What ideas do you have for TAG2018?

Events IATI TAG 2018
#1

We are thinking about the key themes we want to cover at the upcoming TAG2018 in Kathmandu in October/November this year.

I’ve written a short note with a few ideas but I’d love to hear ideas from the TAG community.

In particular:

  • What themes would be particularly relevant to Nepal?
  • How could we have attendees leaving the TAG with surprise and delight at how IATI can help address their needs?

Update: Please refer to the new meeting proposal for the annual Technical Advisory Group (TAG) meeting which is being planned for 13-15 November 2018 in Nepal. Please provide your feedback by responding to this Discuss thread.

#2

Thanks @JohnAdams for sharing these thoughts and ideas

The themes look very interesting and engaging

I wanted to also suggest we think about format of the TAG , alongside the themes and topics. My experience of the last few TAG meetings has been that the majority of time has been taken up / scheduled beforehand - and that generally the approach for sessions has been some presentations, followed by group discussion. Before we know it, the music stops and we’re off to the next session!

I’d advocate for some dedicated open space (or even thematic space - a room dedicated to Policy Markers, anyone?!) where people can gather and focus on a topic, but without the pressure on some to present / facilitate. In turn, that might help more people to participate, rather than listen.

Of course, there’s still ample room for other formats - but I’d welcome any space along these lines.

And yes - maybe I’ll be the only one in the Policy Marker room (but I guess @Herman will be there!)

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#3

Thanks Steven. I’m tempted to create a Steven+Herman Hub right at the centre of the venue and see what happens…

But seriously, I agree with the idea of creating more open and thematic space to allow a more free flow of ideas. I’m open to any suggestions about how we can do this.

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#4

Looking forward to ‘the event of the year’. A general headline for the handful of proposals I wish to draft soon could be ‘integrating IATI into partner … systems’. Not trying to take attention away from partner country government systems, but I wish to promote the case (business case, actually) that we will all find benefits when we take the datastandard to the next level. By that I mean, using the format to standardise our daily interactions - finding ‘dataquality’ and improved transparency to be fringe benefits to a more efficient approach to daily management… I will be proposing updates to both the registry, the organisational and the activity standards, to that end. But not today.

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#5

Thank you for the responses so far. Let us hear more of your ideas for the TAG.

My own thoughts are clustering around the themes of

  • How do we make use of the data now to solve today’s problems?
  • What could the future look like and how can we shape it?

So let’s hear what you have to think too…

#6

I’m new to all of this and the plans at this point are for me to join the TAG. It will be the first time IOM attends so I’m sure I’ll be playing catch up as compared to a lot of attendees. I know the meeting itself is open to all but was wondering if there is any sort of pre-meeting (or during meeting) caucus for attendees representing IATI members?

If there are enough folks like me, perhaps an “intro to TAG” session at the beginning to get the newbies and in particular non-technical folks, up to speed would be nice.

I’m not an IT person at all but I’d love to have the opportunity to discuss the technical priorities and how they align (or not) with the discussions from the members’ assembly with what is going on might be useful. Also ensuring the techies are lined up with the policy side of things. I still have to look back at the minutes and notes to see what, if anything, there is beyond the technical audit and improving data use discussions.

I hope this helps and makes sense.

Kind Regards,
Michelle

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Deadline extension for TAG 2018 session proposals
#7

I would suggest a Topic on the Role of Journalists in understanding the Humanitarian Data and How They disseminate it to the public.
As we all know that where there is a crisis the Media is the first to break with the News. But how best are Journalists equipped to handle the massive data and information out of the crisis.

For sustainability after the crisis there are followups so how best can we encourage Journalists to use the Data to ensure the public is more alert.

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#8

Since the TAG is happening in Nepal…finally ;), I think we should take it as an opportunity to focus a bit more on Partner Countries and IATI data use, as John has pointed out on his note. Here are few ideas from my side.

  1. How about doing a partner Government round table on their perspective on data use in their countries. For this, we could identify some key champions who are a little advanced on using IATI data as well as other countries. And yes, we need to ensure concerned unit within Ministry of Finance of Government of Nepal to be present as well.

  2. Is is possible to do a pre-TAG hackathon using IATI data ? We could bring in some local developers form the community as well as involve IATI developers who are going to be part of the TAG to work together as teams.

  3. YoungInnovations can present a small case of using IATI data at the local government level (at present we are trying to cook a small aidstream pilot with one of the local government in Nepal and hopefully we will have something to share by the TAG dates). This could then be the basis for discussing on how IATI can be exploited by local governments for their benefit.

  4. With regard to Humanitarin data, is it possible to have a focused session on how IATI and Nepal Earthquake. We could possibly invite government agency from Nepal to talk about their perspective on using data (be it IATI or non-IATI data) for reconstruction. Then we can have others talk about how it made / could have made a difference using IATI. On our side, YoungInnovations can share about the limitations and challenges we faced when we did our pilot immediately after the earthquake.

  5. As I am not aware of how the coordination is going on with the Nepalese Government with regard to organizing the TAG in Nepal, I think it would be great to have our Government presence throughout the event (including high level participation during the opening and closing). I would not want to miss out this opportunity to educate our government on the importance of IATI and the proactiveness that we need from their side.

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#9

The TAG chair @JohnAdams has now posted the new meeting proposal for the annual Technical Advisory Group (TAG) meeting which is being planned for 13-15 November 2018 in Nepal. Please provide your feedback by responding to this Discuss thread.

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#10

I agree with you on the Governments’ involvement is very crucial.

#11

I am convinced that there are huge potentials, and even some low-hanging fruits, when we consider IATI to be ’just’ a new way to do the same as before. Perhaps we should call it data-exchange instead of –publication.

