By Nigel Edgar
KUCHING, March 28: Once deemed mature, Sarawak Multimedia Authority (SMA) will make available analytical tools for open data to the public.
SMA general manager Dr Zaidi Razak said it was important for Sarawakians to have access and leverage from the open data analytical tools if they were to benefit from the state’s Digital Economy policy.
However, SMA would have to work out a few kinks and fixes to the analytical tools first before making it available for all to access.
“Some of the improvements are still ongoing, and we have also already put up some open data to the public from our own initiative. But the analytical tool is quite sensitive because once you wrongly use it, it will give a bad impression to others.
“So, we have to experiment first with all data we get from public and internal sources,” he told reporters during the Media Briefing on Digital Economy 2019 organised by SMA and Angkatan Zaman Mansang (AZAM) Sarawak here this afternoon.
Zaid said there was no deadline on when the analytical tools would be available for public access, but he assured that once the tools had been improved and properly developed, it would be made accessible to everyone.
Meanwhile, Zaidi revealed that SMA’s open data platform was first launched in 2018 to link all agencies to share non-sensitive data with the public.
“What it means is to get the public to have this innovation to use the data. For example, we have shared data on tourism, how many visitors coming to Sarawak and so on. From that data, our youngsters or developers can develop apps to leverage the data.
“We want to have innovation in our implementation of the Digital Economy. That’s why the element of this innovation is data,” he said. — DayakDaily
