Fwd: New initiative on Data Issues in the Social sector (DATAMEET - Pune)

From Craig D'Souza, Pune:

Dear All,

I would like to inform you of a new initiative starting up in Pune. The goal of this initiative is to engage with themes of open data and civic issues in Pune city. This might be of interest to you.

To achieve this goal we are building a community of volunteers to get together and work on data issues in the social sector. This group will be the Pune Chapter of the Bangalore based NGO, 'Datameet'. The main focus of their work is to bring together professionals from the social sectors as well as the technology sectors to collectively brainstorm and work on the quality and access of open data related to civic issues (health, education, environment, water, waste, sanitation etc.)

In this process we equally need both active non-profit organisations/social enterprises/academics and technologically savvy individuals to participate. We would like to understand your concerns/thoughts regarding data and work together to catalyze problem solving in Pune city.

Over the last few weeks we sent out an interest form and have received many enthusiastic responses so far. You can still fill up and forward the interest form to colleagues/friends that might be interested (Click here) 

To take this forward we have picked a venue and date for Datameet Pune's first meetup. It will be held at the Thoughtworks Pune office on Monday, 13th of July at 7 p.m.. The full address is as given below, or you can find your way there using google maps as well. Click here 

ThoughtWorks Technologies India Pvt Ltd.
6th Floor, Binarius Building, 

Deepak Complex, National Games Road
Shastrinagar, Yerawada
Pune, Maharashtra 411006

We hope that you can make it and hope this location and timing is convenient. If not, come anyway, we are open to suggestions for other venues and timings for the next meeting. 

Also attached is a flyer for the meetup that you can forward. It would be great if you could send a short RSVP to me at this e-mail so we have a confirmed number and we can arrange logistics accordingly. 

Hoping to see you there! 

Best Regards,

Craig Dsouza, Nikhil VJ

​​Mobile: Craig: 7276085960, Nikhil: 9665831250 (Please call Craig with any queries!)

P.S.: (As far as personal introductions go, I, Craig work with a Pune based NGO called SOPPECOM in research on rural water management and Nikhil works on projects of the Centre for Environment Education (CEE) Pune on participatory budgeting and analysis of public transport data and we are both data enthusiasts :)