Gran’s Christmas Charity

Every year, my Gran asks for a charity for Christmas. It’s a great challenge. As with any good present, it requires effort and thought as it needs to both pique my Gran’s curiosity but also be in support of a good cause. This year, Gran is going to get Datakind.

I learned about Datakind at import.io’s Big Data Debate in London this week. Speakers were asked to identify those sectors they deemed most likely targets of the big data change agent. Of those identified, I found Duncan Ross’ conclusion that the charitable sector, a “sector with a data-history that is virtually untouched,” the most interesting, prescient, and compelling.

Duncan mentioned his involvement at Datakind. Datakind is about data for social good. It is about data for decisions about the world we want to see rather than data for the movies on your Netflix playlist. It’s a voluntary cause: as with Gran’s gift, your biggest gift could be your skills, your thought and your time.

If you believe that data science can be applied to solve the world’s biggest challenges and play a role in critical humanitarian problems rather than just finding cheap pairs of ugg boots, you might like to learn more on Datakind’s web-site or watch the TEDx Talk now.