CoAfina: questions worth working on together
Latin American students using open data to investigate problems around them.
Data with a purpose
I helped create CoAfina in 2022 and have co-organised it from its first edition. The hackathon brings Latin American students together around open data and practical questions. My work includes designing challenges, mentoring teams and helping coordinate the event.
A dataset becomes more interesting when someone can ask something of it. Where is the information missing? Can the analysis be checked? What would another person need to understand the result? A short collaborative project is a useful place to practise those questions.
Exhibit 1DiagramRead left to right
How an edition works
A challenge call, a student call, three days online around open data, projects on GitHub, a published record. Every edition leaves something that the next one can start from.
The second edition · 2023
From 20 to 22 October 2023, 78 students formed 16 teams representing 30 universities across eight Latin American countries. Projects addressed topics including electoral information, coffee prices and tourism.
The event joined LA-CoNGA Physics, Creative Commons Venezuela, RedCLARA and CEDIA, with support from ICTP’s Physics Without Frontiers programme, the Software Sustainability Institute, Open Life Science and INAIT. The students’ projects were their own collective work; the organising network supplied the setting in which that work could happen.
Exhibit 2NumbersEach figure links to the record that states it
The second edition · 2023
What is next
The fifth edition is being prepared for 27 to 29 November 2026, fully online, with Wikimedia CH as main sponsor. These are the planned dates; the event is still ahead of us. The work now is to shape an activity that students and volunteers can take part in meaningfully.
CoAfina connects two parts of my life that have remained close: building useful technical environments and keeping scientific opportunities connected to Latin America.
Exhibit 3TimelineFilled points are my milestones; hollow points are the context they sit in
Editions and what surrounds them
- 2022First edition, 6–8 MayI co-organised the event, proposed weather-data and particle-physics challenges, and mentored student teams.Source
- 2023Second edition, 20–22 OctoberLA-CoNGA Physics, Creative Commons Venezuela, RedCLARA and CEDIA, with support from ICTP’s Physics Without Frontiers.Source
- 2026An action site and a Discord hubRouting challengers, hackers and sponsors to the right place; the community lives on Discord, moderated almost around the clock.Source
- 2026Fifth edition, 27 to 29 NovemberFully online, with Wikimedia CH as main sponsor. Challenge and student calls run through October and November.Source
Exhibit 4ResourcesOpen the thing itself, not a description of it
Where to go from here
- ArticleCoAfina 2023: published event reportsoftware.ac.uk
- RecordACFIMAN: scientific and educational community workacfiman.org
- SiteCoAfina 2026 action site: challenges, calls, Discord, toolslaa-hecap.github.ioBuilt by me
- SiteOfficial CoAfina site at LA-CoNGA Physicslaconga.redclara.net
- Repositorycoafina repository: source of the action site and the tools listgithub.com
- CommunityCoAfina community on Discorddiscord.ggCo-administrator
- ArticleLA-CoNGA: first CoAfina, May 2022 — organising, challenges and mentoringlaconga.redclara.net
- ArticleLA-CoNGA: report of the second CoAfina, October 2023laconga.redclara.net
Exhibit 5Looking backTwo dates on every story: when it happened and when I wrote about it
Then and now
2023, when it happened
Seventy-eight students, sixteen teams, a long weekend. The report we published afterwards is the kind of record I want every edition to leave behind.
2026, writing this
The fifth edition has a sponsor, a site, a Discord community and three challenges proposed by me on behalf of INAIT, Creative Commons Venezuela and Switzerland, and CoAfina itself. Results go here after 29 November.
Sources & further reading
- CoAfina 2023: published event report
- ACFIMAN: scientific and educational community work
- CoAfina 2026 action site: challenges, calls, Discord, tools
- Official CoAfina site at LA-CoNGA Physics
- coafina repository: source of the action site and the tools list
- CoAfina community on Discord
- LA-CoNGA: first CoAfina, May 2022 — organising, challenges and mentoring
- LA-CoNGA: report of the second CoAfina, October 2023