14 April 2022

Happy Easter!

Yes, that headline does show I’m struggling to come up with a pun on ‘literacy’ for my new report with the ODI, ‘Data literacy and the UK government’, thank you for asking. There’s a summary here — and references to Blackadder and Frasier here — but I hope you’ll find the whole thing useful, whether you’re interested in how the UK government approaches and what it’s doing about ‘data literacy’, or thinking about the topic in your own organisation.

I got skills, they’re multiplying: the ODI Data Skills Framework, with the left-hand side featuring ‘literacy’ components

Other bits and pieces:

• I managed to catch lots of you out with an April Fool last time out under the cover of my FOI request about Cabinet Committees. There is a genuine update this time. Tl;dr: the whole thing is still ludicrous but it looks like something will get published.
• Given that rigmarole, you’ll not be surprised that I signed an openDemocracy letter with some much more important people about our concerns with Freedom of Information and government secrecy.
• Interested in how to help civic tech better access quality information and data? You have until 24 April to apply to join the latest Action Lab (aka working group) as part of mySociety’s TICTeC Labs project. Some more background here.
• Data Bites last week was excellent. Watch the full thing here. Watch some highlights here. Explore the archive here. Details of the next one, on Wednesday 4 May, will shortly appear here.
• I’m speaking at a techUK on ‘data’s role in propelling the public sector forward’ on 27 April. Sign up here.
• I’ve blogged about the project I worked on with Public Digital and the Lisbon Council on benchmarking digital government services here.
• Scott Logic have published a write-up of a private IfG roundtable I chaired, on future frameworks for data sharing in government, here.
• I’m supporting the Royal Statistical Society with the second event in their Covid evidence sessions series, exploring the statistical resources government had available. Have views? Share them! More details here.

And finally… my choir, the New Tottenham Singers, has just announced details of our (delayed) tenth anniversary concert, featuring Mozart’s Requiem, Vaughan Williams’ ‘Serenade to Music’, Parry’s ‘I Was Glad’ and a world premiere from local composer, Christopher Wilson.

If you can make it on Saturday 18 June, please book some tickets! If you can’t but would still like to support the choir — and we really need to raise money from this concert to keep going after a challenging couple of pandemic years — you can donate the cost of some tickets instead. Thank you!

Have a good long weekend
Gavin

Enjoying Warning: Graphic Content?

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Today’s links:

Graphic content

Ukraine

• Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in maps — latest updates* (FT)
• How Kyiv Has Withstood Russia’s Attacks* (New York Times)
• Ukraine war threatens to deepen Russia’s demographic crisis* (FT)
• Russians are fewer, poorer and more miserable than a decade ago* (The Economist)
• Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is causing record-high food prices* (The Economist)
• Russia’s war in Ukraine has caused at least $68bn in physical damage* (The Economist)
• Who are Russia’s supporters?* (The Economist)
• Trending Apps in Russia and Ukraine Show Shifting Priorities During War* (Bloomberg)
• The government must rethink its resettlement programme for Ukrainian refugees (IfG)
• How the UK is trailing Europe on Ukrainian refugees* (New Statesman)

Elysee like Sunday evening

• First round of 2022 French election in charts* (FT)
• French election 2022: full live results (The Guardian)
• French Election Live Results* (Bloomberg)
• Data Vis Dispatch: French election (Datawrapper)
• How the centre-left and centre-right in France collapsed* (New Statesman)

Viral content

• Asia’s outbreaks show that Omicron is deadly in unvaccinated people* (The Economist)
• How Omicron is testing China’s zero-Covid strategy* (New Statesman)
• Shanghai residents warned about online posts over Covid lockdown* (FT)
• Is This What Endemic Disease Looks Like?* (New York Times)

UK

• A quarter of Britons paid £100,000 or more identify as “working class”* (New Statesman)
• Britain is falling harder for the myth of Molly-Mae meritocracy* (New Statesman)
• Five Years of Disclosure Have Barely Changed U.K. Gender Pay Gap* (Bloomberg)
• The rise of the UK warehouse and the “golden logistics triangle” (ONS)
• How a UK council is driving a retail revival in a deprived northern town* (FT)
• Staff turnover in the civil service (IfG)
• Should we ban anonymous sources in politics? (The Times)
• Four-day week: would you rather take Monday or Friday off? (YouGov)
• A quick round up of the Scottish baby name series (Lesley-Anne Kelly and The Courier)
• The Tories have promised to ban conversion therapy 35 times* (New Statesman)

