Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) about Open Government

Delft University of Technology launches Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) about Open Government

While governments all over the world aim to become more open and transparent, opening the government is a complex and challenging problem. How can governments become more open and transparent, while simultaneously dealing with various challenges, such as data sensitivity? How can open government data be made available to improve public policy making? Which technologies are available to make governments more open and to use open government data?

We at Delft University of Technology will be teaching a free Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) about Open Government soon. The MOOC starts on April 17, 2016, and will run for 5 weeks. Enrolment for our MOOC is possible now via https://www.edx.org/course/open-government-delftx-og101x. An informative video about the MOOC is available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93BzVj_-7vo&feature=youtu.be.

This Open Government MOOC is aimed at university students, professionals, government officials, policy advisors and researchers,  but is open to anyone interested in Open Government. It will help participants grasp the key principles of open government, and answers questions like: 'What are the best practices for opening governments? And how to give citizens access to governmental data to answer their questions?' Most importantly, participants will apply the topics of the course to concrete cases.

What participants will learn:

·       Basic concepts related to Open Government and Open Government Data

·       How to analyze and discuss benefits, barriers and potential negative effects of a particular open government case

·       How to analyze public values and best practices related to open government

·       How to apply the open government principles in various situations

·       To understand potential negative and positive effects Open Government might bring

This MOOC includes lectures by:

·       Prof. Marijn Janssen - Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands, Head of ICT section and professor in ICT and governance

·       Dr. Anneke Zuiderwijk - Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands, Researcher in Open Data

·       Dr. Bastiaan van Loenen - Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands, Associate Professor in geo-information and land development

·       Dr. Tomasz Janowski, United Nations University, Portugal, head of United Nations University, Operating Unit on Policy-Driven Electronic Governance

·       Prof. Keith Jeffery, Cardiff University, United Kingdom, professor in Computer Science & Informatics

·       Dr. Amr Ali Eldin, Leiden University, The Netherlands, senior lecturer in Computer Science and Information Technology

·       Dr. Iryna Susha, Örebro University, Sweden and guest at Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands, postdoctoral researcher on data collaboratives

Visiting eGovlab, SICS and more in Stockholm

In November 2016 I had the opportunity to visit the egovlab, at the Department of Computer Science in Stockholm University.  I visited the lab on the day of the celebration for the 50 years of the computer science department, so I had the chance to see a lot of friends, professors at the department.

With Vassilis Koulolias, director of eGovlab

eGovlab and our Digital Governance Research Centre have several research areas in common, that will materialise in forthcoming jointly planned projects in the areas of co-creation, open government and advanced services for citizens and businesses.

Also, I had the chance to see the way that the new DSV building is operating, covering the needs for a lot of different types of inhabitants: professors, students,  researchers, startups, collaborating companies, citizens. high school pupils, and more - all can find their place within this multi-functional, dynamically re-organised facility.  And it looks great too !

Views from the DSV building: not a typical University !

On the same day, I also spent some time at the Swedish Research Centre SICS  and be guided in some innovative embedded systems software projects by Colleague Efi.

With Efi Papatheocharous, outside SICS offices

And of course, not to forget my ex-students Antonis and Meletis, that now after their BSc in Samos and an MSc in DSV, already work in the Swedish ICT sector.  

With Antonis and Meletis, tasting Stockholm night life

Samos Summit - Samos Music and Arts days

The 7th Samos Summit on ICT-enabled Governance was held in Karlovassi, Samos on 3 to 8 July 2016.  The topic of the Summit was "Smart Cities, Smart Governance, Smart Entrepreneurship" and was attended by participants from more than 10 countries.

In conjunction with the Samos Summit, the 4th International Summer School on Open and Collaborative Governance was organised, attended by students and researchers from Greece and the world.

More than 30 presentations and workshops touched upon issues of smart governance and entrepreneurship at local and national level.

Participants of the 2016 Samos Summit

For more information on Samos Summit visit: http://samos-summit.blogspot.gr/ 

In parallel with the Samos Summit, the artistic event Samos Music and Arts Days was organised. Samos Music and Arts Days took part between the 3rd and 8th July 2016 in Karlovassi, parallel to the summer schools of University of the Aegean, which attract many new students and professors from Greece and abroad. Thus, members of the academia and science have also the opportunity to attend and actively participate in the cultural activities of the festival. 

This year’s program of Samos Music and Arts Days combined from one side the art of selected professional artists and from the other side the possibility of participation of amateur artists and of the local people of Samos, whether adults or children. The program included:

• Classical music concerts. 
• Digital exhibition of fine arts 
• Traditional Greek Dance Show by the ensemble of Samos Students 
• Digital workshops of music and photography using freeware. 
• Wine Tasting of some of the best Samos wines. 

Samos Music ant Arts Days 2016 Events

For more information on Samos Music and arts Days, visit: http://samosarts-eng.blogspot.gr/ 

Joining the Global Venture Lab at UC Berkeley

In early January 2016 I had the chance to join the annual meeting of the Global Venture Lab at University California Berkeley.  The Global Venture Lab (GVL) is a network and collaborations of international institutions founded in 2009.  GVL seeks to foster entrepreneurship within the University and to bring Berkeley’s research capability to industry collaborations.  To these ends, the GVL members share best practices in entrepreneurship & innovation, host transnational multi-disciplinary research,  contribute to the globally-connected ecosystem of the Center for Entrepreneurship & Technology at UC Berkeley.

During the meeting I had the pleasure to present the Aegean Startups initiative of University of the Aegean, targeting Demand-Driven entrepreneurship.  The slides of my presentation can be found here: http://www.slideshare.net/charalabidis/aegean-startups-56839445 

Presenting Aegean Startups at UC Berkeley

The GVL members, January 2016

More information on GVL can be found here: http://scet.berkeley.edu/gvl/ 

Uni Aegean finishes second in Europe at the Microsoft Night of the Living Devs 2015

With the students from Aegean at Microsoft

Three student groups from the University of the Aegean formed by the Student Guru Community of the Department of Information and Communication Systems Engineering in Samos, participated in this year's round of European Microsoft "Night Of the Living Devs" - contest of 24 hours non stop programming.

The best team in the Aegean finished second in Europe among 500 teams from 15 countries, with a new social media application, operating only through video posting ! 

Well done to the boys and girls of ICSD / Student Guru, who were pioneers, making the core of the largest representation of Greek Universities.

The three Uni Aegean Teams