This text reports on the impact of a training course offered by a multiplier trainer from the School of Data network.
Bangladesh still isn’t very friendly to data. Researchers and journalists often don’t have access to the information they need. Many decisions in government, research, and daily life are made based on instincts, not facts. Even when national data is available, it’s often locked inside printed reports or non-editable PDF files. That means they can’t be searched, reused, or analyzed properly.
But things are changing. The government has recently started publishing more public data and making it available for scrutiny. This is a big win for those who believe in open knowledge.
To take this momentum forward, we hosted an Open Data and Open Data Editor (ODE) workshop at Bangladesh Agricultural University (BAU). BAU is the second-largest university in the country and the largest one focused on agriculture. It both produces and uses massive amounts of data – on crops, livestock, fisheries, genetics, climate, GIS, and much more.
Despite all this, the data isn’t open or well-organized. Most researchers want to share it, but they lack the tools and systems. Interestingly, a large portion of BAU graduates – around 18 to 20 percent – end up in government jobs. That means getting them familiar with open data practices now can lead to real, long-term impact.
We teamed up with the BAU Career Club to organize the workshop. Their network helped us reach students from every corner of the campus. We initially planned to hold the workshop in June, but things got complicated.
June was packed with Eid holidays, and July marked the anniversary of a major political shift in Bangladesh. In 2024, over 1,400 people lost their lives during the fall of the previous government, according to the UN. This July was a time of national reflection and remembrance. Because of this, we had to reschedule the workshop a few times before finalizing the dates.
We finally held the workshop on July 18 – 19. Day one was in person. Day two was online. On the first day, participants joined a four-hour session covering the basics of openness – open source, open data, and why it matters. The second day was focused on ODE and hands-on practice with data publishing. We kept it online so participants could try things on their own devices. Participants who joined both of the sessions, will receive printed certificates along with digital ones.
We opened registration one week before the event, and the registration was supposed to continue for five days. We expected 30 to 40 signups. But within just 22 hours, more than 90 people registered, so we had to close the form early. It was a good problem to have, but it meant rethinking the entire event plan. Snacks, space, logistics – everything had to be adjusted.
We were thrilled to see that over 30 percent of the participants were female, and most were senior undergrads or Master’s students. Before the workshop, we collected their questions through an online form and shared answers on a Notion site, along with all the slide decks and helpful links.
During the workshop, many participants had an eye-opening moment. At first, some didn’t quite get how open source or open data related to their work. But once we introduced them to tools like the Data Package and its connection with ODE, it all clicked. They realized they had no proper format to publish their research data before, and now they did. They were surprised to learn that the government actually has platforms like data.gov.bd and the police’s crime data portals. But most of these sites are either outdated or too hard to use. Everyone agreed—if we want better governance, these platforms must be accessible and user-friendly. So there’s a clear gap. Researchers, journalists, civil society, and other professionals need to work with the government – and also hold them accountable – when it comes to open data and transparent governance.
This workshop was just the beginning.
We now plan to build a community of open data practitioners starting with these participants. The goal is to include students, researchers, teachers, and governance professionals who can help push for more public data under open licenses. Some universities have already reached out to host similar workshops. We’ll add those participants to the community as we go.
We’re also in touch with media houses and government agencies who want to support these efforts. Bit by bit, we’ll bring more people into the open data ecosystem.
About the Open Data Editor
The Open Data Editor (ODE) is Open Knowledge’s new open source desktop application for nonprofits, data journalists, activists, and public servants, aiming at helping them detect errors in their datasets. It’s a free, open-source tool designed for people working with tabular data (Excel, Google Sheets, CSV) who don’t know how to code or don’t have the programming skills to automatise the data exploration process.
Simple, lightweight, privacy-friendly, and built for real-world challenges like offline work and low-resource settings, ODE is part of Open Knowledge’s initiative The Tech We Want — our ambitious effort to reimagine how technology is built and used.
And there’s more! ODE comes with a free online course that can help you improve the quality of your datasets, therefore making your life/work easier.
↪ Take the course: Learn how to use ODE
All of Open Knowledge’s work with the Open Data Editor is made possible thanks to a charitable grant from the Patrick J. McGovern Foundation. Learn more about its funding programmes here.
