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Python is new favorite!

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Getting Started with Python in Visual Studio Code | Python with VSCode

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Volunteer at FFEN

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“We travel, some of us forever, to seek other places, other lives, other souls.” – Anais Nin

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Born and brought up in India, Completed undergrad in CS and started to work in a leading IT firm.

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Born and brought up in India, Completed undergrad in CS and started to work in a leading IT firm.

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#FlattenTheCurve
#StaySafeStayHome #Covid19

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Cooking and Baking is my hobby.

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Exploring more about "Data science for Humanitarian"

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It isn't a good idea for Facebook to suddenly open up their databases for public access. It's an equally bad idea for Google to share all of their private user information. To be clear, open data isn't meant for all platforms.

The best use of open data is between governments and their people.

Here's the story :

Open Data Starts Conversations

Buenos Aires uses their open data platform to inform the public about what the government is doing. They've made interesting reports with data visualizations to present important information to their citizens. They even created an interactive tool to help the public understand how the government allocates funds for the quarterly budget.

"The budget reflects what the State does with the resources it obtains from all citizens. It is important to communicate how these funds are used to stimulate participation, optimize controls and improve the level of public discussion." -Buenos Aires Ciudad (translated from Spanish)

Open Data Fights Crime

In Cali, Colombia the open data platform has allowed companies like DataPico to create tools that inform the public about crime distribution in their city.

I even used the open data platform myself when I was living in Cali to inform the public about where homicides are most likely to occur in their city.

This visual was created using data provided by Cali's open data platform

Predictive policing is a good example of how data can be used to fight crime. While there are some important problems with predictive policing that will need to be addressed before this system is adopted by governments, the National University in Bogotá, Colombia is already working on a three year plan to utilize data to police the city more efficiently. The goal is to reduce crime.

Open Data Fights Violence

When data becomes public, it is easier to share harsh realities with large audiences. Vox is a great example of a platform that provides information to the public through data visualization. In this story, Vox used data from entities in the USA to raise awareness about gun violence.

Remember that data science provides an "ability to understand the world in an objective way". News outlets tend to present data analyses subjectively to the public. The beauty of open data is that raw numbers are objective. Open data provides the public access to the source of information, which allows everyone to draw their own conclusions.

This tool is a great example of how violence can be visualized objectively in the city of Cali. Data visualizations lead to public awareness.

Open Data Fights Corruption

When governments are forced to open their data, it becomes harder to hide corruption. Some examples of this:

The Buenos Aires government providing their budget allocation to the public holds them accountable to spend the budget accurately.

USA Police officers who are required to wear body cameras while on duty are held accountable to be honest in court.

The use of open data to identify corrupt contracts in Mexico holds the government accountable to stop using bribery as a business transaction.

Figure 2 outlines this process. When there is public awareness, a conversation begins between the government and the public. Conversations lead to collaboration. Collaboration allows governments to work with their citizens to create progress.

Progress builds trust between people and their government.

Trust is incredibly important for countries with a history of corruption. The Corruption Perception Index (CPI) of a country is an annually collected index that measures how corrupt citizens perceive their government to be. CPI is directly correlated to per capita GDP.

When citizens trust that their government is less corrupt, GDP rises. Just one unit of gained CPI has been proven to increase average per capita GDP by 1.7% annually. Perception of corruption is highly influential in developing economies.

TLDR: building trust between governments and citizens is very important. Open data helps to do this.

What is standing in the way?

The major obstacle for open data is that it only works when everyone participates. I discuss this issue further in this article.

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How To Use Data Science For Social Impact

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It isn't a good idea for Facebook to suddenly open up their databases for public access. It's an equally bad idea for Google to share all of their private user information. To be clear, open data isn't meant for all platforms. The best use of open data is between governments and their people.

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Aspiring to write my own data science blog sooner...

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By now I have stayed in India, South Africa and USA. Living in multiple countries and meeting new people is total fun!!!

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By now I have stayed in India, South Africa and USA. Living in multiple countries and meeting new people is total fun!!!