Email

Print

So, while BELIPO and the National Sports Council were contemplating Intellectual Property and Sports, the Belize Chamber of Commerce and Industry was brainstorming with the private sector on how to harness open data to provide economic opportunities for Belizeans. 

Open Data is defined on the internet as the idea that some data should be freely available for everyone use and republish as they wish without restrictions from copyright, patents, and any other mechanisms of control. The Chamber, the Caribbean Open Institute, and the Trust for the Americas want to see Belizeans harness the principle and create economic opportunities for young entrepreneurs in a climate where employment is not easy to come by.

We stopped by to speak with the experts about the topic:

Mary Beth Goodman - International Expert
"So, what we're talking about is ways to use the information that Government may have, or the private sector may have to use that information as a way to combine, take that information, put it out there, and using technological efforts, the metadata, if you will, to spur some economic growth. So, think of the smart phone apps that we all have and can't live without these days. Someone took that data and created that app. So, we're trying to see if there is a a way to bring some of that ingenuity, some of that innovation, and bring entrepreneurs  up here in Belize, so that you're creating some of that unique Belizean type of entrepreneurial effort here."

"You're obviously concerned about climate change here in Belize. So, there is lost of information about the oceans, pollution, different things happening in the atmospheric data. But, there's a lot of information that could be of use like your agricultural practices, industry, shipping lanes. There is no limit on the type of data that can be useful. So, what we've been discussing here today are ways that Government can release some of that data, what can could be useful, and how do you combine that will data the private sector also has."

Maurice McNaughton - International Expert
"We've been engaged in discussions around open data for maybe the past 7 years. We've had funding through a larger organization called Open Data for Development. So, it has allowed us to look at sectors like agriculture, tourism, education, things that are relevant for the Caribbean, and look at the value opportunities in open data. So, from that kind of research, and some of the engagement that we have, we think that we can bring a Caribbean kind of perspective to these conversations that are taking place in Belize. I think that's important. So, the perspective that Mary Beth brings in terms of looking at the larger open data ecosystems, not only in US, but across the world, is incredibly important. We don't have to reinvent the wheel. It's also important to look at the Caribbean context, looking at some of our key sectors like tourism, which is a key sector across the Caribbean, not only for Belize, but for Jamaica and others, and how we can deploy open data to create value."

This initiative is simultaneously taking place in 7 countries as a leading platform for discussion on how digital data impacts national development.