Tag Archives: research
Bill Gates is naive, data is not objective
Let’s see some more example of data collection and model design not being objective:
- We see that cars are safer for men than women because the crash-test dummies are men.
- We see that cars are safer for thin people because the crash-test dummies are thin.
- We see drugs are safer and more effective for white people because blacks are underrepresented in clinical trials (which is a whole other story about power and data collection in itself).
- We see that Polaroid film used to only pick up white skin because it was optimized for white people.
- We see that poor people are uninformed by definition of how we take opinion polls (read the fine print).
via mathbabe.org
Truth and Consequences: Using the Bogus Pipeline to Examine Sex Differences in Self-Reported Sexuality, 2003
The Bank of England Gets It ??? using search data as economic indicators
From this Bank of England paper on using search data:
???In contrast to most traditional survey methods, they are collected as a by-product of normal activity, rather than requiring individuals or firms to respond to survey questions after the event. This can avoid problems associated with non-response or inaccurate responses. And it also means
that information is continually collected on a wider range of issues, rather than just on a few pre-determined questions. As a result, search data can help analyse issues that arise unexpectedly.???
via redmonk.com
This way they can tell when the economy is pregnant…
Hamish MacEwan 