Communities are swimming in data–demographic data, participation data, government data, social media data–but very few understand what to do with it. Though governments and foundations are creating open data portals and corporations are creating APIs, these rarely focus on use, usability, building community or creating impact. So although there is an explosion of data, there is a significant lag in data literacy at the scale of communities and individuals. This creates a situation of data-haves and have-nots. But there are emerging technocultural practices that combine participation, creativity, and context to connect data to everyday life. These include citizen science, data journalism, novel public engagement in government processes, and participatory data art. 

Leture will take place on the University of Iowa campus, in the Minnesota Room, Iowa Memorial Union (Rm 347)

Catherine D’Ignazio, Assistant Professor of Civic Media and Data Visualization at Emerson College, will survey these practices and her own experiments, as she reflects on premises, aspirations, and challenges to creating citizens who are truly empowered by data.