After having been postponed due to the confinement before the Covid-19, last Thursday 24 September the XVII edition of Databeers was held by videoconference, in the framework of the Hackaton Copernicus Malaga. The event could also be followed by streaming via Youtube, maintaining the open and free character of the community meetings, which started in Malaga five years ago. This new format aroused the interest of the audience, with more than a hundred people registered and a wide repercussion on social networks.

A new format with many advantages

Held in the context of the Hackaton Copernicus Malaga, this edition of Databeers focused on the projects and applications based on open data and services from the European Earth Observation Programme Copernicus.

There were five talks, all of them of short duration, informative tone and close to pecha-kucha format, given by prestigious national and international experts. A tasting of different varieties of beer was interspersed with these talks. San Miguel, a brand that has supported Databeers Málaga since 2018, brought the beers to the homes of those attending the event.

The event began with a presentation by María Sánchez, coordinator of the Initiative, who highlighted that this edition meant a great challenge in terms of organisation, given the need to carry out the event safely, but without losing its essence "through a screen, beer and networking included, differentiating us from the many webinars held nowadays". Although - commented Sánchez - the screen limits the interaction and experience that takes place in a bar, the virtual format opens up new possibilities, and made it possible to have speakers from different geographical locations and to connect many people beyond Malaga.

5 interesting talks on applications of Copernicus data

The opening speaker for this Databeers Málaga Copernicus special was Kevin Ramírez, Copernicus coordinator at Climate-KIC, who showed the potential of the initiative and its data as a tool to support a sustainable future. He was followed by Felipe Fernández, head of the Information Technology and Supercomputing Group at IHCantabria, who shared the results of the ApliCop project, designed to identify the actors in Copernicus Spain and to promote their collaboration and innovation through projects with data, some of which we have already covered in this article.

In this sense, from GMV Aerospace and Defence S.A.U., Jesús Ortuño and Julia Yagüe presented their work with remote data for sustainable forest management, while Juan Arévalo Torres, director of the Malaga-based company Randbee Consultants, focused on the way in which content and stories can be constructed, through storytelling and different visualisation techniques, to make the data attractive and understandable for citizens.

The event was closed by Sonia Castro, coordinator of open data at the public entity Red.es, who explained to those present the role of the Aporta Initiative in promoting interaction and citizen participation in the generation, use and reuse of open data. During her presentation, she toured the different sections of datos.gob.es, highlighting its usefulness for users who want both to locate new datasets and to identify use cases and keep up to date with all the new developments in the open data ecosystem in Spain. She also highlighted the guides we offer users and the interaction channels through which they can send us their requests and suggestions.

As usual, the event was recorded thanks to the collaboration of David Bueno (CEMI Málaga) and is available through the Databeers Málaga Youtube channel. Recordings of the talks and presentations used will soon be shared via www.databeersmlg.com. In this space you can find a lot of material, from this and other events, whose license allows its use and reuse. It is a good way to generate knowledge beyond the face-to-face events and the local environment.