Page 95 - Proceedings of the 2017 ITU Kaleidoscope

SMALL DATA AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT -
INDIVIDUALS AT THE CENTER OF DATA-DRIVEN SOCIETIES

Mamello Thinyane
United Nations University institute on Computing and Society, Macao SAR – China
mamello@unu.edu

ABSTRACT as in the embedding of digital infrastructures and
‘everyware’ [8] within smart cities initiatives [9].
At the centre of data-driven societies are individuals and
end-users who not only generate data, but also benefit from At the global level, there has been recognition of the role of
the outcomes of the data-driven development. Extensive data towards supporting the achievement of the global
work has been undertaken to understand and explore the development imperatives as articulated in the 2030 Agenda
challenges and potential impact of data, in particular Big for Sustainable Development. The United Nations
Data, for the private as well as the public sectors. Similarly Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) resolution
work has been undertaken within the domains of Personal highlights, within Goal 17, technology as an explicit Means
Informatics and life-logging, which has investigated the of Implementation towards the achievement of the goals
role of data, and specifically personal physical activity and [10]. Further, the role of the indicators data within the SDG
health data towards improving the wellbeing of individuals. programme has also been well articulated [11], [12]. The
In this research we investigate the engagement of focus within the social indicators monitoring domain has
individuals in the use of data towards the achievement of largely been about using data for the purposes of Planning,
the sustainable development imperatives as articulated in Monitoring and Evaluation at the national and sub-national
the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The paper levels. Extensive research has been undertaken exploring
presents: the awareness levels of the participants with the potential for data in this regard [12]–[14]. Social
regards to the Sustainable Development Goals; their indicators monitoring in this context is typically driven by
attitudes and perceptions around monitoring of social the work of the statistics community, in particular the
indicators; key considerations associated with data National Statistics Offices, government departments, as
ownership, privacy and confidentiality of data, as well as well as multilateral organizations.
sharing of data within the data ecosystem. The paper
subsequently discusses how these finding could inform the Beyond supporting the national-level and multi-lateral
implementation of small data tools to support the active stakeholders, the use of data can be towards supporting
engagement of individuals in data-driven societies. individuals and community-level actors (e.g. Non-
Governmental Organization, and Community-Based
Keywords— Small Data, Sustainable Development, Organizations). There has been increasing efforts and
Data Driven Development research around the use of data for informing individual
wellbeing goals and imperatives. The growing field of
Personal Informatics, quantified-self, and lived informatics
1. INTRODUCTION represent this interest and focus on data that is collected by
individuals for the ultimate utility that accrues towards the
st
Data is increasingly pervasive and ubiquitous in the 21 individuals [15]. Within these domains work has been
century data-driven societies, and the use of data stands to undertaken that explores data for supporting social sense-
increase and to permeate more societal domains. making [16], using personal data for improving patient-
Advancements are being seen in the use of data, in provider communication in the healthcare sector, and using
particular Big Data, for supporting businesses and the quantified-self data for cancer rehabilitation.
corporate sector towards improved decision-making and
effectiveness in areas such as Business Intelligence and Mortier et al have suggested that, with the growing amount
Analytics (BI&A)[1] as well as management [2], [3]. of ubiquity and pervasiveness of data, there is a need to
Similarly the public sector use of data can be noted towards explicitly consider Human Data Interaction (HDI), which
improved policy development [4], and service delivery, they define as being constituted of three key themes and
where “governments expect big data to enhance their ability domains: legibility, agency and negotiability [17].
to serve their citizens and address major national challenges Legibility regards ensuring the comprehensibility of data
involving the economy, health care, job creation, natural and the associated algorithms, so that the individuals are
disasters, and terrorism” [5]. The increasing ubiquity of aware of their data and the implications of its use; agency in
data in society is not only seen in the increased use in this context is about allowing individuals the freedom and
organizations but also in: increased data use by individuals capacity to act within the data ecosystems; and negotiability
in areas such as life-logging [6], [7], associated with the concerns the dynamic relationships that emanate from the
proliferation of activity trackers and mobile devices; as well individuals’ interaction with the data. These three themes
provide a suitable initial framing of the key concerns for

978-92-61-24291-6/CFP1768P-ART © 2017 ITU – 79 – Kaleidoscope