Innovation Hubs and Open Government

A Tech President report:

Image Courtesy of Juliana Rotich

In 2011, the iHub entered the open government field in a big way. That year the Kenyan government launched a first for Africa: a national open data project. Called The Kenya Open Data Initiative (KODI), the program would eventually release over 400 government datasets on everything from education to sanitation. The potential impact of the data was not lost on observers; technology reporter Alex Howard described KODI as not "simply about meeting data standards or publishing data online. Ultimately, it’s about changing the compact between citizens and their government." After KODI launched, the iHub and its members were on center stage, hosting open data panels, hackathons, bootcamps, and linking the government with the country’s developer community. The Ministry of Information and Communications even used the iHub to award grants to apps that used KODI data. In KODI’s first year, more than 50 applications pulled data from the platform. Of those 50 projects, it is unknown how many came out of the iHub, but it is safe to say a good number did.

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