Data: Activism, Access, Open

Editor's Notes

• #6: The objectives are to provide an interdisciplinary analysis of the two core inter-related aspects of the emerging programmable city: (a) Translation: how cities are translated into code, and (b) Transduction: how code reshapes city life” (Kitchin 2011).
• #9: Benchmarks Baselines Thresholds
• #11: This is the World Health Organization's (WHO) recommended body weight based on BMI values for adults. It is used for both men and women, age 18 or older. The index was devised by Adolphe Quetelet during the course of developing what he called "social physics", between 1830 and 1850. BMI is a measurement of your body weight based on your height and weight. Although your BMI does not actually "measure" your percentage of body fat, it is a useful tool to estimate a healthy body weight based on your height. Due to its ease of measurement and calculation, it is the most widely used diagnostic indicator to identify a person's optimal weight depending on his height. Your BMI "number" will inform you if you are underweight, of normal weight, overweight, or obese. However, due to the wide variety of body types, the distribution of muscle and bone mass, etc., it is not appropriate to use this as the only or final indication for diagnosis.
• #14: http://www.west-info.eu/files/3679_gay-marriage-generic-getty-130518-b.jpg
• #16: Ingala Smith – chief executive of London-based domestic violence charity Nia Project Count started Jan. 2012 Data were derived from a set of names collected by Karen Ingala Smith reported in her blog Counting Dead Women. She searched the web for news of women who had been killed by men. Data were gathered from publicly available sources, primarily press articles.
• #17: The Femicide project will have to gain some of its information through presenting freedom of information requests to police forces every six months – something Ingala Smith hopes might be avoided if they can be persuaded to collate their figures in a different way, allowing easier access to statistics on men killing women
• #18: Domestic Homicide Reviews, police statistics, local press articles, reports, Freedom of Information Act requests Women’s Aid is supported by Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP and Deloitte LLP Recording women in England killed by men since 2009 With Women’s Aid and the legal firm Freshfields, Public tally of the dead is kept in a more formal manner, using police statistics as well as court reports. were made to police departments, local authorities and other public bodies throughout England to: verify certain information that we had collected and identify new victims that had not been identified. data were also collected from publicly available sources such as the press and the NHS Trust England website.
• #22: The Open Knowledge (OK) is a non-profit organisation founded in 2004 and dedicated to promoting open data and open content in all their forms – including government data, publicly funded research and public domain cultural content. Founded in 2011 in Ireland. tcube is a Dublin city centre coworking space. It's for freelancers, entrepreneurs and start-ups in the web, app, mobile, software and digital sectors among others. Tito The original dataset was created by Adrian O’Flynn. The charity data used for this CharityHack exercise are as follows: Data were extracted from the annual financial reports of 24 of the largest charities in Ireland (€1Mil+).  NOTE This represents a small sample of the thousands of charities in Ireland. These are charities known through their public brand awareness for the fiscal year 2012 (see the definition). ONLY charities where funding represents charitable funds collected voluntarily from the public were selected.  This excludes charities that primarily rely on large institutional funds (e.g., Irish Aid Grants, HSE Grants). Only charities that have been independently audited and who have published their financial statements on a publicly accessible websites were used. Only charities who followed the Statement by the Accounting Standards Board on the SORP Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice were used (Section B: Resources Expended). Not all organizations in Ireland follow this standard. It is only because of this standard that it was possible to derive standardized financial data from the financial statements in the annual reports. The data here reflect resources spent on Governance, Fundraising and Charity. The list of charities was derived from the survey conducted by the Irish Charity Engagement Monitor (ICEM). This final dataset was quality checked by the participants at the 2014 Charity Hackday on July 26.
• #33: Mariska Hargitay Actress on Law and Order Special Victims Unit 6 years ago in Detroit there were 11,000 untested rape kits found in an abandoned police storage unit. Since then, most of those kits have been sent to crime labs for testing. Prosecutors say the initial results point to at least 188 serial rapists. Often the same DNA shows up in multiple rape kits, or matches DNA in other state databases. But investigating all the results will take millions of dollars the city says it just doesn't have. The backlog of untested rape kits is not just a problem in Detroit. For example, there are almost 12,000 untested rape kits in Memphis, Tenn., and over 4,000 in Las Vegas. In November, the Manhattan district attorney's office pledged $35 million to help end the nationwide backlog.
