https://civic.mit.edu Creating Technology for Social Change Mon, 24 Feb 2020 18:43:58 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.4.2 https://civic.mit.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/28/2018/03/cropped-CivicMedia_Symbol_K_RGB-32x32.png https://civic.mit.edu 32 32 https://civic.mit.edu/2020/02/24/data-design-impact-a-workshop-on-data-sculptures-and-civic-change/ Mon, 24 Feb 2020 18:43:14 +0000 https://civic.mit.edu/?p=2636 Teaching data storytelling is difficult. The norms, “canonical” readings, and the cutting edge evolve every month! With such an evolving landscape to work within, I relish the opportunities I have to explore something new and different with students in a focused way. This past week I had the great pleasure of doing precisely that at the invitation of the FHNW Institute of Industrial Design as part of their International Design Workshop. The week, which reminded […]]]> https://civic.mit.edu/2019/09/18/what-happens-when-we-dance-our-data/ Wed, 18 Sep 2019 14:31:45 +0000 https://civic.mit.edu/?p=2569 by Victoria Palacin, Laura Perovich, Rosalie Norris, Rahul Bhargava  More and more decisions each day are made using data. Data scientists and policy makers are usually the only ones with the expertise to engage with data. If we want to empower others to find and tell stories with data, we need to create new ways to engage with information. Over the past decade, we have been exploring community engagement in a variety of creative ways, […]]]> https://civic.mit.edu/2019/09/05/thoughts-on-designing-data-sculptures/ Thu, 05 Sep 2019 19:50:22 +0000 https://civic.mit.edu/?p=2555 I’m seeing an increase of the number of people trying physical data visualizations, which I tend to call “data sculptures”, and I’m very excited about this! As more of our society is shaped by data-driven systems it is up to us to come up with more relatable and comprehensible representations of those data and processes. I believe data sculptures have a unique power in this response because of the way they engage people in space with […]]]> https://civic.mit.edu/2019/03/13/aligning-your-data-and-methods-your-mission/ Wed, 13 Mar 2019 15:29:46 +0000 https://civic.mit.edu/?p=2465 This blog post is based on a keynote I gave recently at the 2019 SSIR Data on Purpose event. Are you optimistic or pessimistic about data as a tool for good in the world? Over the last few years I’ve seen the shift in answers to this questions. People used to answer “optimistic”, but now most people indicate some mix of emotions. You’ve probably seen the Gartner hype cycle with its suggestion that a technology receives inflated […]]]> https://civic.mit.edu/2019/01/14/the-just-data-cube-at-d4bl-ii/ Mon, 14 Jan 2019 21:49:20 +0000 https://civic.mit.edu/?p=2387 We live in a world increasingly governed by algorithms. Sadly these algorithms aren’t creating a more neutral world of equitable outcomes; they are baking in historical injustices long present in society at large (1). Not surprisingly, those who are currently denied power in society are the most at-risk in this data driven future. Their voices should be amplified and set the agenda. The Data for Black Lives (twitter) organization works to bring together one communty of folks […]]]> https://civic.mit.edu/2018/09/19/hiring-gobo-lead-developer/ Wed, 19 Sep 2018 13:19:37 +0000 http://civic-homepage.wordpress.brownbag.me/?p=2243 Are you worried about the power of social media platforms? They’ve increasingly centralized and have radically altered the idea of the “web” for hundreds of millions around the globe. Black-box algorithms govern what users see on platforms like Facebook and Twitter, with no mechanisms or accountability for their real world impacts. This has led to waves of backlash against these platforms, with the media and policymakers pursuing them with pitchforks. It doesn’t have to be […]]]> https://civic.mit.edu/2018/08/22/morethancode-full-report/ Wed, 22 Aug 2018 01:42:09 +0000 http://civic-homepage.wordpress.brownbag.me/?p=2202 The Technology for Social Justice Project (T4SJ) is excited to release a new report, #MoreThanCode: Practioners Reimagine the landscape of technology for justice and equity. Download the Full Report. #MoreThanCode is a participatory action research report based on interviews, focus groups, and data analysis with 188 tech practitioners from across the U.S.A. The report explores the current ecosystem and demographics; practitioner experiences; visions and values; documents stories of success and failure; and provides key recommendations […]]]> https://civic.mit.edu/2018/04/24/building-data-capacity-roundtable-video-available/ Tue, 24 Apr 2018 13:00:36 +0000 http://civic-homepage.wordpress.brownbag.me/?p=2118 Our partners at the Stanford’s Digital Impact initiativerecently invited us to host a virtual roundtable discussion focused on building data capacity. In case you missed it, the recording and transcript are now online! We gave a quick background on the Data Culture Project. Then we tried a quick online data sculpture activity; asking participants to make and share a photo of a physical data story just using things they found around their office. From there […]]]> https://civic.mit.edu/2018/03/05/launching-the-data-culture-project/ Mon, 05 Mar 2018 11:46:16 +0000 http://civic-homepage.wordpress.brownbag.me/?p=2074 Learning to work with data is like learning a new language — immersing yourself in the culture is the best way to do it. For some individuals, this means jumping into tools like Excel, Tableau, programming, or R Studio. But what does this mean for a group of people that work together? We often talk about data literacy as if it’s an individual capacity, but what about data literacy for a community? How does an organization learn […]]]> https://civic.mit.edu/2018/01/28/hiring-a-media-cloud-researcher-community/ Sun, 28 Jan 2018 12:01:36 +0000 http://civic-homepage.wordpress.brownbag.me/?p=2064