Digital self-determination/Trustworthy Data

This module takes a deep dive at an organization that is explore issues of digital self-determination with real-world effects. In particular, the module looks at how to acquire a social license for data reuse through co-determination of data responsibility frameworks and the questions that matter when pursuing this work.

Background

We live in a world characterized by increased complexity. From climate change, to global pandemics, to rising and systematic inequality, there is a sense that old solutions to public problems are no longer sufficient.

The work of the Data Program at the GovLab at New York University Tandon School of Engineering begins from the premise that innovation in data collaboration, stewardship, and re-use can help address some of these problems. A wide body of evidence has irrefutably established that data can help improve our understanding of the world, tease out the root causes of various phenomena, forecast future conditions and opportunities, and evaluate and iterate on potential solutions.

Yet current practice in data re-use in the public interest is misaligned with public perceptions, not targeted at the questions that would be transformative if answered, and undertaken in the absence of a clear social license.

This module will explore new ways to engage people in co-determining:

how data should be (or should not) be re-used to address societal challenges through the convening of data assemblies—with a focus on The GovLab’s Data Assembly in New York City; and
what the key societal and community questions are that we should re-use data for - with a focus on our 100 Questions Initiative.

Video Sparks

These videos are not meant to comprehensively cover the topics. Instead, these videos are meant to spark a conversation about the ideas contained within. They often contain questions or different lenses from which to explore the week's topic. Viewers should look to the videos for ideas and from there, explore possible on their own, relevant research, videos, government documents, reports, etc that can further enhance their understanding.

Speaker	Stefaan G. Verhulst	Andrew Young	Adrienne Schmoeker	Jaclyn Sawyer	Fiona Cece
Video
Video Summary	Stefaan G. Verhulst presents the GovLab and its goal of finding new ways of bringing together two key assets, people and data, to identify key social concerns and issues, propose cross-cutting recommendations, and co-design frameworks for responsible and legitimate re-uses of data compatible with people’s expectations. In the talk, Stefaan explains the importance of co-determining both the frameworks to get a social license for data re-use and the questions that are addressed using such data. Additionally, he briefly maps multiple paths that lead from data to insights when data holders and problem owners engage in participatory, co-determining processes.	Andrew Young tells us about The Data Assembly project, “a collaboration among and between citizens, civil rights organizations, key data holders and policymakers,” that started in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 in New York City. The Data Assembly took place through a series of deliberations of three mini-publics: a group of stakeholders with experience in the practice and policies around data use and re-use; a group of civic rights and advocacy organizations (e.g., Data For Black Lives); a diverse sample of New York residents. These deliberations were structured by three “exhibits” about mobility data analysis, aggregated consumer data, and 311 data. The key output of this collaborative, deliberative work is the Responsible Data Re-Use Framework.	Adrienne Schmoeker shares her experience leading the New York City Mayor's Office of Data Analytics team, as Deputy Chief Analytics Officer. In this brief talk, she reflects on the importance of The Data Assembly in the context of the COVID-19 emergency, in which many parties were interested in getting accurate information, analyzing it, and operationalizing it quickly for the benefit of close to nine million people. Adrienne highlights the benefits of developing data partnerships, for instance, by bringing together non-city data and city analysts.	Jaclyn Sawyer reflects on the benefits of The Data Assembly and data re-use in managing the COVID-19 crisis. From her perspective as the Director of Data Services and Program Analytics at Breaking Ground, a non-profit organization that provides a spectrum of homeless outreach and housing services in New York City. Jaclyn guides us through a five-year collective process of increasing systematization and understanding of the value of the “small data” the organization collects and uses, the importance of interdisciplinarity, and the evolving meaning of data literacy in this process.	Fiona Cece presents The 100 Questions Initiative, a collaborative attempt to find out the most transformative questions that can and should be answered by data and data collaboration in specific contexts. This global effort connects hundreds of “bilinguals” (experts with domain expertise and data science knowledge) to identify, source, and cluster questions on the subjects of migration, gender, air quality, the future of work, disinformation, governance, and food systems sustainability. The methodology uses online voting by the bilinguals and the larger public for the prioritization of the questions.

