Open Data Day 2023 – Data Sharing Challenge
In anticipation of Open Data Day 2023, WPdx is launching a challenge to encourage organizations working in the WASH sector to upload their data to the WPdx platform. WPdx currently hosts over 700,000 water point records from over 100 contributing organizations in more than 70 countries. WPdx provides an important service to the WASH sector by compiling, cleaning, and harmonizing data from different organizations into a more comprehensive analysis-ready dataset. The compiled datasets can be freely downloaded and used for independent analysis or accessed through the WPdx Decision Support Tools web app.
The web app hosts a suite of decision support tools which provide governments, NGOs, funders and researchers with access to cutting edge analytics to answer key questions including:
- Which districts/sub-districts are in need of increased investment?
- Which water points should be prioritized for rehabilitation?
- Where should new services be constructed to reach the unserved?
- Which water points are highest risk of near-term failure?
- What is the quality is the available data?
Help Us Reach Our Goal
Since Open Data Day 2022, approximately 80,000 new records have been uploaded to the platform from almost 20 different organizations. We have a goal of reaching 100,000 records by March 10th. Please consider sharing your data today.
Free Workshop
If you are interested in attending a free training in early March about how to upload your data, please reach out to info@waterpointdata.org.
Why should my organization share data?
Sharing water point data increases the effectiveness and impact of data that has been collected. By sharing data with WPdx, water point data can easily be used by many diverse stakeholders (i.e. local government, donors, NGOs, etc.) to more effectively support government and organizational objectives. Transparently sharing this data also allows for benchmarking water services between geographies. The WPdx upload platform automatically connects records from the same water point, even if data is shared by different organizations. These processes allow the government and other decision makers to have the most updated possible understanding of the water point services in the geography.
Additionally, for each organization that shares data with the platform, WPdx stores the original file on its servers, guaranteeing that organizations will not lose access to their data. WPdx cleans and enhances all shared data providing a result which can be used internally by organizations in their own analyses.
How can my organization share data?
The WPdx platform is based on the WPdx Data Standard, which is governed by a working group of sector leaders. The standard includes 7 required parameters: GPS location (lat/lon), date of visit, functionality, water point type (source/tech) and the name of the organization sharing the data. Additional optional parameters including those on management, payment structure and water quality are available and provide useful information about the point, but not required for upload. Organizations can easily map their data to the WPdx standard using this simple spreadsheet to ensure that the required data is included in the shared file. Some simple formatting may be required to align your organization’s data with the WPdx standard parameters.
Once the upload file is ready to share, users can login to the WPdx upload engine using a Google account. This includes Gmail email addresses or other email addresses with an associated Google account.
Who owns the data?
Sharing data with WPdx does not impact or change data ownership. As per the WPdx Data Provider Agreement, the data is simply licensed to WPdx under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license, available at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. The original owner remains the owner even after the data is shared.
What if the data is updated?
Any new data, whether new infrastructure or status updates, can easily be integrated into WPdx. New information shared with the platform updates but does not overwrite older information, preserving a historical record of data which has been shared. When new data is uploaded, WPdx connects records from the same water point based on GPS and/or other information provided by the user (ie, #activity_id) and assigns them the same WPdx_id. If sharing your data from an online database, we request that you keep a running list of entries and do not delete older records to allow for time series data to be included.
How much work is it to share data?
WPdx has made it as easy as possible to share data and will provide support on an as-needed basis. Please see our blog post, Share Your Data with WPdx.. in 30 Minutes or Less! about how to easily share data.
If you have questions or need support in your upload, please reach out to info@waterpointdata.org