Why you need T-shaped professionals to use big data for policy

5-11-2015

Big data provides unprecedented opportunities throughout society, but in practice, embedding innovative big data sources and methods in a governmental context is not easy. In a masterclass organised by Dialogic on November 5, 2015 and designed specifically for managers and policy makers of governments and (semi-) public organizations, we explore the (potential) impact of big data on policy and policy research, the conditions under which big data can be used and how directors and researchers can implement it. We base ourselves on the practical experience Dialogic has gathered working as a research and consulting firm in big data in recent years, and in the governmental context since its founding.

Tommy presents on big data for policy
Me presenting the letter T, which obviously stands for ‘Tommy’, but more importantly refers to ‘T-shaped’: the idea that you need both a generalist as well as specialist view in order to implement big data in your organisation. This is because details really matter a lot in determining what you can and cannot do with big data.

At this masterclass I spoke on the topic strategies for implementing big data in a policy context. I made a connection between technical opportunities and practical, policy-driven implementation. I presented a framework that makes it easier to reason about data sources versus policy questions, and derive concrete suggestions for application of big data methods.

Organized by Dialogic on November 5, 2015 – DiaLAB

Download the flyer: Masterclass Big Data for policy: using big data to answer policy questions (Dutch)

Read Dialogic’s press release: Dialogic Masterclass Big Data groot succes (Dutch)

Registration: closed, but see this page for follow-up sessions.