Data Reflections

‘Black people live the estrangement that science fiction writers imagine.’

― Greg Tate (US writer, musician, and founding member of the Black Rock Coalition)

The spread of the Coronavirus has caught many countries unprepared, and there has not been a unified response to the mounting threat. Governments around the world began targeting those they feel are responsible for the crisis. Enemies were numerous. Some were invisible, some were foreign citizens coming from Coronavirus hotspots, and others were disobedient co-nationals.

Frequency of reference to digital technology during the High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development

Statistics show that 821 million people were undernourished in 2017 and over half of schools in Sub-Saharan Africa lack access to the Internet. With 11 years remaining until 2030, the year most sustainable development goals (SDGs) targets have to be achieved, the international community needs to make a stronger push on the SDGs.

In the debates surrounding the sustainable development goals (SDGs), a huge emphasis has been placed on having the right kind of data in working towards the global goals. We are encouraged to ‘measure what we treasure’ to achieve the 2030 development agenda and to have appropriate policies in place.

Developments in AI, IoT and smart devices, and other data‑heavy applications have led to a major increase in data traffic.

Last Friday, the German newspaper Die Zeit organised its third Artificial Intelligence (AI) conference. I was born in Germany and have just moved back after a nine-year stint in Great Britain, so I went to get my first direct impression of the country’s relationship to AI and to hear debates about digital politics in general.

As someone who has worked in public diplomacy since 2011, I do not remember a time when public diplomacy did not also mean digital diplomacy and, consequently, some manner of data diplomacy. From the beginning, the data we gleaned from social media was heavily dependent on what the social media platforms were willing to provide us with. In terms of data storage and data analytics, institutions need to put a great deal of trust in the data that social media platforms provide. Here are three issues which are crucial for institutions when working with social media and data sets:

‘If we are not counted, we do not count, and we remain invisible’

- Representative of the Stakeholder Group of Persons with Disabilities

The increasingly digitalised world, the sharing economy, and the ongoing developments in automation and AI bring changes to the world of work. Several reports and studies released this month shed light on how these changes could look, how employers and employees perceive them, and what stakeholders can do to better prepare for the new world of work.