Q&A: The UN Global Pulse director on big data’s future

Copyright: Flickr/World Bank Photo Collection

By: Imogen Mathers

We encourage you to republish this article online and in print, it’s free under our creative commons attribution license, but please follow some simple guidelines:

You have to credit our authors.
You have to credit SciDev.Net — where possible include our logo with a link back to the original article.
You can simply run the first few lines of the article and then add: “Read the full article on SciDev.Net” containing a link back to the original article.
If you want to also take images published in this story you will need to confirm with the original source if you're licensed to use them.
The easiest way to get the article on your site is to embed the code below.

For more information view our media page and republishing guidelines.

The full article is available here as HTML.

Press Ctrl-C to copy

<div class="article-wrap">
<div id="article-introduction">
<h1>Q&A: The UN Global Pulse director on big data’s future</h1>
<h4>By: Imogen Mathers</h4>
</div>
<br />
<br />

<div id="article-body">
<p><iframe loading="lazy" frameborder="no" height="450" scrolling="no" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/177982762&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&visual=true" width="100%"></iframe></p>
<p>Earlier this month saw the release of <em>A world that counts</em>, a report by UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon’s Independent Expert Advisory Group on the Data Revolution for Sustainable Development. In this audio interview, we talk to advisory group member Robert Kirkpatrick, director of Global Pulse, a UN initiative focusing on big <a href="https://www.scidev.net/enterprise/data/">data</a> for development, about the report and the challenges ahead.<br />
 <br />
Kirkpatrick explains that big data’s potential cannot be fully realised because the world still lacks international standards on how to use data in an <a href="https://www.scidev.net/governance/ethics/">ethical</a> way and protect privacy. Without this, people’s private information or sensitive details about businesses could be disclosed without permission. But if this hurdle can be overcome, public and private sector data can bring benefits and allow new types of analysis. For example, says Kirkpatrick, anonymised data could be used to find out when a community is at risk — such as when there is a rise in unemployment or illness — thus enabling action to be taken.</p>
<p>> <a href="http://www.undatarevolution.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/A-World-That-Counts.pdf">Link to <em>A world that counts</em></a></p>

</div>
<div class="quick-links-wrapper">
<h3>You might also like</h3>
[related-articles]
</div>
<p>This article was originally published on <a href="https://www.scidev.net" target="_blank">SciDev.Net</a>. Read the <a href="https://www.scidev.net/global/multimedia/un-global-pulse-director-big-data-future/" target="_blank">original article</a>.</p>
<script type="text/javascript">
(function(e,t,n,r,i,s,o){e["GoogleAnalyticsObject"]=i;e[i]=e[i]||function(){(e[i].q=e[i].q||[]).push(arguments)},e[i].l=1*new Date;s=t.createElement(n),o=t.getElementsByTagName(n)[0];s.async=1;s.src=r;o.parentNode.insertBefore(s,o)})(window,document,"script","//www.google-analytics.com/ga.js","ga");var _gaq=_gaq||[];var _gaq=_gaq||[];_gaq.push(["_setAccount","UA-3223906-8"],["_trackEvent","article interaction","republished","https://www.scidev.net/global/multimedia/un-global-pulse-director-big-data-future/",null,true])
</script>
</div>

Earlier this month saw the release of A world that counts, a report by UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon’s Independent Expert Advisory Group on the Data Revolution for Sustainable Development. In this audio interview, we talk to advisory group member Robert Kirkpatrick, director of Global Pulse, a UN initiative focusing on big data for development, about the report and the challenges ahead.

Kirkpatrick explains that big data’s potential cannot be fully realised because the world still lacks international standards on how to use data in an ethical way and protect privacy. Without this, people’s private information or sensitive details about businesses could be disclosed without permission. But if this hurdle can be overcome, public and private sector data can bring benefits and allow new types of analysis. For example, says Kirkpatrick, anonymised data could be used to find out when a community is at risk — such as when there is a rise in unemployment or illness — thus enabling action to be taken.

> Link to A world that counts