The Barcelona Open Data Challenge is a pilot competition ran by Barcelona City Council aimed at promoting the use of open data published in the Open Data BCN portal.

The competition is a project-based learning initiative  aimed at secondary school students aged 15 and 16. Through the analysis of their environment, using the data published on the portal and with assistance from their teacher,  students are tasked to design improvement proposals to encourage the City Council to think differently about the city.

Students are encouraged  to make analyses, cross-check data and make use of the more than 420 datasets available in the municipal catalogue, that contain information on topics such as housing, population, trees, public transport, bicycle lanes, accidents or incidents reported by citizens.

The competition consists of six phases distributed throughout the school year (from October to May), during which time teachers attend various workshops and receive training in Open Data, data analysis, video editing and design and participate in co-creation workshops. The training is aimed at enabling teachers to transfer the skills and knowledge they acquire onto their students.

The phases are:

• Phase 0: Registration.
• Phase 1: Analysis of the environment and defining the project.
• Phase 2: Analysis of the open data related to the project and development of the action plan.
• Phase 3: Preparation of the presentation of the projects.
• Phase 4: Final public event with the presentation of the final projects.
• Phase 5: Evaluation.

In the end, each centre choses a project they feel represents them in for the final public event. The winning project is chosen by a jury selected from the City Council. The finalists present their proposals publicly and are evaluated by City Council staff.

Founded by Barcelona City Council

Twitter: @BCN_digital

Website: http://opendata-ajuntament.barcelona.cat/ca/repte 

Case study date: June 2018