Online collective intelligence course aims to improve responses to COVID-19 and other crises

Curated on Posted on by Stefaan Verhulst

PressRelease: “Working with 11 partner institutions around the world,  The Governance Lab (The GovLab) at the New York University Tandon School of Engineering today launches a massive open online course (MOOC) on “Collective Crisis Intelligence.” The course is free, open to anyone, and designed to help institutions improve disaster response through the use of data and volunteer participation. 

Thirteen modules have been created by leading global experts in major disasters such as the post-election violence in Kenya in 2008, the Fukushima nuclear plant disaster in 2011, the Ebola crisis in 2014, the Zika outbreak in 2016, and the current coronavirus. The course is designed to help those responding to coronavirus make use of volunteerism. 

As the COVID-19 pandemic reaches unprecedented proportions and spreads to more than 150 countries on six continents, policymakers are struggling to answer questions such as “How do we predict how the virus will spread?,” “How do we help the elderly and the homebound?,” “How do we provide economic assistance to those affected by business closures?,” and more. 

In each mini-lecture, those who have learned how to mobilize groups of people online to manage in a crisis present the basic concepts and tools to learn, analyze, and implement a crowdsourced public response. Lectures include

  • Introduction: Why Collective Intelligence Matters in a Crisis
  • Defining Actionable Problems (led by Matt Andrews, Harvard Kennedy School)
  • Three Day Evidence Review (led by Peter Bragge, Monash University, Australia)
  • Priorities for Collective Intelligence (led by Geoff Mulgan, University College London) 
  • Smarter Crowdsourcing (led by Beth Simone Noveck, The GovLab)
  • Crowdfunding (led by Peter Baeck, Nesta, United Kingdom)
  • Secondary Fall Out (led by Azby Brown, Safecast, Japan)
  • Crowdsourcing Surveillance (led by Tolbert Nyenswah, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, United States/Liberia)
  • Crowdsourcing Data (led by Angela Oduor Lungati and Juliana Rotich, Ushahidi, Kenya)
  • Mobilizing a Network (led by Sean Bonner, Safecast, Japan)
  • Crowdsourcing Scientific Expertise (led by Ali Nouri, Federation of American Scientists)
  • Chatbots and Social Media Strategies for Crisis (led by Nashin Mahtani, PetaBencana.id, Indonesia)
  • Conclusion: Lessons Learned

The course explores such innovative uses of crowdsourcing as Safecast’s implementation of citizen science to gather information about environmental conditions after the meltdown of the Fukushima nuclear plant; Ushahidi, an online platform in Kenya for crowdsourcing data for crisis relief, human rights advocacy, transparency, and accountability campaigns; and “Ask a Scientist,” an interactive tool developed by The GovLab with the Federation of American Scientists and the New Jersey Office of Innovation, in which a network of scientists answer citizens’ questions about COVID-19.

More information on the courses is available at https://covidcourse.thegovlab.org “

New Tool to Establish Responsible Data Collaboratives in the Time of COVID-19

Curated on Posted on by Stefaan Verhulst

Announcement: “To address the COVID-19 pandemic and other dynamic threats, The GovLab has called for the development of a new data infrastructure and ecosystem. Establishing data collaboratives in a responsible manner often necessitates the creation of data sharing agreements and other legal documentation — a strain on time and capacity both for data holders and those who could use data in the public interest.

Today, to support the development of data collaboratives in a responsible and agile way, we are sharing a new tool that addresses the complexity in preparing a Data Sharing Agreement from Contracts for Data Collaboration (a joint initiative of SDSN-TReNDS, the World Economic Forum, The GovLab, and the University of Washington’s Information Risk Research Initiative). Providing a checklist to support organizations with reviewing, negotiating and preparing Data Sharing Arrangements, the intent is to strengthen stakeholder trust and help accelerate responsible data sharing arrangements given the urgency of the global pandemic.

(Please note that the check list is a tool for formulating and understanding legal issues, but we are not offering it as legal advice.)

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE TOOL (More)”.

Combating COVID-19 with Data: What Role for National Statistical Systems?

Curated on Posted on by Stefaan Verhulst

Press Release: “As part of its ongoing response to the COVID-19 crisis, PARIS21 released today a policy brief at the intersection of statistics and policy making to help inform the measures taken to address the pandemic.

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The COVID-19 pandemic has brought data to the centre of policy making and public attention. A diverse ecosystem of data producers, both private and public, report rates of infection, fatality and recovery on a daily basis. However, a proliferation of data, which is at times contradictory, can also lead to confusion and mistrust among data users.

Meanwhile, policymakers, development partners and citizens need to take quick, informed actions to design interventions that reach the most vulnerable and leave no one behind. As countries comply with lockdowns and other containment measures, national statistical systems (NSSs) face a dual effect of growing data demand and constrained supply. This in turn may squeeze NSSs beyond their institutional capacity.