US

• An inverted yield curve: why investors are watching closely* (FT)
• Five charts explaining why inflation is at a 40-year high* (Washington Post)
• Spiralling fuel prices add to Democrats’ woes* (The Economist)
• Why Republicans In Blue Cities Are Increasingly Outliers (FiveThirtyEight)
• How Redistricting Affects The Battle For State Legislatures (FiveThirtyEight)
• As Earmarks Return to Congress, Lawmakers Rush to Steer Money Home* (New York Times)
• Why American Teens Are So Sad* (The Atlantic)

World

• How the world’s airlines took off again* (FT)
• Which countries offer gender-neutral passports?* (The Economist)

Climate of fear

• In chilly parts of Europe, heatwaves strengthen environmentalism* (The Economist)
• Climate graphic of the week: Polar regions experience extremes as world warms* (FT)
• Highlighting the position and prominence on main German news website homepages of coverage of the latest IPCC report published yesterday (Lorenz Matzat via Andy Kirk)
• The Clean-Power Megaproject Held Hostage by a Ranch and a Bird* (Bloomberg)
• In charts: Sydney’s record-breaking 2022 rainfall (The Guardian)

Leisure

• In with the old: How radio is beating streaming at its own game* (New Statesman)
• The vehicles of James Bond (Baryon Design, via GIJN)
• How Keeping Quiet About Politics Helped Uniqlo Become China’s Favorite Fashion Brand* (Bloomberg)

#dataviz

• I posted this graph yesterday… and a few people have asked some reasonable questions about why I chose to present this data in this way (Colin Angus)

Meta data

Lit

• Data literacy and the UK government (ODI)
• Digital and data expertise are becoming must-haves for promotion, says Fast Stream head (Civil Service World)
• Digital, Tech and Data Job Description Library (LOTI)

Ukraine

• Britain’s (opaque) war on Russian propaganda (Politico)
• In Ukraine, Facebook fact-checkers fight a war on two fronts* (Washington Post)
• Information, Misinformation, Disinformation (Inside Briefing from IfG)

Information, speech, etc

• DCMS seeks social media monitoring firm to help ‘build comprehensive picture of misinformation’ (Public Technology)
• To understand impacts of partisan media on beliefs & attitudes, we paid regular Fox News viewers to watch CNN instead for ~7 hrs/week for a month. Our results should worry you. (David Broockman and Josh Kalla)
• A FACEBOOK BUG LED TO INCREASED VIEWS OF HARMFUL CONTENT OVER SIX MONTHS (The Verge)
• Elon Musk’s vision for the internet is dangerous nonsense (Robert Reich for The Guardian)
• Tory Grandee Accuses YouTube Of “Cancel Culture” After His Covid Speech Banned For Vaccine Misinformation (PoliticsHome)

Gold(acre) standard

• The Goldacre Review: Better, broader, safer — using health data for research and analysis (DHSC)
• Chapter-by-chapter analysis (Jess Morley)
• How we can finally put decades of NHS data to good use* (The Times)

Rough justice

• Technology used in the justice system is outpacing scrutiny and regulation (Lords Justice and Home Affairs Committee)
• AI researcher says police tech suppliers are hostile to transparency (Computer Weekly)
• A ‘Wild West’ of new technologies being used by police without proper scrutiny (diginomica)
• Police warned against ‘sinister’ use of facial recognition to find potential witnesses and not just suspects (Sky News)
• Let in the light to the murky reaches of the English legal system* (FT)
• UK journalists fear online magistrate hearings will mean ‘justice in the dark’ (Press Gazette)

Open for the best

• Find case law: Use this service to find, view and download judgments and tribunal decisions (The National Archives)
• Editors and MPs urge watchdog to act over escalating government secrecy (openDemocracy)
• Beyond open data: scoping city data and analytics services (Public Digital — more here)
• On April 4, say goodbye to DUNS and hello to UEI (Federal News Network)
• Partygate shows Downing Street sees transparency as a nuisance* (FT)
• Civic Tech Surgery #3: Accessing quality information for civic tech success — how can we overcome barriers to accessing good data and documentation? (mySociety)
• Welcome to Open Address File UK: Campaigning for an open address file for the UK (Open Address File)

