The title of this week’s blog post quotes an Innovation Salzburg flyer that caught my eye at a conference recently. I haven’t said much in this blog about my current work life, but since work is what brought me to Salzburg (I took the photo above while I was there) for International Data Week, and since I tend to say very little about that part of my life, generally, I’ll say a few words here.
There’s so much that can be said about — and done with — data (arguably, an infinite number of things). And we generate so much data: data on how we spend our time and money, data from our movements and actions in the world and online, data from work life and personal life, data on so many aspects of how we live … to how we die.
I’ll nerd out here, just a little, for a minute (no more than that, I promise).
In looking at how and why data are collected, used, protected, analysed and shared, I think it’s important to note that research conducted at a university is subject to university policy. In Canada, for example, this includes policy on the ethical conduct of research and involves a university’s Research Ethics Board (if you’re curious, this is one example of a university FAQ page on research ethics). While these kinds of frameworks for ethical conduct of research and ethical use of data are not flawless in preventing misuse of data, as the FAQ page linked above can show, the rigour and standards that university-based research aims to maintain and uphold are noteworthy and significant.
So … my few words on data for this blog post are these: whatever data you give away, whatever data are presented to you, please take a moment to consider what you may or may not know about the purpose(s) and the source(s).
a few words ... from Montréal 