21 March 2013: General Assembly of the Opendata.ch association and opening of the Finance make.opendata.ch hackdays

  • Finance

On Thursday, 21 March 2013, from 17:00 to 19:00, the General Assembly of the Opendata.ch association will take place at the University of Bern, in the UniS building, room A -122, Schanzeneckstrasse 1, Bern, followed by the opening of the Finance make.opendata.ch hackdays. After the association’s meeting, at 18:00, there will be a video message from National Councillor Jacqueline Badran and a presentation of the new budget mobile application of the Federal Administration. This will be followed by a broadly based panel discussion on the possibilities and limits of visualising financial data, and to round things off there will be an apéro riche.

Participation in the event is free of charge. The organisers would be grateful for registration at matthias.stuermer@opendata.ch. On Friday and Saturday, 22 and 23 March 2013, the Finance make.opendata.ch hackdays will take place at the University of Bern and at the University of Applied Sciences Western Switzerland in Sierre. Further information and registration at http://make.opendata.ch

Programme 21 March 2013

16:30 Arrival of Opendata.ch members and other participants
17:00 General Assembly of the Opendata.ch association

  1. Report on the 2012 association year and outlook for the 2013 association year
  2. Report on the 2012 annual accounts (income statement, balance sheet)
  3. Discharge of the board
  4. Approval of the 2012 annual accounts
  5. Membership fee 2013
  6. Budget 2013
  7. Amendment of the statutes
  8. Elections (by-election)
  9. Any other business
18:00 Opening of the Finance make.opendata.ch hackdays André Golliez, President of Opendata.ch

Video message to the open data community Jacqueline Badran, National Councillor (SP, Canton of Zurich), finance politician
18:10 The new mobile app for the federal finances 2012
Thomas Will, Federal Finance Administration
18:20 Panel discussion on the possibilities and limits of visualising financial data
With the following experts:

  • Giovanna Battagliero, member of the Grand Council (SP), Canton of Bern
  • Dr. Christoph Koller, project leader of the database on Swiss cantons and cities BADAC at the Swiss Graduate School of Public Administration IDHEAP
  • Barbara Kummler, project leader of bundeshaushalt-info.de at Pixelpark, now at HSLU
  • Daniel Schaffner, Head of Finance, City of Bern
  • Julian Schmidli, research desk of the SonntagsZeitung, data journalist

Moderation: Dr. Matthias Stürmer, board member of Opendata.ch
19:00 Apéro riche

Panel discussion on the possibilities and limits of visualising financial data

What contribution can the open data movement make to financial transparency? How must open budget applications be developed so that they deliver relevant insights? The aim of the panel discussion is to understand the different perspectives, interests and challenges of politics, administration, research and the media, and to highlight both the opportunities and the risks of visualised financial data. The discussion will be moderated by Dr. Matthias Stürmer, board member of Opendata.ch and managing director of the Parliamentary Group for Digital Sustainability. The following experts will speak on the panel:

Giovanna_BattaglieroGiovanna Battagliero is an attorney and works at the Federal Social Insurance Office (FSIO). From 2005 to 2012 she was an SP member of the Bern City Council, and since November 2012 she has been a member of the Grand Council of the Canton of Bern. Giovanna Battagliero has taken part in previous open data hackdays, convinced that it is a central task of politics and administration to inform citizens transparently and comprehensibly about the actions of the state.

Christophe_KollerDr. Christophe Koller is responsible at IDHEAP for the portal of Swiss cantons and cities, which provides the public with a database (BADAC) and an interactive atlas of the state. He has worked at the Swiss Science Council, at SECO and then at the FSO, is an active member of the network of the Swiss Society of Administrative Sciences and was president of the association History and Informatics. Christophe Koller holds a diploma in economics and social sciences and a doctorate in history.

Barbara_KummlerBarbara Kummler is a project leader and lecturer at the Institute of Communication and Marketing IKM of Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts. Her research focuses include the comprehensibility of data visualisations. Previously, Barbara Kummler was project leader for internet and digital signage projects at Pixelpark AG in Cologne. Among other things, she led the development of the data portal on the German federal budget for the Federal Ministry of Finance. Barbara Kummler studied at the University of Siegen and holds a degree in media economics (Master of Arts).

KONICA MINOLTA DIGITAL CAMERADaniel Schaffner has been Head of Finance of the City of Bern since 2011. Before that, he worked for more than 20 years in the private sector, where he held various positions in internal and external audit, finance and controlling, and consulting. Most recently, he headed the Bern office of KPMG as a partner. He is a certified public accountant and business economist HWV. Daniel Schaffner lives with his family in Niederscherli near Bern.


Julian_SchmidliJulian Schmidli is an investigative journalist at the research desk of the SonntagsZeitung and Le Matin Dimanche. He specialises in data-driven research and has published, among other things, on public procurement in the Federal Administration. Schmidli lectures in data journalism at the MAZ school of journalism and is a member of the research club Investigativ.ch