Nepal celebrated its first ever Open Data Day - Chitwan on February 21 at Bharatpur Height, Chitwan.

Open Data Day - Chitwan revolved around three main themes: Open Philosophy, Open Mapping (OpenStreetMap), and Open Data. The Open Philosophy session informed and inspired visitors to think and act open through videos, presentations, and showcases. This session aspired to ignite discussions and foster an understanding of open philosophy, and generate contributions to the open community. Open Mapping sessions delivered demonstrations on using and creating own maps using OpenStreetMap (a free wiki map of the world). It also showcased a keynote session highlighting different innovative projects and activities based on OpenStreetMap - and the underlying Open Data - that are being carried out in Chitwan and the rest of the country. During the Open Data session, different NGOs, CSOs, private organizations, and government bodies furnished data that were processed and visualized extracting meaningful information out of them and demonstrating the true power of data when they are open.

This is the first time when Open Data Day was celebrated outside the nation's capital. This was made possible by the joint efforts of organizers - Salyani Tech Pvt. Ltd., Kathmandu Living Labs, FOSS Chitwan, and Chitwanix OS with valuable support from Cleanup Nepal Chitwan, BCD Nepal, and Youth Empowerment Campaign Chitwan.

Parallelly, Kathmandu also celebrated its third Open Data Day in Kathmandu. Please spend some moments to take a glimpse of Open Data Day - Kathmandu here.