Episode 199: Ben Hur Pintor on BNHR and SmartCT

Guest Ben Hur Pintor Panelist Richard Littauer Show Notes Hello and
welcome to Sustain! The podcast where we talk about sustaining open
source for the long haul. Today, Richard is joined by guest, Ben
Hur Pintor, a key player in the world of open data and mapping. Ben
shares insights about his work with BNHR, a consulting business
helping others harness open source and open data, and SmartCT, a
nonprofit working on sustainability issues. He details their unique
approach of using games to educate about open source and data
concepts. Ben highlights partnerships with universities, shares
about their Civic Literacy Initiative aimed at making more
effective use of data, and discusses the challenges faced by people
from the Global South entering the open source/open data space. He
also tells us about Pista ng Mapa, an annual conference that
celebrates open mapping in the Philippines. Download this episode
now to hear more! [00:01:16] What is BNHR? Ben explains it’s a
consulting business where he helps people find value in open source
and open data, particularly open geospatial and mapping. [00:02:21]
Ben talks about SmartCT, a tech nonprofit that helps local
governments and civic society organizations deal with
sustainability issues. They put citizens at the heart of their
services and promote openness. [00:03:24] Richard asks Ben why he
saw the need for SmartCT, and he explains that many cities and
municipalities in the Philippines were starting smart projects, but
there was a lack of innovation and communication between them.
[00:05:40] Ben mentions they are focusing on building offline first
and open tools that are easy for local government units to use, and
he tells us about their projects, a card game designed to help
people learn about open source and open data and they’re creating a
smart mobility board game. [00:09:14] Richard wonders if Ben has
found traction with these board games and if there’s any drawback
to this approach. Ben acknowledges the risk of making the concept
seem too childlike but argues that these tools are designed to
simplify the introduction to open source and open data concepts.
[00:13:20] Ben confirms past partnerships with local universities
and student interns and shares a shift in focus due to changes in
travel restriction in the Philippines. He highlights the importance
of networking and partnership to their organization. [00:15:00] We
start a conversation on the Civic Literacy Initiative (CLI), which
is an educational project co-founded by Ben. He tells us its goals,
focusing on shifting from siloed capacity building to something
more impactful, and their intent to support civic organizations and
philanthropic bodies to make better use of data regarding
capacity-building activities. [00:17:47] Ben provides more detail
about CLI, emphasizing its role in open data around capacity
building, open consulting, and the building of the School of Data
network. [00:18:59] Richard asks Ben about his perspective on open
data and open source as well as the sustainability of open source
in the Philippines. Ben acknowledges the overlap and distinctions
between various open movements and shares his own journey through
them and he discusses the tight-knit community in the Philippines
and their collective efforts pushing for openness. [00:23:18] A
question about the possible barriers for individuals from the
Global South to enter the open source/data space, and Ben explains
that entering the open source space is more challenging and how
more support is needed. [00:27:40] Ben tells us all the details
about his project, Pista ng Mapa, Festival of Maps, which is an
annual conference that celebrates open mapping in the Philippines.
[00:33:14] Find out where you can follow Ben and his work on the
webs. Quotes [00:12:48] “To me the biggest difference with working
in this side of the world and also in the global south, in terms of
the baseline capacity and the baseline knowledge for openness, open
data, open source, open standards, we’re not there yet.” Spotlight
[00:34:10] Richard’s spotlight is a book he just read called,
Legends & Lattes. [00:34:50] Ben’s spotlight is QGIS. Links
SustainOSS (https://sustainoss.org/) SustainOSS Twitter
(https://twitter.com/SustainOSS?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor)
SustainOSS Discourse (https://discourse.sustainoss.org/)
podcast@sustainoss.org (mailto:podcast@sustainoss.org) SustainOSS
Mastodon (https://mastodon.social/tags/sustainoss) Open
Collective-SustainOSS (Contribute)
(https://opencollective.com/sustainoss) Richard Littauer Twitter
(https://twitter.com/richlitt?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor)
Ben Hur Pintor Website (https://bnhr.xyz/) Ben Hur Mastodon
(https://mastodon.social/@benhur07b) Ben Hur Fosstodon
(https://fosstodon.org/@bnhrdotxyz) Ben Hur Twitter
(https://twitter.com/bnhrdotxyz?lang=en) SmartCT Facebook
(https://www.facebook.com/SmartCTorg) Getting Started Series Card
Kit-GitHub
(https://github.com/smartctph/getting-started-with-smart-and-data-driven-lgus)
SustainOSS Podcast 2 episodes featuring Jan Ainali
(https://podcast.sustainoss.org/guests/ainali) School of Data
(https://schoolofdata.org/) SustainOSS Podcast-Episode 28-What
“OpenStreetMap US” is with Maggie Cawley &
(https://podcast.sustainoss.org/28) Pista ng Mapa (Festival of
Maps) (https://pistangmapa.org/) Legends & Lattes by Travis
Baldree (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legends_%26_Lattes) QGIS
(https://qgis.org/en/site/) Qasketball: spatial analysis and
visualization of basketball with QGIS with Ben Hur Pintor (YouTube)
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HlLlJz9sghk) Credits Produced by
Richard Littauer (https://www.burntfen.com/) Edited by Paul M. Bahr
at Peachtree Sound (https://www.peachtreesound.com/) Show notes by
DeAnn Bahr Peachtree Sound (https://www.peachtreesound.com/)
Special Guest: Ben Hur Pintor.