Trust in official statistics remains high but there’s still work to do

Curated on Posted on by Stefaan Verhulst

Article by Ian Diamond (UK): “..I’m excited about the potential of new data sources, and I want everyone in the UK to have the skills to understand and use the stats they allow us to create. With this in mind, we’re launching a whole host of new projects to bring our stats to the people:

How to videos

To benefit from stats, and be confident that they are reliable, we need to understand more about the data they have been derived from and how to read and use them.

Our new set of video guides are a great place to start, covering topics such as why data matters to how the ONS de-identifies them and where we get them from.

They are all available to watch on our YouTube channel.

Playground survey

During the 2023/2024 school year, we teamed up with the BBC and the Micro:bit Foundation to give children in primary schools the opportunity to take part in a nationwide playground survey.

The BBC Micro:bit Playground Survey is a wonderful way for children to learn data skills at an early age, getting to grips with data collection and analysis in a way that is relevant to their everyday lives, in a familiar and fun setting.

If children become data-literate now, they will be well prepared to navigate and take advantage of the huge amounts of data that will no doubt play an important role in their adult lives.

Keep an eye out for the results in October.

Navigating numbers – the ONS data education programme

We’ve also been busy developing a data education programme for students in further education or sixth form.

Navigating numbers: how data are used to create statistics includes a series of five classroom toolkits, exploring topics such as gender pay gaps, inflation, and health.

Created with the support of the Association of Colleges (AoC), this learning resource is free for teachers to use and available for download on the ONS website.

The ONS’s educational webinar series: Bringing data to life

If you want to learn more about measuring the cost of living or our nation’s health, then our new webinar series has you covered. These and other topics will be brought to life in this new series of online events, launching in September 2024…(More)”

Reviving the commons: A scoping review of urban and digital commoning

Curated on Posted on by Stefaan Verhulst

Report by James Henderson and Oliver Escobar: “The review aims to contribute to the growing discourse on the commons, highlighting its significance in contemporary societies and its potential as an alternative to traditional forms of socioeconomic and political organisation via the state and/or the market. Practitioners in the field argue that we are witnessing a revival of the commons in the 21st century. This report interrogates the nature of that revival and explores key concepts, examples, trends and debates in theory and practice, while outlining an emerging research agenda…(More)”.

Advancing Data Equity: An Action-Oriented Framework

Curated on Posted on by Stefaan Verhulst

WEF Report: “Automated decision-making systems based on algorithms and data are increasingly common today, with profound implications for individuals, communities and society. More than ever before, data equity is a shared responsibility that requires collective action to create data practices and systems that promote fair and just outcomes for all.

This paper, produced by members of the Global Future Council on Data Equity, proposes a data equity definition and framework for inquiry that spurs ongoing dialogue and continuous action towards implementing data equity in organizations. This framework serves as a dynamic tool for stakeholders committed to operationalizing data equity, across various sectors and regions, given the rapidly evolving data and technology landscapes…(More)”.

A blueprint for better international collaboration on evidence

Curated on Posted on by Stefaan Verhulst

BIT Report: “…This report is focused on four countries: the U.S., the UK, Australia, and Canada and provides a series of practical ideas for investments to improve the quality and use of evidence in policy design, implementation, and evaluation. It highlights the opportunities and challenges ahead, as the demand for and supply of evidence continue to grow in a world with complex policy challenges. 

It is a call to action for governments to collaborate more closely on evidence generation and utilisation. By pooling resources and expertise, countries can bridge the existing gaps in their evidence ecosystems, ultimately leading to more informed and effective public policies. 

The main recommendation is for countries to collaborate on evidence synthesis. The most promising avenue for evidence synthesis is Living Evidence Reviews (LERs), which are systematic reviews that are continuously updated. The authors propose ‘meta’ LERs are conducted across all areas of social policy to answer the questions that really matter to policymakers…(More)”. See also: Using Living Evidence and
Visualization in the Grant Making Process

UN E-Government Survey 2024

Curated on Posted on by Stefaan Verhulst

Report by United Nations (DESA): “…provides a comprehensive assessment of the digital government landscape across all 193 Member States. The 2024 Survey highlights a significant upward trend in the development of digital government worldwide, with increased investment in resilient infrastructure and cutting-edge technologies. The global average value of the E-Government Development Index (EGDI) shows substantial improvement, with the proportion of the population lagging in digital government development decreasing from 45.0 per cent in 2022 to 22.4 per cent in 2024. Despite significant progress in digital government development, the EGDI averages for the African region, least developed countries, and small island developing States remain below the global average, underscoring the need for targeted efforts to bridge existing gaps.