• #34: Montreal-based software company that builds tools that the Canadian non-profit sector needs. Combine open and public data with their own research to help funders and non-profits better understand the patterns, and specifically the risks and opportunities in their funding environment. Backgrounds in community development, software development and web entrepreneurship. Fundtracker Fundtracker Pro is the most comprehensive listing of funders of the Canadian non-profit sector, including All Canadian foundations, including the 70% of those that do not maintain a public profile Over 1,100 Canadian corporations Over 700 federal and provincial granting programs designed for non-profit organizations PoweredbyData, helps stakeholders collect and publish transactional, contextual and impact data about the non-profit sector that is open and interoperable. the non-profit of Ajah, Ajah’s core expertise is using open data and “big data” methodologies to help fundraisers and funders make informed decisions. PoweredbyData was born out of a desire to use that expertise in the larger non-profit sector in areas which have promising social impact, but not necessarily strong financial returns. Oversight regulator Domestic Reporting Standard Initiative International
• #39: Advocates for the transparent use of science and evidence in public policy and government decision-making. A national, non-partisan, and not-for-profit organization, E4D formed out of concern over recent government cuts to important science institutions, and policies that restrict the flow of scientific information to the public. Governments can be tempted to make decisions based on ideology or political convenience unless the public loudly demands that decisions be based on evidence. Evidence for Democracy facilitates, organizes, and amplifies these demands through its education, monitoring, and advocacy campaigns. The generation, collection, rigorous evaluation, and open communication of science is essential for informed public debate and a functioning democracy. Our Vision: Strong public policies built on the best available evidence for the health and prosperity of all Canadians. A thriving democracy where citizens are informed and engaged, and all levels of government are both transparent and accountable. A national culture that values science and evidence and the important role they play in our society.
• #41: What are the current theoretical debates or intellectual questions? What publics and institutional projects are served by knowing? What do non-academic collaborators want to know? VGI Participatory mapping Citizen science
• #49: http://www.ats.aq/documents/keydocs/vol_1/vol1_Volume_1_Complete_Document_e.pdf http://www.scar.org/data-products#_
• #52: 2005 2010
• #54: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/open-data-charter/g8-open-data-charter-and-technical-annex#principle-4-releasing-data-for-improved-governance
• #56: Although data are commonly understood in practical terms, understandings differ depending on the actors involved there are different epistemologies and ontologies. Their collection requires specialized knowledge, techniques, sophisticated technologies, and often, significant resources. Data are also owned, regulated, guarded, standardized, and created within a particular community of practice. They are collected according to a particular model of the world based on the author’s worldview, and in turn, become an image or a representation of it. Data can be considered as arrangements of “facts within a specific cultural perspective” (Harley, in Dodge 2011:276). An earth scientist, urban planner, cartographer, electrical engineer or epidemiologist each represents a community of practice or epistemic group, each with their unique outlook on what constitutes data. Definitions, understandings, values and quality parameters also vary according to discipline (e.g., geography, physics, social work, archaeology), sector (e.g., communication, energy, housing, health), level of government and their departments (e.g., city, county, EU), private sector (e.g., Google, Axcion, IBM), non-governmental organization (e.g., CreativeCommons.ca, coastwatch, friends of the earth) or to individual citizens. In addition, data resellers, lawyers, data value-added service providers, and researchers in academia or the private sector value data for different reasons. Finally, the roles people have in relation to data (e.g., data librarian, archivist, network specialist, database manager, GIS specialist, cryptographer, cataloguer, artist, project manager) frame how data are handled.
• #59: While this list of institutions is by no means comprehensive, we can say that the people and the territory of the Republic of Ireland are governed by 16 departments, 130 non commercial state sponsored bodies, 100+ state sponsored bodies, 31 local authorities, a number of special offices like the CSO, National Archives, commissioners, ombuds people and so on.
• #60: Governments create, use and maintain massive datasets about the territories they manage, the resources they oversee, and the people they govern. These are publicly funded national assets or resources. These same institutions collect different types of data in order to govern and administer the economy, resources, environment, society, history, knowledge, safety and security, etc.
• #61: Data are also part of and the result of large or complex socio-technological systems, such as the web of submarine cables, or satellite image mosaic which underlies Googlemaps. Data are artifacts in a complex web of technology, people, and social, political and economic structures. Furthermore, data are far from the often conceptualized, neutral arrangements of facts accompanied by descriptive metadata. They are political in their creation, use, arrangement, dissemination, representations, and in their ownership.
• #63: A data assemblage is conceived as a complex socio-technical system consisting of a number of inter-related elements — systems of thought; forms of knowledge; finance; political economy; governmentalities; materialities and infrastructures; practices; organisations and institutions; subjectivities and communities; places; and marketplaces — that work together to frame how data are produced, managed, analyzed, shared and used. This framework we think has utility in understanding and contextualizing the wider changing data landscape.