Last March 4, 2023, the University of Science and Technology of Southern Philippines YouthMappers celebrated the Open Data Day 2023 with the theme “Empowering AI and Mapping with Open Data: A training-workshop on RapID”. We are very proud to have received a $500 grant from the Open Knowledge Foundation this year to organize Open Data Day 2023. With 40 participants, the training workshop was a tremendous success, and it was encouraging to see that more than half of the attendees were female.

Open Data Day is an annual celebration of open data all over the world. Groups from around the world create local events on the day where they will use open data in their communities. This year’s theme is “Open Data to AI”. With the theme “Open Data to AI” we aim to seek how open data is playing a critical role in the field of AI/ML and other emerging technologies.

1. What does the path from Open Data to AI look like?
2. How has aII been used or can be used to tackle world-pressing issues?
3. How can open data and AI illustrate the urgency in various subcategories like climate change, budget transparency, ownership, mapping, and many more?

We have invited Mikko Tamura, the Regional Community Manager of the Open Mapping Hub - Asia Pacific to talk about Mapping, Open Data and AI. Mikko Tamura virtually led the session while the lead organizers facilitated the training in-person. The goal of the training workshop was to give participants an understanding of the possibilities of open data in the context of AI. The Rapid Editor tool, a mapping tool developed by Meta, was the main focus of the workshop. The Rapid Editor tool’s ability to enable users to import and analyze data from various sources makes it especially helpful for working with open data.

The fact that there were more women than males among the participants is evidence of the growing interest among women in open data and AI. Because they are underrepresented in the tech sector, women can learn about cutting-edge innovations at occasions like Open Data Day.

In conclusion, this event was a great accomplishment for our organization. The training-workshop was timely and relevant that they can use it for their studies and research. We are looking forward to host more events like this in the future. Great thanks to Open Knowledge Foundation for this very rare opportunity.