April 29, 2013 at 7:05 am
Bono probably isn't the best example of charity, considering his business practices of tax avoidance.
April 29, 2013 at 7:49 am
chrisn-585491 (4/29/2013)
Bono probably isn't the best example of charity, considering his business practices of tax avoidance.
Seriously? Taxes != charity, regardless of what miniscule percentage of them might go to public programs. If you haven't put in the legwork and raised the money that he has, then you have zero room to criticise.
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How best to post your question[/url]
How to post performance problems[/url]
Tally Table:What it is and how it replaces a loop[/url]
"stewsterl 80804 (10/16/2009)I guess when you stop and try to understand the solution provided you not only learn, but save yourself some headaches when you need to make any slight changes."
April 29, 2013 at 7:56 am
I've worked with a few non-profits and the smallers ones always have volunteer technical assistance for building and running websites. Data management is almost always the most manual and work intensive. The opportunities are definitely out there.
Thought I'd put it out there before the train got too far off the tracks. 🙂
April 29, 2013 at 8:29 am
Larry Aue (4/29/2013)
I've worked with a few non-profits and the smallers ones always have volunteer technical assistance for building and running websites. Data management is almost always the most manual and work intensive. The opportunities are definitely out there.Thought I'd put it out there before the train got too far off the tracks. 🙂
There be no tracks here, this an off-roadin' train! Woohoo! :-D:hehe:
Our particular skillset(s) can be life-savers to the folks trying to do the work. People will do what needs to be done to get the work done, but sometimes you can save them hours if not weeks of time over the long haul. I need to get more involved myself, so that my son grows up thinking this is just something that you do, not that it's an edge case. Thanks for the reminder Steve!
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How best to post your question[/url]
How to post performance problems[/url]
Tally Table:What it is and how it replaces a loop[/url]
"stewsterl 80804 (10/16/2009)I guess when you stop and try to understand the solution provided you not only learn, but save yourself some headaches when you need to make any slight changes."
April 29, 2013 at 8:32 am
There are lots of opportunities. This past weekend was on in CO: http://coloradogivecamp.org/
Feel free to participate or organize your own in your area.
April 29, 2013 at 9:01 am
"Factivism" is fine as long as you use the "true" facts and not skewed facts. As we all know, the "facts" can be twisted and manipulated into whatever you want them to say. Just look at our current administration, they are the masters at skewing the facts, and a lot of people buy them hook, line and sinker.
April 29, 2013 at 9:04 am
riously? Taxes != charity, regardless of what miniscule percentage of them might go to public programs. If you haven't put in the legwork and raised the money that he has, then you have zero room to criticise.
If you haven't researched Bono's business actions in detail, (facts) and don't know the feelings of many of his countrymen about said actions, then you are free to idolize him. Since much charity is tax deductable and some taxes are used for the greater good, in many cases, taxes can be considered charity.
If you really want to examine facts, there's a "wealth" of information "freely" available from Data.gov, which Steve links too. You might want to stay away from some of the long term economic data, it's quite disturbing to many people's world view. But there are a lot of data sets that are great for developing skills with.
April 29, 2013 at 10:00 am
I love the comments about any particular gov't or political party. "Current administration", what a joke as in which political party doesn't skew the facts? I also am a Factivist. I try to use good data based on my ethical beliefs to form political decisions (at least when possible). It's very interesting what you get when you do that. Of course I spend too much time researching my facts and not learning more about SQL server and other dev tools!
April 29, 2013 at 10:04 am
milzs (4/29/2013)
"Factivism" is fine as long as you use the "true" facts and not skewed facts. As we all know, the "facts" can be twisted and manipulated into whatever you want them to say. Just look at our current administration, they are the masters at skewing the facts, and a lot of people buy them hook, line and sinker.
What's a true fact? What you believe in? Or what you support? Or what's supported by other research? It's easy to complain, and very hard to actually put up a fact that isn't easily disputed to some extent by whoever disagrees.
I'm not defending this, or any other administration, or even activist's view. What I want is the data behind any facts or quotes being available. I'd like people to take contrarian views and debate and discuss the particular situation.
April 29, 2013 at 10:49 am
I'm not sure if you linked to this or not, but here is a wonderful video presentation titled "Stats that will reshape your world view". The video is as much about how to use stats to shape one's world view at the stats themselves. The video is dramatic and includes information about freely available software which you can use yourself to make your stats interesting and digestible.
http://www.ted.com/playlists/77/new_to_ted.html
That said, it should be noted that humans (like most animals I would guess) need emotions to make decisions. For example, we know that people with brain injuries who are cut off from their emotional centers have trouble making even the most basic of decisions. (Is it time to go to bed? Should I brush my teeth?) My point is: Stats can help inform our emotions, but we should not forget that the stats by themselves do not do the work. A presentation, while helped along by good data presented well, needs to engage emotions to be effective.
April 29, 2013 at 1:27 pm
I'd refer to what Bono speaks of as "datavisim" though it doesn't have the same catchy moniker. As some have pointed out, what some call "facts" are really just conclusions about the particular data involved. Multiple people can look at the exact same data and derive totally different conclusions - and that's WITHOUT worrying about politics or causes. Some conclusions are appropriate, some less so, and as Steve quite correctly points out having access to the underlying data can help cross check conclusions.
Even then there can be issues with data as in is this accurate data? Is it complete data? Is it data that is appropriate for whatever conclusions are drawn? Is it appropriate data to even USE for a given purpose? Is there other data not present which affects the conclusions?
This isn't to say we CAN'T draw conclusions from data, just that great care needs to be taken. I've noticed an increasing tendency across the political spectrum for a kind of "technocratic religiosity" in that data (or more correctly conclusions drawn from data) are being used as brickbats to lessen or even silence opposition. Shades of groupthink.
Leaving the philosophical realm behind, I've done volunteer work for non-profits and even local governments to help them manage thier data. It is definitely a field where opportunity abounds and regardless of political persuasion can be an opportunity to light the proverbial candle in the darkness. Even something as simple as a contact management solution or possibly a data warehouse to track and analyze donations or expenses can make a huge difference.
And sometimes it's just fun to take a dataset and play around with it for no particular reason other than to learn. Kind of like the guy who "pinged the Internet" just for fun.
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Just my $0.02 from over here in the cheap seats of the peanut gallery - please adjust for inflation and/or your local currency.
April 30, 2013 at 10:55 am
There are facts and then there is narrative. Politicians, the media, and activists are more concerned with the narrative, because that's what gets their point across to the audience. However, these perceived experts are often times wrong.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2013/04/19/177999020/episode-357-how-much-should-we-trust-economics
http://www.npr.org/blogs/13.7/2013/04/29/179853272/elegance-trumps-ethics-in-a-scientific-scandal
http://www.amazon.com/Wrong-us-Scientists-relationship-consultants/dp/B005DI6QAM
In this age of web publishing, there is no reason why the actual data ostensibly used as the basis for a research paper, news story, or political position can't be made readily available to the reader, and it often times is provided. However, the general public doesn't know how to analyze large amounts of data.
I believe that where we in the data professional community can contribute the most is, not jumping on the bandwagon and promoting some cause, but rather taking on the role of validating and presentation of data, providing tools that the public can use to draw their own conclusions.
"Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise. Instead, seek what they sought." - Matsuo Basho
May 2, 2013 at 8:35 am
Great post Steve. You'd think that the idea of presenting data would be non-controversial, but there you have it.
May 6, 2013 at 8:22 am
JJ B (4/29/2013)
Nice playlist. I've only seen 2 or 3 of those, so I'll have to watch the rest.
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