#Linkswelike Check out our weekly compilation of the links we like and want to share with you on migration, cell phone data, climate refugees and more!
Unevenly Distributed Resilience
This is the fourth in a series of companion pieces that offer insights from the synthesis report. The authors of the series attempt to go “beyond the buzz” to lay out what we actually know about Big Data’s existing utility for disaster science and for building practical resilience.
Big Data and Disability, Part 1
This is the first in a series of blog posts on our ongoing work exploring the applications and implications of Big Data and disability. This serves as an initial scoping of how Big Data can contribute to various research areas related to disability. This will form the basis of a White Paper (forthcoming) exploring the ability of the Big Data ecosystem to monitor and understand the state of research about persons with disabilities and their environments.
Leveraging the Crowd: How People can Contribute to Disaster Management
This is the third in a series of companion pieces that offer insights from the synthesis report. The authors of the series attempt to go “beyond the buzz” to lay out what we actually know about Big Data’s existing utility for disaster science and for building practical resilience.
Urban Identity and the Fragility-Resilience Double Helix
This is the first in our series of blog posts on our ongoing work on urban fragility and resilience.
The Real Promise of Big Data: Seeing Like a State and Like a Citizen
This is the second in a series of companion pieces that offer insights from the synthesis report. The authors of the series attempt to go “beyond the buzz” to lay out what we actually know about Big Data’s existing utility for disaster science and for building practical resilience.
LWL #5
#Linkswelike Check out our weekly compilation of the links we like and want to share with you on data visualizations, inclusion, Zika Virus, access, and more!
LWL #4
#Linkswelike Check out our weekly round-up of the links we like and want to share with you on Free Basics, Open Sourced data, Algorithms, Op Africa and more!
Using Big Data to Detect and Predict Natural Hazards Better and Faster: Lessons Learned with Hurricanes, Earthquakes, Floods
This is the first in a series of companion pieces that offer insights from a synthesis report evaluating the opportunities, challenges and required steps for leveraging the new ecosystem of Big Data and its potential applications and implications for climate change and disaster resilience, published by Data-Pop Alliance, with funding from the UK’s Department for International Development (DfID). The authors of the series attempt to go “beyond the buzz” to lay out what we actually know about Big Data’s existing utility for disaster science and for building practical resilience.
Big Data and Migration, Part 1
This is the first in a series of blog posts on our ongoing work exploring the applications and implications of Big Data and migration. People have always been on the move—whether to seek refuge from war and persecution, find jobs and create businesses, flee in the aftermath of natural disasters, or get a degree somewhere else. From country to city, … Read More
LWL #3
#Linkswelike Check out our weekly compilation of the links we like and want to share with you on Privacy Shield, migration, digital ethics, and more
LWL #2
LINKS WE LIKE #2 Here’s a quick weekly compilation of a few links we like and want to share with you: Could consumers sell access to their own encrypted data? It looks that way. “MIT’s New Blockchain Project Enigma Wants to Let You Share Your Data on Your Own Terms,” by Steven Melendez for FastCompany. Our Academic Director, Alex “Sandy” Pentland is … Read More
LWL #1
LINKS WE LIKE #1 Here’s a quick compilation of a few links we like and want to share with you: Compelling article by Charles Kenny of The Atlantic: “2015: The Best Year in History for the Average Human Being”. Violence dominated the headlines this year. But by many measures, humanity is in better shape than it’s ever been. Jeffrey Sachs writes … Read More
Taming the Data Storm to Shape a Human-Centered Data Revolution: Contextualizing and Announcing Digitising Europe’s Stakeholders’ Dialogues
While the Library of Alexandria was once believed to contain the sum of human knowledge around the third century B.C.E, it is now near impossible to quantify and increasingly difficult to store the volume of data generated by humans as a result of the advent of digital technologies and societies.
Celebrating the Outcomes of the Cartagena Data Festival
With over 400 registered participants, 3 days filled with events and presentations and countless stimulating conversations, the Cartagena Data Festival was an extraordinary experience and in our opinion, a great success. The festival was livestreamed for people following from home, and interacted with the Twitter community’s questions and comments. Simultaneous translation was available for non-English speaking attendees.
“A new and sometimes awkward relationship” on Big Data and Human Rights should be Further Explored
The AAAS (American Association for the Advancement of Sciences) Science and Human Rights Coalition organized a 2-day conference on ‘Big Data and Human Rights’ on January 15 and 16 in Washington DC, where Data-Pop Alliance’s co-founders Emmanuel Letouzé and Patrick Vinck (who also serves on AAAS’ Committee on Scientific Freedom and Responsibility) presented their perspectives on this critical yet still … Read More
A few Big Data Bites
Big data: early years and foundational pieces An early mention of the upcoming “Industrial Revolution of data” can be found in a blog by Joe Hellerstein, a computer scientist at the University of California, Berkeley. It was published in November 2008, a few months after Wired had claimed that ‘data deluge’ would signify “the end of theory” and make the … Read More
Key Facts & Figures on Big Data and Call Detail Records
What is big data, and could it transform development policy? Emmanuel Letouzé takes a close look at this emerging field. In just a few years ‘big data’ have affected industries and activities from marketing and advertising to intelligence gathering and law enforcement, stirring much excitement and scepticism. With policymaking increasingly looking like big data’s next frontier, is this phenomenon — … Read More
Data “Inflation” Table
Unit Size What it means Bit (b) 1 or 0 Short for “binary digit”, after the binary code (1 or 0) computers use to store and process data—including text, numbers, images, videos, etc. Byte (B) 8 bits Enough information to create a number or an English letter in computer code. It is the basic unit of computing. Kilobyte (KB) 1,000, … Read More
Review: Technocratic Bias Risks Eroding the Legitimacy and Efficacy of the Data Revolution
Two recent articles included in the inaugural post of our “Links We Like” series have focused on what may be missing in the current specialized discourse and thinking about the data revolution’s implications and requirements.
