Both the members of Openlabs and FLOSSK recently visited pointed out that we had to go to Skopje and visit KIKA, the only hackerspace in the macedonian capital. And that´s what we did!
Created 5 years ago, KIKA provides their around 30 members with an electronic lab, a programming room, a 3D printer, lots of tools and a lounge with sofas and kitchen to host movie screenings. Besides its regular meetings, its members are used to participate in events in the Balkans region. Relevant for us was to experience about the NSND Initiative, a regular unconference organised in cooperation with other hackerspaces on the topic of Open Source Software & open cultures and which gathers enthusiasts in all the balkan countries.
Also, we discussed about the situation of Open Data in Macedonia and could discover that the public administration has already created a so called platform which consists actually only in linking official websites of relevant ministries where data can be directly found. Also, the National Institute of Statistics presents a platform where data on different topics is being published. Sadly, it uses proprietary formats although it contains useful and interesting data. We were happy to know that these few steps have been already done and we wish the state of Open Data in Macedonia will be improved in the future.