After the success of the two previous editions, the World Data Viz Challenge 2020 Barcelona-Kobe, a competition organised by the City Councils of Barcelona and the Japanese city of Kobe, will be organised once again this year. The first edition was held in 2018 to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the twinning agreement and to foster cultural, educational, sports, economic and technological exchange between these two cities.
To reflect this exchange, the protagonists of this year’s visual identity are the Arc de Triomphe of Barcelona and the Kobe Port Tower, two symbols from different eras, but representing innovation and progress, values shared by both cities.
This year, the competition is lead by the BIT Habitat Foundation, the urban innovation center of Barcelona in collaboration with the Department of International Relations and the Municipal Data Office of the Barcelona City Council, main organizers of the two previous editions.
The World Data Viz Challenge 2020 Barcelona-Kobe is a competition that aims to highlight the challenges faced by smart cities, and to invite citizens to address their realities and issues.
Thanks to data analysis and visualisation, participants will have an opportunity to make proposals that can be useful for further public policy elaboration and improvement.
At the same time, the challenge aims to:
- Encourage the use of open data published by different entities and which, in the case of the Barcelona City Council, can be found at the Open Data BCN portal.
- Develop critical thinking towards the use of data in the digital environment.
- Increase the exercise of data-sovereignty by citizens.
The theme of the dataviz should reflect any aspect of the reality or a problem related to the city of Barcelona in the framework of the Sustainable Development Goals that are aligned with the Strategy for the promotion of theAgenda 2030 in the city of Barcelona.
The 17 SDGs encompass major social, economic and environmental challenges with the aim of ensuring vital opportunities, quality of life and social inclusion. Therefore, actions to reduce inequalities, to achieve gender equality or to combat climate change, as well as public health management, can be interesting topics, among many others, to elaborate and contribute new ideas.
The submission period for the World Data Viz Challenge 2020 Barcelona-Kobe closed on the 26th of October, 2020.
Here is the calendar for upcoming events:
- 9th of November, 2020: Publication of the finalists list and communication to the authors. Finalists will be contacted via e-mail by the organisation.
- 3rd of December, 2020: Virtual dataviz presentation and awards ceremony.
Following this link you can check the Terms and the Call for participation.
The dataviz was assessed by a team of professionals specialized in urbanism, data analysis and the impact the digital transformation has on the citizens. Following this link you can check the dataviz evaluation report of the World Data Viz Challenge 2020 Barcelona–Kobe.
From all the projects presented in the Barcelona call, 5 finalists will be selected, from which the best dataviz will be chosen.
With the aim of promoting the participation of universities, a special mention will be given to the best dataviz presented by university students, both individually and as a team.
The World Data Viz Challenge 2020 Barcelona-Kobe will award the following prizes for participants from Barcelona:
- Barcelona Award ”World Data Viz Challenge 2020 Barcelona-Kobe”: 1.000 €
- Special mention for Universities from Barcelona "World Data Viz Challenge 2020 Barcelona-Kobe": 250 €
If the jury so decides, taking into account the quality of the analysis and the visualization presented, these awards may coincide.
In addition, all finalists will receive a diploma acknowledging their participation in the challenge and their dataviz will be published on the official page of the World Data Viz Challenge 2020 Barcelona-Kobe within the Open Data BCN portal.
Due to the exceptional circumstances caused by Covid-19, the final event of this edition will be a virtual public event that will take place on Thursday 3rd December 2020, from 10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. (CET).
The event, which will be streamed live, will be attended by institutional representatives from the cities of Barcelona and Kobe and by the finalists from both cities.
More details about the final event will be announced in due course on this page.
The World Data Viz Challenge 2020 Barcelona-Kobe is organized jointly by the City Councils of Barcelona and Kobe. On behalf of the Barcelona City Council, the project is lead by the BIT Habitat Foundation in collaboration with the Department of International Relations and the Municipal Data Office.
In addition, PR agency Canela with provide support to the Barcelona City Council in the organisation and management of the communications campaign.