MIT.UZ Open Data Challenge is the contest for the team of programmers, designers and journalists to develop products based on public open data.

The contest is organized by the Ministry for Development of Information Technologies and Communications of the Republic of Uzbekistan, UNDP Uzbekistan, "Electronic Government" System Development Center, "Kamolot" Civic Youth Movement of Uzbekistan, BePro Center, Inha University in Tashkent and UZINFOCOM Center.

The ceremony was opened by the head of the UNDP project “E-Government Promotion for Improved Public Services Delivery” Bunyod Avliyokulov. The floor was given to representatives of each organizing party for opening speech. The participantswere also briefed on the agenda of the contest. The organizers congratulated the participants with launch of the contest and wished them success.

Followingthe opening ceremony, the participants were divided into groups on main nominations. The groups of two nominations “The best social project” and “The best business project” took part in the training of Sarvar Abdullaev on “Analysis and visualization of data on Python”. Concurrently, main organizer of the Russian branch of Open Knowledge International Irina Radchenkoconducted the training on data journalism for the groups, competing in nomination “The best visualization”. She conducted training on data journalism and master class on search and collection of data.

The first half of the contest ended with the presentation “How to win hackathon”, during which Sarvar Abdullaev shared his experience on participation on hackathons, secrets and peculiarities of such contests and how to present ideas.

Irina Radchenko also made the presentation on “Open data and work with them. International practice 2. Russian experience of hackathons on open data”, which closed the first day of MIT.UZ Open Data Challenge 2016.

During next three days, the participants will receive valuable experience and develop useful projects in various spheres – finances, transport, education, healthcare, ecology, etc. In the result of the contest, mobile and web apps, infographics, media projects and articles will be presented to the public.

The jury will assess the projects and select the best ones. The winners will receive financial and expert support infurther work on their projects.

The awarding ceremony will be held at the Youth Creative Palace in Tashkent on 12 December.