20/02/14

Livestream: Big data, the open revolution and public engagement

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SciDev.Net's director, Nick Ishmael Perkins, introduces and discusses the drive for hosting the data event.

Martin Hilbert, from the UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, discusses opportunities, threats and policy challenges linked to the data revolution.

Second keynote speaker, Brad Parks from AidData, asks how can we turn the data revolution into something.

In one parallel session Alison Kennedy, from the Edinburgh Parallel Computing Centre, presents her institution's work to try to solve key issues of data policy. The discussion, moderated by Andree Carter,  from the UKCDS, touches on funding, ownership and sharing.

Claire Melamed, from the Overseas Development Institute, talks about public engagement methods and problems using the work of MyWorld as a case study.


In one of the parallel sessions William Shubert, from InterNews, presents the work of the Earth Journalism Network and the growth of geojournalism. The following discussion covers a wide range of issues including global data gathering, access and sharing, monitoring and data visualisation. Moderated by Kaz Janowski, editor at SciDev.Net.

Tim Wheeler, from the UK Department for International Development, reflects on the day and asks how can we make the data revolution sustainable?

Laurent Elder, from the International Development Research Centre, looks at the problems around data driven development featuring some interesting case studies. 

About the event

An expanded research appetite for aggregated data and concerns about unbridled inequality amid economic growth have led to ideas about a data revolution to underpin the next generation of development goals. 

    Livestreaming: Make it count

  • Our event was livestreamed on Monday 24 February 2014. We have made the sessions available to watch online
  • To view a previous session, see the links above or click here to view the YouTube playlist

The argument goes that increasing technological capacity provides greater opportunities for inclusive planning and public accountability. However, this makes various assumptions about political will, commercial interests, trends in user behaviour and the methodological and technical potential in many developing countries.

In this event, we aim to explore the various challenges behind the data revolution. To this end, we have invited a distinguished panel of speakers to shape the debate and present case studies to stimulate discussion.

If you have any questions, please enter them into the comment box at the bottom of this page or tweet us @SciDevNet.

> Click here for the full agenda and list of speakers