At the same time, alternative data sources such as mobile phone or satellite data are in abundance. These data could potentially complement traditional sources such as censuses, surveys and administrative systems. However, with scant governance frameworks to scale and sustain their use, policy action is not yet based on a convergence of evidence.

This policy brief introduces a conceptual framework that describes the adverse effects of the crisis on NSSs in developing countries. Moreover, it suggests short and medium-term actions to mitigate the negative effects by:

1. Focusing data production on priority economic, social and demographic data.
2. Communicating proactively with citizens, academia, private sector and policy makers.
3. Positioning the NSO as advisor and knowledge bank for national governments.

NSSs contribute significantly to robust policy responses in a crisis. The brief thus calls on national statistical offices to assume a central role as coordinators of the NSSs and chart the way toward improved data ecosystem governance for informing policies during and after COVID-19….(More)”.

Open Covid Pledge

Curated on Posted on by Stefaan Verhulst

Pledge: “Immediate action is required to halt the COVID-19 Pandemic and treat those it has affected. It is a practical and moral imperative that every tool we have at our disposal be applied to develop and deploy technologies on a massive scale without impediment.

We therefore pledge to make our intellectual property available free of charge for use in ending the COVID-19 pandemic and minimizing the impact of the disease.

We will implement this pledge through a license that details the terms and conditions under which our intellectual property is made available.

How to make the Pledge

The first step for organizations wishing to make the Pledge is to publicly commit to making intellectual property relevant to COVID-19 freely available, by:

  • Posting a public statement that the organization is making the Pledge, on their website. 
  • Issuing an official press release.

And then sending us a link to this statement, a point of contact in the organization, and, at the organization’s discretion, a copy of their logo to display on this site.

How to implement the Pledge

The next step for organizations who have made the Pledge is to implement it via a license detailing the terms and conditions under which their intellectual property is made available. There are three options for doing so:

  • Adopt the Open COVID License, created by our legal team for organizations that wish to implement the Pledge simply and immediately on terms shared by many other organizations.
  • Create a custom license that accomplished the intent of the Pledge.
  • Identify existing license(s) that accomplish the goals of the Pledge.

As with making the Pledge, send us links to the license or licenses, a point of contact in the organization, and, at the organization’s discretion, a copy of their logo to display on this site….(More)”.

A guide to healthy skepticism of artificial intelligence and coronavirus

Curated on Posted on by Stefaan Verhulst

Alex Engler at Brookings: “The COVID-19 outbreak has spurred considerable news coverage about the ways artificial intelligence (AI) can combat the pandemic’s spread. Unfortunately, much of it has failed to be appropriately skeptical about the claims of AI’s value. Like many tools, AI has a role to play, but its effect on the outbreak is probably small. While this may change in the future, technologies like data reporting, telemedicine, and conventional diagnostic tools are currently far more impactful than AI.

Still, various news articles have dramatized the role AI is playing in the pandemic by overstating what tasks it can perform, inflating its effectiveness and scale, neglecting the level of human involvement, and being careless in consideration of related risks. In fact, the COVID-19 AI-hype has been diverse enough to cover the greatest hits of exaggerated claims around AI. And so, framed around examples from the COVID-19 outbreak, here are eight considerations for a skeptic’s approach to AI claims….(More)”.

Data Protection under SARS-CoV-2

Curated on Posted on by Stefaan Verhulst

GDPR Hub: “The sudden outbreak of cases of COVID-19-afflictions (“Corona-Virus”), which was declared a pandemic by the WHO affects data protection in various ways. Different data protection authorities published guidelines for employers and other parties involved in the processing of data related to the Corona-Virus (read more below).

The Corona-Virus has also given cause to the use of different technologies based on data collection and other data processing activities by the EU/EEA member states and private companies. These processing activities mostly focus on preventing and slowing the further spreading of the Corona-Virus and on monitoring the citizens’ abidance with governmental measures such as quarantine. Some of them are based on anonymous or anonymized data (like for statistics or movement patterns), but some proposals also revolved around personalized tracking.

At the moment, it is not easy to figure out, which processing activities are actually supposed to be conducted and which are only rumors. This page will therefore be adapted once certain processing activities have been confirmed. For now, this article does not assess the lawfulness of particular processing activities, but rather outlines the general conditions for data processing in connection with the Corona-Virus.

It must be noted that several activities – such as monitoring, if citizens comply with quarantine and stay indoors by watching at mobile phone locations – can be done without having to use personal data under Article 4(1) GDPR, if all necessary information can be derived from anonymised data. The GDPR does not apply to activities that only rely on anonymised data….(More)”.

Collective Intelligence at EU Level – Social and Democratic Dimensions

Curated on Posted on by Stefaan Verhulst

Paper by Nora Milotay and Gianluca Sgueo: “Humans are among the many living species capable of collaborative and imaginative thinking. While it is widely agreed among scholars that this capacity has contributed to making humans the dominant species, other crucial questions remain open to debate. Is it possible to encourage large groups of people to engage in collective thinking? Is it possible to coordinate citizens to find solutions to address global challenges? Some scholars claim that large groups of independent, motivated, and well-informed people can, collectively, make better decisions than isolated individuals can – what is known as ‘collective intelligence.’

