Networking by numbers RSA Connected Communities has started a new project with Nathan of the MIT Center for Civic Media to create a new, cost-effective way to measure the social impact of public services and civic interventions and to allow people to see their own personal networks. We’re designing a mobile and tablet app for recording real-life social networks: your friends, families and contacts. The open source software we build will also be useful to journalists, ethnographers and anyone trying to make sense of rapidly changing social phenomena. Here I illustrate how we are currently recording this data, and why I think it is important that we change the way that we do it. What is data? A community researcher goes door to door. Back at the RSA HQ a data entry scribe enters these reams upon reams of human data. We have found that allowing people to see their own networks and understand them allows them to feel they can change them. And so what? So over to you. Comments
OpenEducation Our Motto: "TOGETHER WE KNOW EVERYTHING" I am against education that is only available to the top 1% of all students. I am against tens of thousands of dollars of tuition expenses. - Sebastian Thrun [1] and a warning from Robert Cringely: we've reached the point in our (disparate) cultural adaptation to computing and communication technology that the younger technical generations are so empowered they are impatient and ready to jettison institutions most of the rest of us tend to think of as essential, central, even immortal. The three key aspects of Open Education are: 1) Open Content; 2) Open Instruction; 3) Open Assessment EDUCAUSE defines the range of openness to include: Open standards and interoperability Open and community source software development Open access to research data Open scholarly communications Open access to, and open derivative use of, content If education is to be transformed, these seven aspects need to be tackled concurrently [3]: The Seven C’s of Education. Also:
Big Data is Neutral: A Tool for Both Good and Evil | Think Tank What's the Big Idea? Big Data is watching you. And it's big business. Credit card companies, for instance, are selling the data about what you're consuming. So why is it that you, as the person manufacturing the data, has no say over who's using it or what they're doing with it? Smolan argues that while data creators need control over how it is used, Big Data is not inherently evil. The picture of Big Data that Smolan hopes to convey in his book is one that is "thought-provoking, disturbing and exciting." Watch here: What's the Significance? As Smolan points out, in a sense we actually do have the ability to "listen to this global heartbeat and actually sense this pattern of behavior across the planet in the course of a day." In the slideshow below, you will get a taste of how data is being used as "the most powerful tool set the human race has ever had to address the widespread challenges facing our species and our planet," as Smolan puts it. Photo credits Infographics: 23 & Me Wikileaks
All Kinds of Minds - Reach More Learners - Build Your Capacity - Our Online Modules 24/7 Access to Learning about Learning Now, teachers can develop their learning expertise anytime, anywhere with our online modules, created to help introduce educators to a few key aspects of our learning framework. These modules are based on groundbreaking research from neuroscience and other disciplines on how children learn and vary in their learning. Online Modules - Available FREE! Our online modules are designed to help teachers build or refresh their understanding of three important elements of learning: language, memory, and attention. These self-paced 2-3 hour modules incorporate audio, video, text, diagrams, and animation. NOTE: All Kinds of Minds is unable to provide completion certification to those who access the modules, which may be required by schools/districts in order to award CE credit. Ready to Learn? > Access the Language module – In this module, you'll probe receptive and expressive language. Minimum System Requirements for our Online Modules
Jaron Lanier: Why Facebook Isn't Free | Humanizing Technology What’s the Big Idea? Facebook shares start trading today, at a price that will value the company at close to $100 billion, or roughly the 2011 GDP of Sudan. The difference between this and other comparably enormous initial public offerings is that Facebook's product, or service, is free. Its business model is based on the value to advertisers of the rich data its users provide by sharing their changing interests and relationship networks in real time. The "big data" that Facebook and other networks gather is especially valuable because of its level of detail. Jaron Lanier, a virtual reality pioneer (widely credited with inventing the term 'virtual reality'), musician, author of You Are Not A Gadget, and vocal opponent of what he sees as the widespread social conformity and economic unsustainability of Web 2.0, sees a hidden cost in the "free" services of the social web. Video: Jaron Lanier wants to see new technologies creating jobs and wealth, rather than undermining them.
