Announcing the OCDS Help Desk

If 2014 was the year for developing the Open Contracting Data Standard, 2015 is the year for pilots, adopting and scaling up.

Governments across the world are already working to adopt OCDS as a model to increase the transparency and accessibility of contracting data, and a number of projects have started exploring how to use OCDS data to spot corruption, improve access to contracting opportunities, and research the landscape of public contracting.

To support adoption of the Open Contracting Data Standard we’re pleased to announce the OCDS Help Desk.

Whatever your question about the standard, you can get in touch with data@open-contracting.org and one of the team will be on hand to help out.

We can:

• Help you identify approaches for converting data from your existing systems to OCDS;
• Suggest existing tools and services which may help you public or use OCDS data;
• Provide guidance on mapping your data structures to the standard;
• Give you feedback on draft data files, and support with validation of your data;

Through funding from the Open Contracting Partnership, this support is provided free of charge.