1) The document discusses lessons learned from DataKind's work using data to solve social problems over the past 3 years. 2) Some key lessons included celebrating all outcomes, whether intended or not; working with social organizations instead of just focusing on data; and ensuring the problem is well-framed and data is relevant. 3) Successful data for good projects require a partnership between social actors and data experts to identify a well-defined problem, relevant data sources, and solutions that are impactful but also understandable.

1. Rishi Nalin Kumar
Chapter Lead, DataKind UK
Data Innovation Summit
March, 30 2017
#DIS2017
Data for Good @DataKind
Lessons from the Frontline

3. The art and science of using proprietary data
to solve high value commercial problems
@rishi_nk @
€
Data for business

4. Data for business
People have a job to do data can help
them do it
 Faster
 Better
 With greater impact and
 Less resource
€
@rishi_nk @

5. And it works!
@rishi_nk @

6. … using those same techniques to
tackle societal challenges with any relevant
data to that problem
Data for good
@rishi_nk @

8. 3 years of learning by doing

9. 1. Celebrate all outcomes
Before After

10. Use anonymized question
data from citizens to
systematically establish new
emerging areas and
categories of societal concern
Set out to We ended up with
Zero hour contracts
What to expect when data for good’ing

11. Use open company ownership
data to understand how
complex company structures
are being used to support
corruption
Set out to We ended up with
What to expect when data for good’ing

12. Use anonymized hospital &
child hospice data with open
demographic data to discover
up to 3,500 children who are
in need of hospice care
Set out to We ended up with
What to expect when data for good’ing

13. How can we use data to have a real impact on
peoples lives?
Units of “good”

14. 2. Work with not for

16.  Seeking out and partnering with social actors
 Target real world impact by focusing on joint
interests
 Bringing non-data people along with us
Work with not for means

17. ≠+
Social actor
partner
Good projectGood cause
1.
3. Good cause ≠ good project

18. Small Data Big Data
We need data about societal problems

19. http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=78948
We know we need to
talk about it
We don’t really know
what to talk about
We know the
consequences are
going to be severe
If data is the new oil….
… privacy is the new climate change

20. Well-framed
problem
SELECT *
FROM World
WHERE company is corrupt or damages environment
We need a well-framed real world problem
Relevant
Data

21. Complex enough to
solve the problem
Simple enough to
be understood
We need a marriage of minds

22. Social actor
Partner
Relevant
Data
Well-framed
Problem
Ideal data for good
projects have …
Simple (enough)
Solution
+ + +

23. What’s next for us?

26. @datakind