The social dimension of collective intelligence mainly relates to social aspects of the economy and of innovation. It shows that a holistic approach to innovation – one that includes not only technological but also social aspects – can greatly contribute to the EU’s goal of promoting a just transition for everyone to a sustainable and green economy in the digital age. The EU has been taking concrete action to promote social innovation by supporting the development of its theory and practice. Mainly through funding programmes, it helps to seek new types of partners and build new capacity – and thus shape the future of local and national innovations aimed at societal needs.

The democratic dimension suggests that the power of the collective can be leveraged so as to improve public decision-making systems. Supported by technology, policy-makers can harness the ‘civic surplus’ of citizens – thus providing smarter solutions to regulatory challenges. This is particularly relevant at EU level in view of the planned Conference on the Future of Europe, aimed at engaging communities at large and making EU decision-making more inclusive and participatory.

The current coronavirus crisis is likely to change society and our economy in ways as yet too early to predict, but recovery after the crisis will require new ways of thinking and acting to overcome common challenges, and thus making use of our collective intelligence should be more urgent than ever. In the longer term, in order to mobilise collective intelligence across the EU and to fully exploit its innovative potential, the EU needs to strengthen its education policies and promote a shared understanding of a holistic approach to innovation and of collective intelligence – and thus become a ‘global brain,’ with a solid institutional set-up at the centre of a subsidised experimentation process that meets the challenges imposed by modernday transformations…(More)”.

Privacy Protection Key for Using Patient Data to Develop AI Tools

Curated on Posted on by Stefaan Verhulst

Article by  Jessica Kent: “Clinical data should be treated as a public good when used for research or artificial intelligence algorithm development, so long as patients’ privacy is protected, according to a report from the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA).

As artificial intelligence and machine learning are increasingly applied to medical imaging, bringing the potential for streamlined analysis and faster diagnoses, the industry still lacks a broad consensus on an ethical framework for sharing this data.

“Now that we have electronic access to clinical data and the data processing tools, we can dramatically accelerate our ability to gain understanding and develop new applications that can benefit patients and populations,” said study lead author David B. Larson, MD, MBA, from the Stanford University School of Medicine. “But unsettled questions regarding the ethical use of the data often preclude the sharing of that information.”

To offer solutions around data sharing for AI development, RSNA developed a framework that highlights how to ethically use patient data for secondary purposes.

“Medical data, which are simply recorded observations, are acquired for the purposes of providing patient care,” Larson said….(More)”

Coronavirus Innovation Map

Curated on Posted on by Stefaan Verhulst

“The Coronavirus Innovation Map is a platform of hundreds of innovations and solutions from around the world that help people cope and adapt to life amid the coronavirus pandemic, and to connect innovators.

The CoronaVirus Innovation Map is a visualized global database that is mapping the innovations related to tackling coronavirus in various fields such as diagnostics, treatment, lifestyle changes, etc., on a geographical scale….

Our goal with the Coronavirus Innovation Map is to build a crowdsourced resource that maps hundreds of innovations and solutions globally that help people cope and adapt to life amid the coronavirus, and to connect innovators.

This platform is a database for innovators to know who the other players are and where the projects or startups are located allowing them to connect and create solutions in this field. Policymakers will also be able to efficiently look for viable solutions in one place.

You may use the map to browse initiatives in specific locations (type a city or country in the search box), or choose a category wherein you would like to find a solution….(More)”

A Closer Look at Location Data: Privacy and Pandemics

Curated on Posted on by Stefaan Verhulst

Assessment by Stacey Gray: “In light of COVID-19, there is heightened global interest in harnessing location data held by major tech companies to track individuals affected by the virus, better understand the effectiveness of social distancing, or send alerts to individuals who might be affected based on their previous proximity to known cases. Governments around the world are considering whether and how to use mobile location data to help contain the virus: Israel’s government passed emergency regulations to address the crisis using cell phone location data; the European Commission requested that mobile carriers provide anonymized and aggregate mobile location data; and South Korea has created a publicly available map of location data from individuals who have tested positive. 

Public health agencies and epidemiologists have long been interested in analyzing device location data to track diseases. In general, the movement of devices effectively mirrors movement of people (with some exceptions discussed below). However, its use comes with a range of ethical and privacy concerns. 

In order to help policymakers address these concerns, we provide below a brief explainer guide of the basics: (1) what is location data, (2) who holds it, and (3) how is it collected? Finally we discuss some preliminary ethical and privacy considerations for processing location data. Researchers and agencies should consider: how and in what context location data was collected; the fact and reasoning behind location data being classified as legally “sensitive” in most jurisdictions; challenges to effective “anonymization”; representativeness of the location dataset (taking into account potential bias and lack of inclusion of low-income and elderly subpopulations who do not own phones); and the unique importance of purpose limitation, or not re-using location data for other civil or law enforcement purposes after the pandemic is over….(More)”.