Data is often underestimated or ignored in public affairs, especially in the local governance space. Claims can go wrong, but data cannot lie. Data is what gives you the real picture of any given situation.

With more and more data being put in public domain in India, there are so many things one can do with it, to get insights and plan the related issues better. Thankfully there are many data enthusiasts who are coming out with hundreds of ideas, that actually offer some tangible insights various issues.

This weekend is the 2014 Bangalore Open Data Camp, hosted by Google, and partnered by our non-profit arm, the Oorvani Foundation as well as Akshara Foundation and The Centre for Internet and Society. Open Data Camp is dedicated to bringing together various groups of people to discuss the issues around open data in India and using data for a civic purpose.

Some of us are there at the camp and you could follow the action on Twitter on the hashtag #odcblr2014.

This year we are looking at Election and designed the conference around issues around election data, what accountability information do we need to keep officials accountable, and what is the role of data in election coverage. 

On Saturday, March 22, 2014, on the first day of the data meet, the keynote will be give by T S Krishnamurthy, Former Chief of Election Commission of India, to give as understanding of the process of elections. You can get more information here <http://odc.datameet.org/odcblr2014>.  

Sunday will be a hackathon that will use election and related data to create visuals and apps to find insights. We plan to share some of these that will be put on the publications supported by Oorvani Foundation — Citizen Matters and India Together.

Await some insightful articles on the same, on Citizen Matters.