Click to learn more about author Michael D. Shaw. To collect data is to collate data: arranging intelligence by exercising intelligence; analyzing intelligence based on experience; applying intelligence in accord with wisdom. No algorithm can do these things well, just as no amount of artificial intelligence (AI) can supplant the wants of people to interact – to […]
Data as a Form of Personal Protective Equipment
Click to learn more about author Michael D. Shaw. When numbers benumb the senses, when what is calculable as a number is incomprehensible as a fact of life, when we can assign each life a number but cannot articulate the enormity of the total number of lives lost to COVID-19, when in the course of […]
Data and Renewable Power: A Primer on Innovation
Click to learn more about author Michael D. Shaw. More than a collection of numbers or an alphanumeric code, data is power. Data powers power itself, which is to say data is essential to increases in safe and renewable power. How engineers interpret and apply data is also essential to a renaissance in wind power. […]
Data and Creativity: A Decisive Combination
Click to learn more about author Michael D. Shaw. If we separate the signal from the noise, if we translate the signal into a simple message, the words should speak for themselves. In so many words, the message should say, “Proceed with caution.” The message is not only an admonition about data but a dictum […]
A New Decade in Data
Click to learn more about author Michael D. Shaw. We are all makers of data, and we are all users of data. We are all teachers and students of data’s influence on law and business. We are all players in a global debate about jobs, justice, and freedom. We are all participants involved in advocacy, […]
Connecting Data to Improve and Validate Healthcare
Click to learn more about author Michael D. Shaw. The future of healthcare depends on unlocking and unifying data. Today a series of silos prevents progress by separating data; these silos occur because of incompatible technology, institutional challenges, competing business interests, and conflicting governmental requirements. So much data currently is inaccessible and incomplete, but connecting […]
Data Overload Threatens to Incapacitate Our Networks
Click to learn more about author Michael D. Shaw. A data logjam threatens to undermine all manner of industries. Call it a bottleneck. Call it a snag. Call it anything you like. But do not call it a false alarm, because unless we compact data – unless we increase the flow of data –we will […]
Data and Due Process: When Algorithms Go Awry
Click to learn more about author Michael D. Shaw. Data is like statistics: a matter of interpretation. The process may look scientific, but that does not mean the result is credible or reliable. How can we trust what a person says if we deny the legitimacy of what he believes? How can we know a […]
Boosting Interest in Data by Branding the Importance of Data Literacy
Click to learn more about author Michael D. Shaw. If we can do one thing in 2019 to increase interest in data, let it be that: to increase interest by way of launching a campaign that appeals to the hearts and minds of teachers and students, of employers and employees, of experts and novices alike; […]
Detailing Data Assets with Proper Citation: A Professional Responsibility
Click to learn more about author Michael D. Shaw. We need to update Mark Twain’s distinction between figures that do not lie and liars who figure. We need the following addendum: Data may or may not be dispositive, but every piece of data (and all of our metadata) must have a citation. We need this […]