The culture of participation is an intelligent decision

Finally, we concluded the first session of "Challenging Data First: Challenging City Data", and while its climax was the celebration of governmental partners who made it with their cooperation achieve this level of success, but it had future implications related to the level of maturity that the digital transformation experience in Dubai reached, These indications I see as lessons learned not only for us in Dubai, but for every city in its journey to transform into a smart city, and it is at the same time a living experience to overcome the most important challenges facing the process of opening and sharing data worldwide, the most important of which is the necessary transformation at the level of institutional culture, whether For the government or private sector to embrace change and the challenges associated with adopting modern technologies and their experiences.

Data challenge The collection of elite government agencies, and although its title was a challenge and competition to achieve the best levels of compliance of these entities with the Dubai Data Law, it turned into a platform to achieve the highest levels of cooperation and institutional participation, whether at the level of entities or teams or digital leaders.

Initially, the challenge requirements seemed difficult, given that data experience in its modern concept is still modern, and most organizations around the world are still exploring their way in it, but the way to lead the challenge based on building alliances and companies from the Dubai Data Corporation team, and the extended data team represented by data heroes, made it As it is now.

Our leadership's vision, from the beginning of the smart transformation journey in Dubai, was to give data a strategic role, which was embodied by one of several statements of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai: «Making the future is not just improvised decisions, Rather, they are strategic plans based on knowledge, and clear goals based on analytical data based on accurate statistics and real data. ”

From this vision, a continuous journey emerged with a confident pace, so that the challenge is a stop in the journey of opening and sharing government data, which began in 2017, under the directions of His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and Chairman of the Executive Council, who directed the government agencies in Dubai to feed All its data on the Dubai Plus platform. The most prominent challenge, which we faced and transformed to a success story in challenging data in cooperation with partners, was to reach 80% in compliance, while the goal was only 70% until the end of 2019, which is that most government agencies have their priorities list crowded with projects that may not accommodate the data challenge However, after a series of workshops that we implemented at the level of the Dubai government, our partners reached a conviction that classification, opening and sharing their data is what will enable them to smart planning, and enables them to achieve any goals and priorities more effectively and efficiently, no matter how crowded their list, which made the challenge achieve the results that We announced it.

Assistant Director General of Smart Dubai Executive Director of Dubai Data Corporation

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