Smart Government initiatives in the UAE and the region receive new world class support

ODI Dubai to offer localized knowledge, expertise and best practices in the emerging domain of Open Data to the UAE and the Arab region

ODI Dubai: Smart Government initiatives to spark innovation in the region

Dubai, 31 October 2013 - Exantium, a leading advisory firm based in Dubai, has announced its partnership with the London based Open Data Institute (ODI) to create 'ODI Dubai' which will be responsible for delivering projects, training, research, and development in the smart government and open data domain.

The agreement was announced during the Global ODI Summit 2013 held in London on Tuesday 29th October 2013. It was signed by Gavin Starks, CEO of the Open Data Institute and Ibrahim Elbadawi, Managing Director, Exantium. 'ODI Dubai' will be one of eight city and regional 'nodes' spread across the USA, France, Italy and the UK; and the first in the MENA region.

Ibrahim Elbadawi, Managing Director, Exantium said, "This partnership aims to support good governance efforts in the Arab region. We are excited about the potential of the partnership with The ODI, which will enable us to collaborate and bring the knowledge, expertise and best practices in the emerging domain of open data to the UAE and the Arab region. Primarily, this step will boost the ongoing Smart Government efforts announced by the UAE leadership."

Gavin Starks, CEO at the ODI said, "I have been amazed at the energy and enthusiasm of people looking to align around a global network of ODIs. The speed at which we have been able to collaborate, and the shared thinking about the approach and the scale of the potential, indicate that the ODI is an idea whose time has come. We have borrowed from the design principles of the web itself to bring people and organisations together, and will use open data both to collaborate with each other, and as the primary output of the network."

"Open data as a philosophy and in practice can help societies find innovative solutions for today's multi-faceted challenges. We will offer government and non-government organisations in the region localised versions of the ODI's open data training programmes and promote the use of ODI Certificates for their data," Elbadawi added.

Open data is the idea that certain data should be available to everyone to use and republish as they wish, without restrictions. Making this data easily available means it will be easier for people and businesses to make decisions and suggestions based on detailed information.

Open data is already helping government entities in their shift towards 'smart government' by creating innovative mobile applications in areas such as education, transport, health care and financial reporting.

According to a recent study by the UK Department of Business, Innovation & Skills estimates the annual value of a liberalized government data market to be worth over $3 billion annually in the United Kingdom. Exantium is currently carrying out a similar study on the UAE and GCC countries. The initial findings indicate that the UAE economy can gain an estimated AED 1.7 billion in 2014 by establishing policies and strategies to enable government sharing data with businesses, entrepreneurs and academia, an approach that is fully aligned with the Smart Government initiative.

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For more information, please contact:
Ibrahim Elbadawi
+971 4 454 9861/ +971 50 5197009
ibrahim@exantium.com 
Dubai, United Arab Emirates

About Exantium (www.exantium.com)
Exantium is a leading Dubai-based advisory firm focusing on the public sector transformation in the GCC and the Arab world driven by cutting-edge innovations, strategic digital transformation initiatives, and world-class informational policies. Its  core services and capabilities cover areas such as Smart Government and eGovernment, National Innovation Strategy, Socio-Technical Assessment and Trend Analysis, Data and Information Policies, Analysis, and Modelling.

About the ODI: (www.theodi.org)
The Open Data Institute catalyses the evolution of open data culture to create economic, environmental, and social value. It unlocks supply, generates demand, creates and disseminates knowledge to address local and global issues. Founded by Professor Sir Nigel Shadbolt and Professor Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the ODI is an independent, non-profit, non-partisan, Limited by Guarantee company.

© Press Release 2013