Data for advocacy workshops

This week, Tactical Tech will join researchers and transparency advocates from over thirty think tanks, watchdog organisations and public data projects in Central and Eastern Europe to discuss the potential of using data in their communication and advocacy work. The conference, 'Use of Information and Data for Enhanced Communication and Advocacy', is organised by the Open Society Institute's Information Program and Think Tank Fund and it will include general information sessions, hands-on training on certain techniques and tools, small group consultations and workshops. It takes place in Budapest on 17th and 18th March 2011.

Our co-founder, Marek Tuszynski, and the Reveal programme lead, Tom Longley, will run a 2-hour session on the 17th March introducing researchers to information and data visualisation and the different ways that it can be used within advocacy. The next day, they will run three back-to-back workshops on evidence-based advocacy, our term focussing on how to analyse and present data within a campaign and advocacy context. They'll also look at ways in which think tanks can make their data more accessible to advocacy groups and help them create fact-based campaigns.

We're looking forward to participating as well as listening to some of the interesting talks scheduled over the two days. Helen Darbishire of Access Info Europe and Jonathan Gray and Friedrich Lindenberg from the Open Knowledge Foundation will be giving a session on gathering, processing and collecting information and data. Tony Bowden will also be there presenting on behalf of mySociety, the organisation known most recently for their FixMyStreet project which allows British citizens to report and view problems such as street lighting, broken paving and fly tipping in their neighbourhoods.