At the local level, the Survey continues to assess city portals using the Local Online Services Index (LOSI). The LOSI findings reflect steady progress but also highlight persistent disparities between national and local e-government performance, pointing to the need for focused initiatives to strengthen digital government at the municipal level. This edition introduces the new Digital Government Model Framework, providing countries with a comprehensive road map for the effective planning, implementation and assessment of digital government initiatives. A short addendum explores the integration of AI in digital government development, emphasizing the importance of maximizing benefits and minimizing risks to achieve balanced governance…(More)”

Augmenting the availability of historical GDP per capita estimates through machine learning

Curated on Posted on by Stefaan Verhulst

Paper by Philipp Koch, Viktor Stojkoski, and César A. Hidalgo: “Can we use data on the biographies of historical figures to estimate the GDP per capita of countries and regions? Here, we introduce a machine learning method to estimate the GDP per capita of dozens of countries and hundreds of regions in Europe and North America for the past seven centuries starting from data on the places of birth, death, and occupations of hundreds of thousands of historical figures. We build an elastic net regression model to perform feature selection and generate out-of-sample estimates that explain 90% of the variance in known historical income levels. We use this model to generate GDP per capita estimates for countries, regions, and time periods for which these data are not available and externally validate our estimates by comparing them with four proxies of economic output: urbanization rates in the past 500 y, body height in the 18th century, well-being in 1850, and church building activity in the 14th and 15th century. Additionally, we show our estimates reproduce the well-known reversal of fortune between southwestern and northwestern Europe between 1300 and 1800 and find this is largely driven by countries and regions engaged in Atlantic trade. These findings validate the use of fine-grained biographical data as a method to augment historical GDP per capita estimates. We publish our estimates with CI together with all collected source data in a comprehensive dataset…(More)”.

Taming Silicon Valley

Curated on Posted on by Stefaan Verhulst

Book by Gary Marcus: “On balance, will AI help humanity or harm it? AI could revolutionize science, medicine, and technology, and deliver us a world of abundance and better health. Or it could be a disaster, leading to the downfall of democracy, or even our extinction. In Taming Silicon Valley, Gary Marcus, one of the most trusted voices in AI, explains that we still have a choice. And that the decisions we make now about AI will shape our next century. In this short but powerful manifesto, Marcus explains how Big Tech is taking advantage of us, how AI could make things much worse, and, most importantly, what we can do to safeguard our democracy, our society, and our future.

Marcus explains the potential—and potential risks—of AI in the clearest possible terms and how Big Tech has effectively captured policymakers. He begins by laying out what is lacking in current AI, what the greatest risks of AI are, and how Big Tech has been playing both the public and the government, before digging into why the US government has thus far been ineffective at reining in Big Tech. He then offers real tools for readers, including eight suggestions for what a coherent AI policy should look like—from data rights to layered AI oversight to meaningful tax reform—and closes with how ordinary citizens can push for what is so desperately needed.

Taming Silicon Valley is both a primer on how AI has gotten to its problematic present state and a book of activism in the tradition of Abbie Hoffman’s Steal This Book and Thomas Paine’s Common Sense. It is a deeply important book for our perilous historical moment that every concerned citizen must read…(More)”.

G20 Compendium on Data Access and Sharing Across the Public Sector and with the Private Sector for Public Interest

Curated on Posted on by Stefaan Verhulst

OECD Report: “…presents practical examples from G20 members on data access and sharing, both across the public sector and between the public and private sectors in the public interest. The report supports G20 discussions on common opportunities, enablers and challenges to strengthen data access and sharing in the public sector, as well countries’ efforts and priorities in this policy area. It has been prepared by the OECD for the Brazilian G20 Presidency in co-ordination with the Ministry of Management and Innovation in Public Services, to inform the G20 Digital Economy Working Group at its September 2024 meeting…(More)”.

Place identity: a generative AI’s perspective

Curated on Posted on by Stefaan Verhulst

Paper by Kee Moon Jang et al: “Do cities have a collective identity? The latest advancements in generative artificial intelligence (AI) models have enabled the creation of realistic representations learned from vast amounts of data. In this study, we test the potential of generative AI as the source of textual and visual information in capturing the place identity of cities assessed by filtered descriptions and images. We asked questions on the place identity of 64 global cities to two generative AI models, ChatGPT and DALL·E2. Furthermore, given the ethical concerns surrounding the trustworthiness of generative AI, we examined whether the results were consistent with real urban settings. In particular, we measured similarity between text and image outputs with Wikipedia data and images searched from Google, respectively, and compared across cases to identify how unique the generated outputs were for each city. Our results indicate that generative models have the potential to capture the salient characteristics of cities that make them distinguishable. This study is among the first attempts to explore the capabilities of generative AI in simulating the built environment in regard to place-specific meanings. It contributes to urban design and geography literature by fostering research opportunities with generative AI and discussing potential limitations for future studies…(More)”.

A Diamond in the Rough: How Energy Consumption Data Can Boost Artificial Intelligence Startups and Accelerate the Green Transition

Curated on Posted on by Stefaan Verhulst

Policy brief by David Osimo and Anna Pizzamiglio: “…explores how the reuse of energy consumption data can foster a dynamic cleantech ecosystem and contribute to achieving the goals of the European Green Deal. Drawing on insights from EDDIE, a decentralised platform that standardises data formats and enhances data management across Europe, the brief outlines five key recommendations for shifting from a focus on data regulation to fostering innovation. These recommendations include: Enhancing User Experience, Nurturing the Cleantech Ecosystem, Strengthening Data Stewardship, Clarifying GDPR Guidelines, Eliminating Barriers to the Single Market…(More)”.