Escuelab, Softwin, Social Media Group and Development Seed are hosting an Open Data event in Lima, Peru Saturday, August 13, 2011. The event, “Open Data Meetup Lima,” is a day of sharing ideas, activities and workshops related to open data in Peru. The event will focus on open government, maps and web applications, and it will look into the challenges that aerial mapping and improved data collection can solve.

The event is directed to government officials, curious citizens and eager developers looking to understand Peru’s interaction with data and transparency. As we’ve written about before, there is a strong need for a new paradigm in data collection and analysis in the transport sector, especially in Latin America.

One of the speakers at the event will be Rodrigo Derteano from Datea.pe, an online initiative that works to improve public transport in Lima by empowering public participation. Datea.pe is a platform that facilitates dialogue between people on issues of urban mobility. Similar to SeeClickFix, Date.pe collects citizen comments on the metropolitan area, including bike lanes. At the meetup, Derteano will speak to Datea.pe’s strength by discussing citizenship and public participation.

Jeffrey Warren of Grassroots Mapping will also be speaking at Open Data Peru. Grassroots Mapping is a group of activists, educators, technologists and community organizers that create high-resolution aerial imagery using helium balloons and kites. An example of their work is their recent mapping efforts of the Gulf oil spill. Using aerial imagery gathered by balloons and kites, Grassroots Mapping helped document the extent of damage to the Gulf coast. Read more about it here. Warren will speak on enhancing environmental activism with the use of free software.

Click here to watch a live feed of Open Data Meetup Peru.

Follow Development Seed’s Ian Ward for live tweets from the event.