Showing posts with label data. Show all posts
Showing posts with label data. Show all posts

October 20 - World Statistics Day

Posted October 20, 2020

(Celebrated every five years)

This United Nations day - which is only celebrated every five years - this year has the theme "Connecting the World with Data We Can Trust."

It's only the third World Statistics Day (the first was in 2010). In 2015 the theme was "Better data, better lives." 


I like the intent here. We can only make good decisions if we consider facts and evidence - in other words, data. We can only learn from the past by consulting data.

And, crucially, we can only reach a consensus if we share the same set of "facts." Obviously, carefully collected evidence-based data is factual - but there are "statistics" and "data" presented as if they were facts that are actually misinformation or disinformation. People making up lies that work in their favor, or people fudging experimental results for the sake of pleasing whoever is funding the research, or people tossing out bunches of data points that don't fit with the preferred narrative - the results of these kinds of shenanigans - even if they are dressed up with the language of statistics - are not factual. There is no such thing as "alternative facts." 
 


It is good for everyone if we develop trust for organizations and journalists that deal with real data and true information. I'm not sure how to get there - but we need "data we can trust"!

The Internet Society has an important motto: "The data-driven world doesn't run on data; it runs on trust."





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January 22 – Data Innovation Day

Posted on January 22, 2015
Yes, this is really how we used to do
research. Not only did we have to get
somehow to a library, we even had to
crouch down, often, to flip through
all those tiny cards!
It has never been so easy to get information as it is now. I remember growing up without the internet. I remember having to wait for my parents to take me to the nearest library (not VERY near!), having to look up books in the card catalog that was drawers and drawers of physical cards, having to find the books on the shelf – and often being disappointed because they were NOT there – and still having to wade through tables of contents, indexes, and pages and pages of text to find the information.

Now, of course, I google using a few key words or a full sentence of ordinary English. Even before I stop typing, the answer or a great source for the answer pops up.

Information, information everywhere!

Of course, one of the problems with modern times is that there is TOO MUCH information! Sometimes it is hard to find the fact you need among all the quadrillions of facts and of course all the MISinformation. Yikes! Now, we don't have to be sleuths tracking down information, but we have to be CIA analysts comparing various stories and trying to suss out the truth!

The people at Data Innovation have announced that today will be a great meeting-of-minds of the people who are trying to invent the next big steps in making accurate data available and ever more easily accessible.

Here are a few topics for the day's virtual meeting:

  • Open Data, Civic Hacking, and Data-Driven Government
  • Wearables, Sensors, and the Internet of Things
  • Visualization
  • Startups and Entrepreneurship

Sounds interesting, right?


I only have time to research one of these topics, right now, so I decided to look into wearables. In other words, wearable technology.

Wearables began in the 1980s with the calculator watch.

Some more recent, but still fairly early, wearables include Bluetooth headsets hidden in a pair of earrings, the Spy Tie with its hidden camera, and USB hand-warmer gloves.


Five years ago beanies and headbands with phones stitched inside them allowed snowboarders and other athletes to stay connected, hands-free. Wearable technology also allows athletes to monitor and get realtime feedback about their heart rates and other stats.


Here's an intriguing one: A do-it-yourself way to show your latest posting on Twitter on your ordinary clothing is called Pocket Tweets! Wow! That's pretty cool!


And Loud Tweets is a LED name badge type thingie that has been changed into a wearable: your latest tweet scrolls across the small screen, for all to see.




I guess you have probably also heard of Google glasses?


Wearables are a booming industry, apparently, and are predicted to become more and more widely created and sold in the decade to come!

It's probably no surprise that Apple is
innovating in the wearables field. This
is one design for an iWatch.


Also on this date:


Choreographer George Balanchine's birthday  






























Plan ahead:

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