UK government

• UK government’s recently published DDaT playbook embraces important new ideas and themes, but has a unhelpful emphasis on a linear, project-centric process (Dave Rogers)
• GDS boss puts ‘mobile-first and hyperpersonalisation’ at heart of future service transformation (Public Technology)
• Heather Wheeler takes on ministerial responsibility for GDS and CDDO (Public Technology)
• PACAC backs Sir Robert Chote for Statistics Authority chair role (Civil Service World)
• GDS extends role of Deloitte in digital identity programme (UKAuthority)
• How the Office for National Statistics is changing to make data more inclusive (The Big Issue)
• RSS responds to Covid inquiry consultation on terms of reference (Royal Statistical Society)
• Home Office’s visa service apologises for email address data breach (The Guardian)
• Departments to undergo independent audits of cyber resilience (Civil Service World)
• Report: Data sharing in Government (Scott Logic)
• London to build new citywide data hub (Public Technology)
• Improving the evidence on ethnic health disparities (ONS)
• Statement following conclusion of ICO investigation into unauthorised disclosure of CCTV footage from DHSC (ICO)

Digital transformation

• The 2021 State of Digital Transformation Report (Harvard University and Public Digital, via Jukesie)
• House Digital Services team expected to launch this summer (FedScoop)
• Our research agenda for 2022–23 (Public Digital)

Bills, bills, bills

• The Queen’s Speech: political relaunch (Flint)
• Using the Beneficial Ownership Data Standard to support the Economic Crime Bill (Data in government)
• Why our politicians can’t fix the internet* (Sunday Times)

AI got ‘rithm

• Internet ‘algospeak’ is changing our language in real time, from ‘nip nops’ to ‘le dollar bean’* (Washington Post)
• The Franciscan monk helping the Vatican take on — and tame — AI* (FT)
• Timnit Gebru Is Building a Slow AI Movement (IEEE Spectrum)
• Can A.I.-Driven Voice Analysis Help Identify Mental Disorders?* (New York Times — although…)

Everything else

• Where to process data, and how to add them up* (The Economist)
• Getting ahead of the game: athlete data in professional sport (Australian Academy of Science)
• BRIDGING THE DIVIDE: TACKLING DIGITAL INEQUALITY IN A POST-PANDEMIC WORLD (Fabian Society)
• I WANT YOU BACK: GETTING MY PERSONAL DATA FROM AMAZON WAS WEEKS OF CONFUSION AND TEDIUM (The Intercept)
• On the very important topic of ‘public attitudes to #data regulation’ (Ruth Keeling)
• Why are we talking data in unions? (Unions21)
• Workers Are Trading Staggering Amounts of Data for ‘Payday Loans’* (Wired)
• What have you read/listened to/watched recently that gave you a new perspective on #publicpurposetech? (StateUp)
• Data club are still on! (Adam Locker)
• Quantum computing has a hype problem (MIT Technology Review)
• The competition regime in 2050: Would we die from shock if we saw it? (James Plunkett)

Opportunities

• EVENT: Public Sector Research: Data’s Role in Propelling the Public Sector Forward (techUK)
• EVENT: DataConnect22 is coming! (Government Data Quality Hub)
• CONSULTATION: The National Underground Asset Register (NUAR) (Geospatial Commission)
• JOIN: Action Lab (working group) on accessing quality information (mySociety)
• VACANCIES: Chair and Treasurer (360Giving)
• JOB: Director (ONS Data Science Campus)
• JOB: Director (Office of Science & Technology Strategy, Cabinet Office)
• JOB: Director of Analysis (DIT)
• JOB: Deputy Director, Identity Product (GDS, via Jukesie)
• JOB: Integrated Data Programme Planner (ONS)
• JOB: Strategy role in the Better Outcomes through Linked Data (BOLD) Programme (MoJ)
• JOB: Senior Policy Adviser — Big Tech Conduct (DCMS)
• JOB: Deputy Director — Data Services and Quality (UKHSA)
• JOBS: Head of and Programme Manager for Digital Economy (ICO)
• JOB: Research Assistant/Associate x2 (Fixed term) exploring the digitisation of government (Bennett Institute)
• JOB: Senior Policy Analyst, Digital Government Unit (Tony Blair Institute for Global Change)
• JOB: Senior Policy Adviser (The Royal Society, via Jukesie)

And finally…

• John Oliver Blackmails Congress With Their Own Digital Data (Rolling Stone)
• please stop what you’re doing and read about how physicist John Ellis coined the term “penguin diagram” (depths of wikipedia)
• The Past and Future of Flag Emoji 🏁 (Jennifer Daniel)
• WordleBot: Your Daily Wordle Companion* (New York Times)
• Who’s in Your Wallet? A visual essay about the famous figures who represent today’s currencies around the world (The Pudding)