Eos: Deluges of Data Are Changing Astronomical Science

Eos: Deluges of Data Are Changing Astronomical Science. “For scientists who study the cosmos, hard-to-grasp numbers are par for the course. But the sheer quantity of data flowing from modern research telescopes, to say nothing of the promised deluges of upcoming astronomical surveys, is astounding even astronomers. That embarrassment of riches has necessitated some serious data wrangling by myself and my colleagues, and it’s changing astronomical science forever.”

WIRED: AI Loves—and Loathes—Language

WIRED: AI Loves—and Loathes—Language. “The particular kind of data that foils AI more than anything is human language. Unfortunately, human language is also a primary form of data on the meganet. As language confounds deep-learning applications, AI—and meganets—will learn to avoid it in favor of numbers and images, a move that stands to imperil how humans use language with each other.”

LinkedIn: Your Ultimate Guide To Creating Stunning, Practical Data Dashboards

LinkedIn: Your Ultimate Guide To Creating Stunning, Practical Data Dashboards. “In this 8-part series, I’ll guide you through all you need to know to create gorgeous, highly functional data dashboards that your users will love. Whether you’re using Tableau, Power BI, Looker, or some other tool, the information I provide here will help you take your dashboard design game to the next level.”

USDA: USDA to host Data Users’ Meeting to gather public input on statistical programs

USDA: USDA to host Data Users’ Meeting to gather public input on statistical programs. “The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) will hold its biannual Data Users’ Meeting April 18 from 1-4:30 p.m. CT at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City – Omaha Branch. A virtual attendance option will also be available. The meeting is free and open to the public.”

University of New Mexico: How social media big data helps us better understand social dynamics

University of New Mexico: How social media big data helps us better understand social dynamics. “If tweets are measured in characters and a picture is worth a thousand words, what do you get when you combine and examine thousands or even millions of social media posts at once? The answer is a lot of data and researchers at The University of New Mexico use it to study social dynamics and human behavior.”

WIRED: Public Programs Are Only as Good as Their Data

WIRED: Public Programs Are Only as Good as Their Data. “Bad data is why people in the UK have been wrongly deported and accused of being illegal immigrants, as happened during the Windrush scandal. Bad data was behind a childcare benefits scandal in the Netherlands, where benefit claimants were wrongly accused of fraud because a government algorithm had been programmed to identify people with dual nationalities as more likely to commit the crime.The reality is, when it comes to collecting and analyzing national statistics, many governments around the world are severely underresourced.”

UCLA: Universities, rich in data, struggle to capture its value, study finds

UCLA: Universities, rich in data, struggle to capture its value, study finds. “Universities are literally awash in data. From administrative data offering information about students, faculty and staff, to research data on professors’ scholarly activities and even telemetric signals — the functional administrative data gathered remotely from wireless networks, security cameras and sensors in the course of daily operations — that data can be an invaluable resource. But a new study by researchers at UCLA and the MIT Press, published Dec. 23 in the journal Science, finds that universities face significant challenges in capturing such data, and that they severely lag the private sector and government entities in using data to solve challenges and inform strategic planning.”

Creative Commons: Patrick J. McGovern Foundation Funds New CC Initiative to Open Large Climate Datasets

Creative Commons: Patrick J. McGovern Foundation Funds New CC Initiative to Open Large Climate Datasets . “Today, Creative Commons (CC) is excited to announce one million US dollars in new programmatic support from the Patrick J. McGovern Foundation (PJMF) to help open large climate datasets. The twelve-month grant will enable CC to conduct key climate data landscape analyses and expand our work, bringing people together to create policy and practices to open data that advances climate research and innovation.”

Google Blog: Using new technology and old books to combat disease

Google Blog: Using new technology and old books to combat disease. “Hundreds of millions of people are affected by insect-borne diseases every year, and climate change is only making the problem worse. Increases in temperature and rainfall have expanded the range of insects, including ticks and mosquitos, contributing to outbreaks of diseases such as dengue fever, lyme disease and malaria. Where can humanity find answers to the newest challenges? One idea: old books.”

Now Playing: the CCHC Data Jam! (Library of Congress)

Library of Congress: Now Playing: the CCHC Data Jam!. “In October 2022, the Computing Cultural Heritage in the Cloud (CCHC) team held a virtual Data Jam featuring speakers from higher education, library, and museum organizations around the world who presented feedback on working with Library of Congress data in the cloud. The LC Labs team recorded our event and invite you to watch it now on the Library’s website!”

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau: Using CFPB complaint data to help cities and counties protect the public

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau: Using CFPB complaint data to help cities and counties protect the public. “We wanted to increase the impact of our complaint data by sharing it with cities and counties so they can increase their efforts to protect consumers at the local level. Engaging with local governments is a win-win for consumers and the CFPB. It helps protect as many consumers as possible from predatory lending, barriers to credit, and other consumer harms.”