Dr Iginio Gagliardone (CSLS), Mark Graham (OII) and Proochista Ariana (Dept of Public Health) launched this initiative in October 2015. Iginio is now a Senior Lecturer at the University of Witwatersrand.
The ‘big data and human development’ research network aims to investigate the potential uses of ‘big data’ for advancing human development and addressing equity gaps. We are establishing a cross-disciplinary and global network to map what data sources and techniques exist for harnessing new digital data and address persistent concerns regarding human development, inequity, exclusion, and participation. It is co-directed by Iginio Gagliardone, Mark Graham, and Proochista Ariana.
The ultimate goal of this Incubator is to stimulate policy-oriented research that seeks to understand:
- what presences and absences of data tell us about issues of participation and exclusion;
- what data tell us about gaps in human development: facilitating better decision-making and accountability in previously data-sparse environments;
- what tools have emerged globally that can maximise citizen ownership of big data.
Initially, the Incubator will build a digital observatory to assess the potentials of different data sources for informing human development, linking to relevant data and metadata. Through the use of detailed case studies, and in collaboration with end-users in some of the countries that most need to access big data, the Incubator will aim to empirically illustrate some of the promises and perils of using big data to inform human development. Finally, the Incubator will bring together research and policy from both Global North and South to ensure that methodological knowledge about big data is appropriately mapped on to the interests of stakeholders, to achieve key development outcomes. A new website has been created for the Initiative and can be accessed at : http://bigdatadevelopment.oii.ox.ac.uk/.