Hi Listers.<div><br></div><div>Some on this list may find this to be of interest. You can register for the event here <a href="http://opencorporates.eventbrite.com/">http://opencorporates.eventbrite.com/</a> It is organized by the Nairobi Chapter of HacksHackers.</div>
<div><br></div><div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><b style="font-size:medium;font-family:Times;font-weight:normal"><p dir="ltr" style="margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;display:inline!important"><b style="font-weight:normal"><span style="font-size:15px;font-family:Cambria;font-weight:bold;text-decoration:underline;white-space:pre-wrap">Holding Companies and Their Directors to Account: An Open Data Solution</span></b></p>
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<span style="font-size:15px;font-family:Cambria;background-color:transparent;font-weight:bold;white-space:pre-wrap">Date: Tuesday, 30th October 2012</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="text-align:center;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt">
<span style="font-size:15px;font-family:Cambria;background-color:transparent;font-weight:bold;white-space:pre-wrap">Venue: 88mph</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="text-align:center;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:15px;font-family:Cambria;background-color:transparent;font-weight:bold;white-space:pre-wrap">Time: 1800hrs - 2000hrs</span></p>
<span style="font-size:15px;font-family:Cambria;background-color:transparent;white-space:pre-wrap"></span><br><p dir="ltr" style="margin-left:28.5pt;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:15px;font-family:Cambria;background-color:transparent;white-space:pre-wrap">Highly interconnected global companies have exploded in complexity and power, and increasingly affect our lives for good and bad. Yet in tandem with this growth, corporate governance has weakened. The opacity and complexity of this corporate world is a key enabler of corruption, tax avoidance and organised crime.</span></p>
<span style="font-size:15px;font-family:Cambria;background-color:transparent;white-space:pre-wrap"></span><br><p dir="ltr" style="margin-left:28.5pt;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:15px;font-family:Cambria;background-color:transparent;white-space:pre-wrap">Until now painstaking manual investigation has been required to track even the most basic facts about a company, such as whether it exists, and who owns it. Chris Taggart of </span><a href="http://opencorporates.com/" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:15px;font-family:Cambria;background-color:transparent;text-decoration:underline;white-space:pre-wrap">OpenCorporates.com</span></a><span style="font-size:15px;font-family:Cambria;background-color:transparent;white-space:pre-wrap"> believes it’s time to change that. Chris is building an open access database with basic information on every corporate entity in the world which can then be remixed and combined with other data, such as government contracts.</span></p>
<span style="font-size:15px;font-family:Cambria;background-color:transparent;white-space:pre-wrap"></span><br><p dir="ltr" style="margin-left:28.5pt;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:15px;font-family:Cambria;background-color:transparent;white-space:pre-wrap">Chris Taggart will offer a hands-on session on some ways to use powerful data-driven tools and open access databases to mine company information from across the world. Chris will show how highly interconnected global companies have exploded in complexity and power, while corporate governance has weakened. The opacity and complexity of this corporate world is a key enabler of corruption, tax avoidance and organised crime.</span></p>
<span style="font-size:15px;font-family:Cambria;background-color:transparent;white-space:pre-wrap"></span><br><p dir="ltr" style="margin-left:28.5pt;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:15px;font-family:Cambria;background-color:transparent;white-space:pre-wrap">Chris will demonstrate how you can use even basic company information to remix and combine your data with other information, such as government contracts or regulatory filings, to gain new insights.</span></p>
<span style="font-size:15px;font-family:Cambria;background-color:transparent;white-space:pre-wrap"></span><br><p dir="ltr" style="margin-left:28.5pt;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:15px;font-family:Cambria;background-color:transparent;white-space:pre-wrap">We invite all those with an interest in issues of corruption and transparency to a hands-on practical session to learn about Chris’s techniques and how you can put them to work for you.</span></p>
<span style="font-size:15px;font-family:Cambria;background-color:transparent;white-space:pre-wrap"></span><br><p dir="ltr" style="margin-left:28.5pt;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:15px;font-family:Cambria;background-color:transparent;font-weight:bold;white-space:pre-wrap">PART 1: Why Open Up Corporate Data?</span></p>
<p dir="ltr" style="margin-left:28.5pt;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:15px;font-family:Cambria;background-color:transparent;white-space:pre-wrap">Corporate transparency challenges globally and in Africa (Chris Taggart)</span></p>
<span style="font-size:15px;font-family:Cambria;background-color:transparent;white-space:pre-wrap"></span><br><p dir="ltr" style="margin-left:28.5pt;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:15px;font-family:Cambria;background-color:transparent;font-weight:bold;white-space:pre-wrap">PART 2: How to Open Up Corporate Data</span></p>
<p dir="ltr" style="margin-left:28.5pt;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:15px;font-family:Cambria;background-color:transparent;white-space:pre-wrap">Demo - What you can do with OpenCorporates database (Chris Taggart)</span></p>
<p dir="ltr" style="margin-left:28.5pt;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:15px;font-family:Cambria;background-color:transparent;white-space:pre-wrap">Q&A/Hands-on advice</span></p><span style="font-size:15px;font-family:Cambria;background-color:transparent;white-space:pre-wrap"></span><br>
<p dir="ltr" style="margin-left:28.5pt;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size:15px;font-family:Cambria;background-color:transparent;white-space:pre-wrap">Interested? Please register online</span><span style="font-size:15px;font-family:Cambria;background-color:transparent;white-space:pre-wrap"> for the event (</span><a href="http://opencorporates.eventbrite.com/">http://opencorporates.eventbrite.com/</a>)</p>
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</font><div><font face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt"><br class="Apple-interchange-newline">Kind regards,<br><br></span></font></div><div><div><div><font color="#333333" face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10pt">Muchiri Nyaggah | </span><font size="1">PRINCIPAL PARTNER</font></font></div>
<div><span style="font-family:Arial"><font color="#333333" size="1">@muchiri</font></span></div><div><font color="#333333" face="Arial" size="1">Cell: +254 722 506400</font></div><div><span style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:Arial;font-size:x-small">Skype: mrmuchiri</span></div>
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