Solving the data conundrum: How to leverage tech and ‘big data’ for impact | Devex


In recent years, both the volume and number of data sources have increased at unprecedented rates: In fact, a staggering 90 percent of the data that currently exists today was created in the last two years, according to technology and innovation giant IBM.From combing phone subscription records to estimate population density and poverty levels, to analyzing tweets to predict a pending food crisis, emerging technology and the availability of “big data” sources offers global development and humanitarian aid

Source: Solving the data conundrum: How to leverage tech and ‘big data’ for impact | Devex

Open Data’s Impact – The Govlab

Recent years have witnessed considerable enthusiasm over open data. Several studies have documented its potential to spur economic innovation and social transformation, and to usher in fresh forms of political and government accountability. Yet for all the enthusiasm, we know little about how open data actually works, and what forms of impact it is really having.

This report seeks to remedy that informational shortcoming. Supported by Omidyar Network, the GovLab has conducted 19 detailed case studies of open data projects around the world. The case studies were selected for their sectoral and geographic representativeness. They were built in part from secondary sources (“desk research”), but also from a number of first-hand interviews with important players and key stakeholders. They are presented at length, in narrative format, on an online repository, Open Data’s Impact (odimpact.org). In this paper, we consider some overarching lessons that can be learned from the case studies and assemble them within an analytical framework that can help us better understand what works, and what doesn’t, when it comes to open data.

Open data is changing the world – International Open Data Conference 2016


The Open movement is revolutionizing society due to the several impact levels of the open models. The first key change is the open knowledge. The term open knowledge embrace a series of principles and initiatives headed to contribute to free access to information, researching and learning production, based on TIC as a way of transmission. Nowadays developed countries not only limit themselves to accept the solutions offered from EE.UU, Europe or the World Bank but they inspire and share their knowledge and good practices to learn through the dynamics of open knowledgeOn this sector another dynamic factor is the open help, a way in which development institutions nowadays are opening to the public scrutiny of the projects they finance. This is a huge advance in transparency and accountability in the social sector

Source: Open data is changing the world – International Open Data Conference 2016

How Open Data and Investigative Journalism Can Beat Corruption – Follow the Money


Criminals can’t predict the future of open data. Transparency is the natural enemy of international organized crime gangs and corrupt officials. Opaque systems allow them to thrive. And some of them go to great lengths to disguise their wrongdoing, using financial and company structures that span the world.At OCCRP, we’ve found and exposed networks of companies based in New Zealand, with bank accounts in Riga, Latvia, that were transferring money to companies set up in the US state of Delaware, Cyprus or the United Kingdom. In turn, these companies owned bank accounts in yet other jurisdictions.

Source: Follow the Money: How Open Data and Investigative Journalism Can Beat Corruption | Global Investigative Journalism Network

Vice President Biden Launches Open Access Data Resource as Part of Cancer Moonshot | whitehouse.gov

“This is good news in the fight against cancer. With the launch of this new national resource, anyone can freely access raw genomic and clinical data for 12,000 patients – with more records to follow. Increasing the pool of researchers who can access data and decreasing the time it takes for them to review and find new patterns in that data is critical to speeding up development of lifesaving treatments for patients.”

-Vice President Joe Biden

Making a decade’s worth of progress in five years in the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of cancer – the goal of the Cancer Moonshot launched by the President in his 2016 State of the Union Address and led by Vice President Joe Biden – will take all resources possible, and data is a particularly valuable one.

Today, in support of making research data freely accessible, the Vice President will visit the University of Chicago to mark the public release of the National Cancer Institute’s (NCI) Genomic Data Commons (GDC), a first-of-its-kind public data platform for storing, analyzing, and sharing genomic and associated clinical data on cancer. The GDC creates a foundational system for broad sharing and analysis of tumor genome sequences (the DNA unique to cancer cells), which is critical for advancing the field of precision medicine and improving the care of cancer patients, and is designed with appropriate privacy and security protections.

Source: FACT SHEET: Vice President Biden Launches Open Access Data Resource as Part of Cancer Moonshot | whitehouse.gov