Activity

In the original sprint, we did not have new artifacts to build for this week but we encourage you, especially if you have been going through each of the modules, at this point to start to think about what you might contribute to the discussion on Digital Self-Determination. This can be done in several ways. You could add artifacts to some of these modules or you could edit the Wikipedia entry on Digital Self-Determination that the Digital Asia Hub and Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society's Spring 2021 Research Sprint helped to create. You can also engage in conversation with other folks on the topics in general or by using the hashtag: #DigitalSelfDetermination.

Regardless of what you do, be sure to share on Twitter or other social media platforms using the following hashtag: #DigitalSelfDetermination

Speaker Bios

Stefaan G. Verhulst

Stefaan G. Verhulst is Co-Founder and Chief Research and Development Officer of the Governance Laboratory (The GovLab) at New York University (NYU), an action research center focused on improving governance using advances in science and technology - including data and collective intelligence. He is also, among other positions and affiliations, the Editor-in-Chief of Data & Policy, an open access journal by Cambridge University Press; the research director of the MacArthur Research Network on Opening Governance; Chair of the Data for Children Collaborative with Unicef; and a member of the High-Level Expert Group to the European Commission on Business-to-Government Data Sharing. In 2018 he was recognized as one of the 10 Most Influential Academics in Digital Government globally (as part of the Top 100 in Digital Government) by the global policy platform Apolitical.

Before joining NYU full time, Verhulst spent more than a decade as Chief of Research for the Markle Foundation, where he continues to serve as Senior Advisor. Previously at Oxford University he was the UNESCO Chairholder in Communications Law and Policy for the UK where he co-founded and was the Head of the Program in Comparative Media Law and Policy, He was a Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Socio Legal Studies and the Socio Legal Fellow of Wolfson College, and is still an emeritus fellow at Oxford. He also taught several years at the London School of Economics; and was Founder and Co-Director of the International Media and Info-Comms Policy and Law Studies (IMPS) at the University of Glasgow School of Law.

He has published widely - including seven books- and is asked regularly to present at international conferences including TED. Numerous organizations have sought his counsel - including the WorldBank; IDB, USAID, DFID, IDRC, AFP, the European Commission, Council of Europe, the World Economic Forum, UNICEF, OECD, Un-OCHA, UNDP and several other international bodies.

Andrew Young

Andrew Young is the Knowledge Director at The GovLab, where he leads research efforts focusing on the impact of technology on public institutions. Among the grant-funded projects he has directed are a global assessment of the impact of open government data; the development of a principles and practices for the responsible handling of data for and about children by humanitarian and development organizations; comparative benchmarking of government innovation efforts against those of other countries; a methodology for leveraging corporate data to benefit the public good; and crafting the experimental design for testing the adoption of technology innovations in federal agencies. Andrew has authored or co-authored a number of extended works on new approaches for improving governance with technology, including the books The Global Impact of Open Data and Open Data in Developing Economies.

Fiona Cece

Fiona Cece is a Research Fellow at The GovLab and the Project Lead for The 100 Questions Initiative. At GovLab, she has also contributed to the Open Data Policy Lab’s inaugural Data Stewardship Course, among other projects that seek to leverage data and technology for public value. Prior to joining GovLab, Fiona worked in the Executive Office of the Secretary-General at the United Nations, where she helped support decision-making fora and provide country-level policy analyses for the Executive and Deputy Committee levels. Additionally, she has provided research support to The Economist Intelligence Unit for a project regarding digital well-being policies in the Middle East and North Africa region and editorial support to the Journal of Public Policy. She holds a B.A. in Economics from Barnard College and a M.Sc. in Politics and Policy Analysis from Bocconi University in Milan, Italy.

Jaclyn Sawyer

Jaclyn Sawyer is a community data specialist, currently serving as the Director of Data Services and Program Analytics at Breaking Ground, an organization that provides a spectrum of homeless outreach and housing services in New York City. In this capacity, she built and leads an interdisciplinary data team of technologists and social workers that develop software and conduct analysis, led by Design Justice principles. She lectures at Columbia University where she co-developed an emerging tech and society course for social workers to bring the missing voices into data practice and reimagine the future of work. She is deeply invested in community built and supported internet and technology projects.

Adrienne Schmoeker

Adrienne Schmoeker is the former Deputy Chief Analytics Officer for the City of New York. During her tenure with the City of New York she led the team at the NYC Mayor's Office of Data Analytics, grew the NYC Open Data Program, co-founded NYC Open Data Week and was part of the founding team in the inaugural NYC CTO's Office. Adrienne is currently advising urban tech startups, helping design data programs and consulting on government technology programs.