Free Online Course Materials | Courses Letting Grow UPDATE: #LettingGrow is now over (explanation here) Thanks for the donations! TL;DR version: I’m raising money for cancer research in 2013. I’ve shaved my head and beard and won’t be cutting either until 2014. You can donate here: justgiving.com/letting-grow (I’m aiming to raise £7,866 – or one pound for every Twitter follower I had on 01/01/2013!) We’ve had better Christmases. The week before the big day our one year-old daughter tripped, fell and gashed her head. Then, on Christmas Eve she vomited. When you’re ill with something like a vomiting bug it’s comforting to know that in a few days you’ll be back to normal. Let’s beat cancer in our lifetime. Usually I trim my hair and beard about once a week. Every time I write a blog post I’ll update the photograph of myself here as well as my avatar on Twitter. So, if you or someone you know has been affected by cancer, please do what you can: >>> <<<
100 Incredible Lectures from the World's Top Scientists Posted on Thursday June 18, 2009 by Staff Writers By Sarah Russel Unless you’re enrolled at one of the best online colleges or are an elite member of the science and engineering inner circle, you’re probably left out of most of the exciting research explored by the world’s greatest scientists. But thanks to the Internet and the generosity of many universities and online colleges, you’ve now got access to the cutting edge theories and projects that are changing the world in this list below. If you’re looking for even more amazing lectures, check out our updated list for 2012 with more talks from great minds. General Let the world’s top scientists explain exactly how they do their job when you listen to these lectures. Science and Engineering From materials science to the study of thermodynamics, learn more about the science of engineering here. WTC Lecture – collapse of WTC Buildings: Steven E. Biology and Medicine Chemistry Physics and Astronomy Earth and Environment Technology Science and Business
About We help individuals and businesses to get, clean, visualise, analyse and manage data from thousands of sources. For science, journalism, lead generation—whatever you need. The magic happens via “tools” running on our self-service platform. But we also offer managed services for corporate customers who want to make the most of their public and private data. Our team Francis Irving CEO A technology leader, Francis created the original TortoiseCVS, which has improved version… More » control for tens of millions of people. Dr Ian Hopkinson Senior Data Scientist 8 years as an academic soft matter physicist, then research scientist at Unilever Plc for 8 years… More » with experience of numerical models, simulations, data analysis, visualisation, image processing using Matlab, R and Python amongst other technologies. Dave ‘Dragon’ McKee Data Scientist Paul Furley Data Scientist Dr Steven Maude Data Scientist Aine McGuire CMO Aidan McGuire Business Development Director David Jones First Engineer Thanks
Shock the System | Startl British Library Labs - BL Collections Labs projects leverage existing digital content which has been produced or acquired for our collections. That is to say additional digitisation activities will not be taken up or funded via Labs. For some example collections, content and even some ideas from the curators about how these collections could be used, we have grouped them according to type (see the menu on the left), but do get in touchwith us with questions about others that aren't listed and Labs will look into it. Intellectual property Like most libraries of our size, our digitised collections are the result of thousands of small and large digitisation projects and thus come with a patchwork of historical copyright and licensing terms which can flummox even the most determined researchers! Other digital collections / data to be used with Labs
Social Media Analytics Online social media represent a fundamental shift of how information is being produced, transferred and consumed. The present tutorial investigates techniques for social media modeling, analytics and optimization. First we present methods for collecting large scale social media data and then discuss techniques for coping with and correcting for the effects arising from missing and incomplete data. We proceed by discussing methods for extracting and tracking information as it spreads among the users. Then we examine methods for extracting temporal patterns by which information popularity grows and fades over time. Visit the tutorial website at Would you like to put a link to this lecture on your homepage?
Your Right to Data Say That You Know Your Rights Usually the law does not require that you mention the access to information law or freedom of information act, but this is recommended because it shows you know your legal rights and is likely to encourage correct processing of the requests according to the law. We note that for requests to the EU it’s important to mention that it’s an access to documents request and it’s best to make a specific mention of Regulation 1049/2001. Keep it Simple In all countries, it is better to start with a simple request for information and then to add more questions once you get the initial information. Keep it Focused A request for information only held by one part of a public authority will probably be answered more quickly than one which requires a search across the entire authority. Think Inside the Filing Cabinet Try to find out what data is collated. Be Specific Before you submit your request, think: is it in any way ambiguous? Submit Multiple Requests Do a Test Run
Welcome to the School of Data Handbook The School of Data Handbook is a companion text to the School of Data. Its function is something like a traditional textbook – it will provide the detail and background theory to support the School of Data courses and challenges. The Handbook should be accessible to all learners. It comes with a Glossary explaining the important terms and concepts. If you stumble across an unexplained term or a concept that requires more explanation, please do get in touch. The Handbook will guide you through the key stages of a data project. Processing stages for data projects While there are many different types of data, almost all processing can be expressed as a set of incremental stages. An introduction to the data pipeline Acquisition describes gaining access to data, either through any of the methods mentioned above or by generating fresh data, e.g through a survey or observations.