A New Data Governance Movement
We have been gratified by the reaction to our initial white paper proposing a Better Deal for Data. Every week we’re engaging with brilliant thinkers around the issues we face in creating a new data governance movement. Our goal is to bring the Better Deal from an initial concept into something which could actually be adopted globally by social sector organizations, and maybe even the business sector too (at least the part not wedded to surveillance capitalism). This post will bring you up to speed on our progress, and let you know what plans we have in store.
Deep Dives into Data Practices
Up until now, we have been focused on research, and drafting the initial white paper. This effort has been led by Tech Matters Research Fellow Dr. Katy McKinney-Bock, with brainstorming help from Steve Francis (the head of our Terraso open source efforts). With funding support from OpenTEAM (the country’s leading open source coalition in agriculture), Katy set down an incredibly strong research foundation for the Better Deal with deep dives into data stewardship, data sharing, data governance, context, and consent. We are trying to build on top of the excellent work of so many scholars as we try to create something broadly useful to practitioners: the organizations stewarding the data of so many individuals and communities. Although Katy’s fellowship year recently concluded, we’re excited to share that she’ll be staying with Tech Matters as our Aselo Data Scientist (and will continue to work on the Better Deal part time).
Stewarding a Better Deal for Data
I’m happy to announce that M Celine Takatsuno has just joined Tech Matters as our next Research Fellow. She’ll be leading the next phase of the Better Deal for Data, stewarding this concept from a bold idea into practice. Celine brings a powerful set of experience to bear on this project, with many years of leadership in technology strategy (especially around data sharing and privacy) and a newly minted degree in law and policy. Oh, and she did two previous stints at Benetech (my original tech for good nonprofit), first as a fellow, then helping create a social enterprise for us over ten years ago. I’m delighted to be back working with Celine.
Over the coming months, Celine will be digging into the real-world use cases around data, and asking critical questions about how organizations work with data: what social good they intend to ignite with it, and what harms they want to prevent. These real-world use cases are our design challenge: can we devise a standard which can meet these needs?
Convening a Community of Practice
In the coming months you’ll be hearing from us on a regular basis. We’re looking forward to a research wrap-up from Katy on what she learned over her fellowship year. We’ll be launching a series of concept papers highlighting the top issues we’ve heard in our research and conversations. Importantly, she’ll be convening all of you along the way, because we can’t do any of this alone!
If you’ve gotten this but aren’t already on our list, make sure to subscribe to our updates on the Better Deal for Data website (of course, we promise not to spam you). And if you have ideas or questions, please feel free to reach out directly! Looking forward to collaboratively creating a Better Deal for Data, because humanity and the planet need one.