IATI BASED APPLICATIONS: A CALL FOR PROPOSALS
One of the benefits of publishing data to a common standard is that it is possible to create applications that can be reused by different people.
For instance, at the moment we know of at least one organisation that has taken the code needed to set up AidView and is testing it internally. They have been able to do this because IATI data is published to a common, open standard and AidView has been created as an open source software development with all the code published online.
We think there are probably a number of applications to be built from IATI data from common requirements and it makes sense as a community to discuss what they might be. Basically, there are going to be a lot of bright ideas out there that will benefit from being brought together. This might lead to some joint software developments instead of the same, or very similar, applications being built, and paid for, by many organisations.
At the moment we are developing plans to establish a commissioning fund through which we can finance such joint developments. The aim is for this to be a mechanism through which organisations and other funders can share the cost of developing applications.
So, if you have an application that you are thinking of building or commissioning; if you have an idea for one that you think others might want to use too or if you have one in mind that you’d like to build, but can’t afford, please tell us about it.
We are going to spend a relatively short time gathering people’s ideas and then hopefully start planning work on some software development in the autumn.
You can either leave your idea in the comments or, if you prefer, send an email to me, Simon Whitehouse.
Added: 20/08/2012 10:08 am
Reinier Battenberg (@batje) says:
We would love to develop a set of drupal modules & features that allow people to easily capture IATI data in Drupal, to import existing Drupal sets into Drupal and to visualise IATI data with Drupal.
If time/resources permits we could wrap this all in a distribution.
Added: 24/08/2012 9:32 am
Mike Smith says:
@batje – That would be useful here too. Thinking about NIDOS (I don’t know if they’re aware of IATI yet – I’ll mention it at the next meeting). They already have a database of NGOs. So it might be good if the drupal tool defines some fields that can be added to an already existing content type, and then the tool can turn that into the IATI data.
Specific to NIDOS/OSCR/Scotland: Also basic money info can be scraped from OSCR quite easily (would need to check if the data’s open)… and there are 15 “purposes” they’ve defined. I don’t know if that matches the vocab of IATI. Finally, OSCR might be worth approaching directly to see if they would be interested in opening their data?
Added: 24/08/2012 2:46 pm
Siem (@siemvaessen) says:
@batje: if you would like to build some stuff on top of IATI data, you can use Akvo OpenAid, which runs the OIPA codebase.
Added: 08/11/2012 5:59 am
Reinier Battenberg (@batje) says:
@siemvaessen I know there are a few tools to do things with IATI. I would rather use a tool that is used by millions of sites, supported by 20.000+ developers to have a IATI plugin.
And like Mike says, a lot of people with IATI information are already using Drupal: Amnesty International, Oxfam, Bid Network, the Obama administration, Open Data UK, UNICEF, UNHCR just to name a few.
Added: 28/11/2012 8:37 am
Simon Vass (@etechug) says:
Would be interested in developing a module for OpenERP so funding project lines can be tracked and reported on.