This TAG could include sessions dedicated to the traditional reporting requirements that are currently accepted by organisations that receive funds from several partners, under different modalities. Exchanging classical reporting practices with IATI publication should deliver tangible aid-effectiveness results, i.e. harmonisation.

We need to prove such business cases, and we need to identify the necessary enrichments to the IATI-standards well ahead of any discussion regarding the next integer upgrade. Tentatively, I find that most value needs to be added to our Organisation Standard.

Promising IATI patterns

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#12

Bit late to the party but riffing off of @stevieflow and @Michelle_IOM, it’d be nice to carve out some space for the not-quite-techies-but-not-quite-newcomers either. I’m thinking about something similar to the GeoTAG workshop we did with @YohannaLoucheur and @tdavis last year where a smallish group of people with opinions picked apart a tricky bit of the standard and tried to figure out what best practice was. Can’t say we solved anything completely, but I’d like to see convos like that (continue to) happen around geography, results, etc. The result may just be a better understanding of the challenges to use, but it could be an input to better guidance, better publishing/use tools, etc.

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#13

Please do begin to submit proposals for sessions you would like to lead at the TAG. Details are here: IATI TAG 2018 open for proposals!

#14

Please can someone clarify what the process is from here in?

In this post:

You should hear if your proposal is successful or not on the week of the 22 October. We may be in contact before this with questions or about opportunities for collaboration.

This suggests the community are being asked to submit session proposals in “isolation” (perhaps trying to also make it especially “interactive, engaging and inspiring”), without knowing what others are doing.

Who then decides? Will session ideas be shared in advance, so we can try to collaborate and coordinate?

For me, the idea of the TAG being a forum via which all sessions are submitted and rejected/accepted doesn’t sit well. I don’t consider the TAG to be like a conference.

Whilst I appreciate the co-ordination of such an event is an undertaking, I want to reiterate my previous post

My experience of the last few TAG meetings has been that the majority of time has been taken up / scheduled beforehand - and that generally the approach for sessions has been some presentations, followed by group discussion. Before we know it, the music stops and we’re off to the next session!

I’m just a bit worried that there’ll be no chance to get to the bottom of the activity-status mix-up (a discussion which is 48 posts long), or percentages not equaling 100%, or whether pyIATI is a thing. And many other lose threads we’ve got around Discuss, GitHub or elsewhere.

We’ve now ~10 years of working with this standard. Hopefully, many of the people with experience and insights will be in the room(s). The time and effort to get to the TAG means we need to optimise, when there. It’d be a shame if we’re split between choices in a conference programme and heading to different rooms, potentially leaving that really important discussion about hierarchies to the corridor.

To note - this isn’t a call for a grand rethink. I’m very confident that the community can share their insights and experience of using the standard. I just want to be sure that we make sure we can cover some of the less glamorous detail, that hits us all when using the standard.

Some of those conversations might not be “interactive, engaging and inspiring” (actually, they will be if @herman is around!), but I’m very willing to listen and participate.

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#15

We encourage everyone to share ideas on Discuss and find collaborators before submission. We have not yet received submissions, but as we do we will also put people in touch, encourage them to collaborate.

My experience of the last few TAG meetings has been that the majority of time has been taken up / scheduled beforehand - and that generally the approach for sessions has been some presentations, followed by group discussion. Before we know it, the music stops and we’re off to the next session!

We have taken on board the feedback from last year and do want to create physical space for collaborations. You would have seen that we have suggested a number of option for the format of the sessions (workshops, marketplace, lightening talks). If you have any other suggestions, please post in here.

For me, the idea of the TAG being a forum via which all sessions are submitted and rejected/accepted doesn’t sit well. I don’t consider the TAG to be like a conference.

It is an on-going process of submission and as ideas are shared here and proposals are received we will be putting people in touch (if that has not happened already) and accommodate all proposals. It is not a matter of accept/reject but the deadline is mainly in place so that a draft agenda can be put together and shared with the community.

I can also reassure you that important discussions will not be missed . @amys and I will shortly share ideas about a hierarchies session.

that really important discussion about hierarchies 1 to the corridor.

I encourage everyone looking for collaborators and already have ideas for proposals to share them in this thread.

Session for TAG2018 on results data - looking to collab
#16

I think the proposal for a format is already there.
Could we have some dedicated open space time slots for those “subjects that may not be missed”?

This would only require a planning wall & some dedicated space and time (+ a daily time slot for the planning process). The community is well equipped to run this process.

It would be useful to see which sessions have already been proposed, so that we can seek collaboration by ourselves - and are perhaps inspired to come up with more session ideas.

I will propose a presentation on the work we’re doing in the Netherlands with regards to using results data.
And I would like to have that in-depth-not-for-the-faint-hearted discussion about the use of the result element (in line with @reidmporter 's proposal for focused conversations).

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Session for TAG2018 on results data - looking to collab
#17

Ole, who is the author of the IATI patterns document?

Deadline extension for TAG 2018 session proposals
#18

I am - and I’m sorry that I just left it as such a brief draft. Had intended to do more than that.

In a parallel work stream, introducing the major Danish CSO’s to IATI-requirements, I have written two other documents on largely the same issues. Please find them enclosed, now I must realize that I am about to miss the deadline for proposals for TAG-sessions …

IATI reporting Partners

IATI reporting DK Strategisc Partners

All lot’s and Partner ID’s

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#19

Thanks, hence me dropping a proposal to meet the 1010 deadline tomorrow… Perhaps IATI could extend it to 15/10.

#20

Although after the deadline, I would like to add 1 other subject concerning the use of IATI data for monitoring SDG’s. I would be interested in the experiences of other IATI publishers working with the current version of the standard to monitor SDG input.

Would anyone interested in such a session?

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