Open Development Toolkit Lead - School of Data

Open Development Toolkit Lead – School of Data

The Open Knowledge Foundation and Development Initiatives are seeking an Open Development Toolkit Lead to support users of open data about international development. To do this, we will work on curating and developing training materials and oversee production of software tools that help in publishing, accessing and understanding the data.

This role would bring together Development Initiatives’ topic-specific knowledge of the aid and development sector, with the open data, technical and training experience of the Open Knowledge Foundation.

Open Knowledge Foundation and Development Initiatives are working in partnership to appoint a contractor to fulfil this role. This is initially devised as a one year contract, starting as soon as possible, but possibility to extend will be strongly considered.

Background

We are looking for someone to help us close skills and tool gaps which hinder data uptake and use in the development sphere by overseeing the development of an Open Resource Data Toolkit, which provides tools and skills that support users of open resource and development data.

The Role

The job will involve a wide range of diverse activities, and working in a complex environment combining work with colleagues both virtual and in-person communities. The central responsibility of the person will be to manage the production of an Open Resource Data Toolkit – to enable users of data on development to easily work with the data and successfully use it in their advocacy. It will involve:

Training Development:

In the initial phase of work, responsibilities will include:

• Gap analysis of current state of training offerings and reviewing remixable content.
• Producing or commissioning ‘How To’ guides on:
o Publishing and using IATI data
o Using open source tools to answer particular questions;
o Other courses as emerging needs transpire
• Collaborate with others producing training materials in this area to ensure openly-licensed where appropriate and reusable
• Coordinate support to users wishing to access, analyse or use open resource data
• Convening workshops, Data Expeditions, training and skill-sharing activities for data users;

Community Development:

• Blogging about the latest developments in the toolkit;
• Collect and publicise examples of community initiatives, ideas & apps (through aidinfolabs.org, the OKFN blog and other relevant channels)
• Coordinate communications strategy around the project. Liaison point for media enquiries.

Tool Development:

• Working with data users to understand their needs, and to develop the specification for new tools and services;
• Commissioning and managing the development of new software tools and platforms for the Toolkit, or managing the further development of existing tools;
• Overseeing the landscape of who is producing tools to work with this type of data, exploring and supporting opportunities for these tools to be included in the Toolkit.
• Develop a business plan and fundraise for ongoing support for the toolkit

The toolkit development will take place after the initial curating and training phase and pending successful grant funding

Person Specification

The required person is passionate about the potential of open data to provide a mechanism for greater accountability and citizen empowerment, and excited by the prospect of promoting the use and application of data to those ends. They will:

• Be data-savvy and community connected: equally happy communicating the ‘open’ vision to senior policy staff, members of civil society organisations and project implementers in the IT sphere.
• Be a strong facilitator, both at in-person and online meetings and training,
• Bring a user-centred perspective to designing and delivering products.
• Be flexible and willing to learn on the job, working at the forefront of high profile global open data initiatives.
• Be willing to travel to conduct meetings & lead training
• Have excellent communication skills – the ability to explain technical solutions and applications to non-technical audiences, and excellent written English
• Be an effective social networker, with ability to develop and facilitate communities and communicate effectively using social media tools
• Recognize, create and seize opportunities to put ideas into practice

Knowledge/Technical Skills

• (Required) Experience in the delivery and management of IT projects
• (Required) Demonstrable ability to write technical guidance and communications in plain English for non-technical audiences
• (Nice to have) Good understanding of:
o The open data movement and the opportunities / challenges
o Other Multi-stakeholder Transparency Initiatives surrounding financial flows, e.g. Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (EITI), Open Contracting, Global Initiative for Fiscal Transparency (GIFT).
o Understanding of how data standards are developed and used
• Strong data analysis skills including:
o (Required) Advanced knowledge of Excel and similar tools
o (Nice to have) The ability to structure and visualise complex data to make it accessible to different audiences
o (Strongly suggested) Experience of managing and working with databases and XML – particularly with IATI data
• Additional language skills would be an advantage.
• Grantwriting or business-development experience

Salary: Competitive, depending on experience. The role includes a fundraising element to raise funds for future development of the toolkit beyond the preliminary stages.

About the organizations

Development Initiatives

Development Initiatives is a not for profit organisation with offices in the UK and Kenya, working to build a global consensus to end poverty, to improve the prioritisation and allocation of resources and to look at the role of access to information in ending poverty. We seek to make information on poverty and resources transparent, accessible and useful, through research, analysis, training and collaborative projects.

The Open Knowledge Foundation

The Open Knowledge Foundation is a multi-award winning community-based, not-for-profit organisation. The Foundation now has projects and partnerships throughout the world and is especially active in Europe. We build tools and communities to create, use and share open knowledge – content and data that everyone can use, share and build on. We believe that by creating an open knowledge commons and developing tools and communities around this we can make a significant contribution to improving governance, research and the economy.

Location: This is a flexible, telecommuting contract. We have a strong preference for candidates within 3 time zones of UTC: We will consider applicants located near to one of the Open Knowledge Foundation Hubs or Development Initiatives offices (UK, Germany, Kenya) particularly favorably.

How to apply

To apply please send the following to jobs@okfn.org by 30th November:

• a cover letter highlighting relevant experience
• your CV / Resume