Hello, I’m Daisy from the coaching center Ithaka in Ostend. In Ithaka, I had the honour to test the very first app developed by the non-profit DDSoft. And I am so happy with it! Now I can look up what to eat, right on my phone, which is very handy for me! Before I had this application, it was a lot more difficult to know what I should eat today or tomorrow. That's why Dennie from DDSoft, who is also a volunteer in Ithaka, created this application. Dennie told me that there’s a big thing behind this app. He said to me once, that it uses his own ‘Open Data’. I do not know what Open Data is, but what it is doesn’t matter, it helps me!

— Daisy

This is a story from one of my very first costumers. Daisy uses our app ‘Meals’ on her phone. This app communicates directly with http://socialedata.ddsoft.be The link is in Dutch. The reason for using Dutch is that for people with a mental / cognitive disability, other languages are too difficult, and DDSoft wants to be accessible to all people in Flanders. As you can see, for our costumers, Open Data is not really clear, but without it, we could not make this kind of application, nor would it be extendable to the rest of Flanders. It’s my goal to make different datasets and use them in different applications. And each data set must be usable all over Flanders, by every organisation who wants to adopt similar applications.

In our vision, we do not to make applications, we create as much datasets as we can, and let other possible organizations know about them. Currently we have also educated multiple developers to make accessible apps. They use our data, we create new uses together!

At the end of the journey, a lot of organizations are giving data to help their clients with day-to-day questions! And developers are starting to make apps to help people with a disability. If you want to hear more about our challenges and solutions, attend my session on Monday, 11h30. And if you have a few hours to spare this weekend: Do not hesitate, start making an app with our data! Maybe Monday, you can surprise me!