#bigdatadebate

Data-Pop Alliance, together with Overseas Development Institute and the Royal Statistical Society, is organizing an invitation-only half-day closed workshop followed by a public moderated discussion that aim to explore the challenging questions at the interface of Big Data and Official Statistics.

The events will take place at the Royal Statistical Society on the afternoon and evening of 19 January.

The aim of the workshop will be to discuss whether and how Big Data may complement official statistics, but also the extent to which it may be a potential substitute, and the deeper questions that this possibility evokes.

The concept note describes the events in more detail.

The public event will focus on the question ‘What is the future of official statistics in the Big Data era?’ The panel discussion brings together leading experts who will explore the potential of Big Data to transform national statistical systems as well as concerns about the reliability and representativeness of these data, and over ethics, privacy, and the blurring of lines between formal and informal data sources.

• Chair: Denise Lievesley (Dean of Faculty, King’s College)
• Kenneth Cukier (Data Editor at The Economist)
• Haishan Fu (Director of Development Data Group at the World Bank)
• Alex ‘Sandy’ Pentland (Professor at MIT and Academic Director of Data-Pop Alliance)
• Nuria Oliver (Scientific Director at Telefonica)
• John Pullinger (UK National Statistician)

The invitation to the public event can be found here.

The public event will take place on January 19th, 2015, from 6:00–7:30 pm (followed by a reception), at the
Royal Statistical Society, 12 Errol St, London EC1Y 8LX, United Kingdom. 

To register for this event, please email events@rss.org.uk