnership) supports the Academy and provides scholarships for the departure of the best team to the OGP Global Summit in Paris at the end of year.

Learn more about the program http://academy.codeforcroatia.org/