secret life of a weather datum end of project event
TRANSCRIPT
The Secret
Life of a Weather
Datum
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#lifeofdata
Romilly Close – Pi weather station designer (Aerospace Engineering UG student)Fred Sonnenwald - Pi weather station project co-supervisor (Civil Engineering)Sophie Rutter – Usability testing (Information School)
Jo Bates, Information School, University of Sheffield
Paula Goodale, Information School, University of Sheffield
YuWei Lin, University for the Creative Arts
Dave MeeTandot/The Garden
#lifeofdata
11.00am – 12.00pm – Intro to the projectJo BatesPaula Goodale
12.00 – 12.30pm – Citizen science and data production (RC204)Joan Arthur – Old Weather projectDanny Antrobus – Air Quality+
12.30 – 1.30pm – Lunch (iSpace)Build a Raspberry Pi weather station
1.30 – 2.30pm – lifeofdata.org.uk website launch (RC205)
2.45 – 3.45pm – Impact workshop (iSpace)
3.45 – 4.45pm – Data dissonance - hype, power and engagement in the data revolutionDanny Antrobus (Better with Data Society), Prof. Helen Kennedy (Sheffield), Prof. Andrew Prescott (Glasgow/AHRC) (iSpace)
4.45pm – drinks in iSpace
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The Secret Life of Data?Big data, open data, managing data, data = oil….Lots of talk about data!
Critical Data StudiesDalton and Thatcher (2014): “in both its production and interpretation, all data – ‘big’ included – is always the result of contingent and contested social practices that afford and obfuscate specific understandings of the world”
How to capture the complex socio-cultural shaping of (‘big’) data infrastructures?
Where to begin? Where to end?
How to talk to people about it? #lifeofdata
The Secret Life of a Weather Datum Research Questions
1. What is the ‘journey’ that weather data produced by the UK’s Met Office takes from its production through to its collation and re-use as ‘big’ weather data in different contexts?
2. What socio-cultural values and practices are articulated in the transformation of this data on its journey from production through to various contexts of collation, distribution and re-use, and how do these socio-cultural values and practices themselves transform as they interact with the data over the course of its journey?
3. What institutional policies and practices, and government policies and legislation, shape the distribution and licensing of weather data for re-use in different contexts?
4. How can the complexity of the socio-cultural dynamics shaping the production, collation, distribution and re-use of ‘big’ weather data be communicated to a wider audience?
#lifeofdata
lifeofdata.org.uk
#lifeofdata
The Secret
Life of a Weather
Datum
MethodsCase studies and participants
Semi-structured interviews and Observations
Documentary evidence and Digital ethnography
Thematic analysis
Challenges and lessons learned
Data production• Weston Park weather station• Met Office• Amateur observers• Old Weather• Policy maker
Climate Science• Met Office Hadley Centre• Climatic Research Unit, UEA• Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)• Met Office projects – ACRE and Old WeatherFinancial Markets• Weather Market Data supplier• [Financial markets]• Policy makerCitizen Science• Amateur observers• Old Weather / Archives• Met Office projects
- WOW and Old Weather#lifeofdata
MethodsCase studies and participants
Semi-structured interviews and Observations
Documentary evidence and Digital ethnography
Thematic analysis
Challenges and lessons learned
Towards ethnography• Site visits• Multiple interviews• Observation
• Field notes• Photographs• Video
• Interviews - core themes• Own role, data practices • Motivations and challenges• Relationships with other people and
organisations• External environment – e.g. economic and policy
issues• Tailored to individuals
• Observations – working environment• Communal and personal space• Branding and artefacts• Personal interactions• Technology #lifeofdata
MethodsCase studies and participants
Semi-structured interviews and Observations
Documentary evidence and Digital ethnography
Thematic analysis
Challenges and lessons learned
Extending coverage and filling in gaps• Official records• Access restrictions• Discourse• Community
Documentary evidence • Reports• Policy documents• Research papers• Web sites• Corporate publications
Digital ethnography• Twitter
• IPCC conference• Online forums
• Citizen scientists
#lifeofdata
MethodsCase studies and participants
Semi-structured interviews and Observations
Documentary evidence and Digital ethnography
Thematic analysis
Challenges and lessons learned
Coding• Manual• 2-3 coders
Coding themes• Attitudes, values and beliefs• Valuable activities and practices• Social relationships• The data journey
Working papers• One per case• Analysis by coding themes• By organisation
Cross-case analysis• Web site• Research papers
#lifeofdata
MethodsCase studies and participants
Semi-structured interviews and Observations
Documentary evidence and Digital ethnography
Thematic analysis
Challenges and lessons learned
Gaining access• Gatekeepers
• Press• Senior staff
• Staff availability• Observing work practices• Photography and video
Negotiating permissions• Open research data• Transcript style• Transcript content• Audio• Photographs
Reflections• Pre-existing relationships• Resource limitations• Time limitations• Little precedent in social science s
#lifeofdata
The Secret
Life of a Weather
Datum
Visualisation of research design
Embed user in a data journey
Structure is non-linear and non-complete
#lifeofdata
Node specific empirical findings
Embedded research data – rich, transparent, bring the social alive
Third person – emphasise the people, culture, stories, relations
Relatively descriptive (through a critical lens)
Leave discursive space open for public discussion
Key themesInterrelations between people – space-time
Transparency and openness of cultures
Transparency and openness of data
Dependency on particular cultural values
Social relations across space • Local – global
• Weston Park – local data ecology; national Met Office; global climate science and financial markets
• Domestic - workplace• Citizen Science – individual homes -> global
climate science (and potentially forecasting)
Social relations across time• Inter-generational connections
• Previous generations – curators, observers• Future generations – archiving for posterity
• Empathetic relations• Old Weather project • Weston Park
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Key themesDiversity of discursive cultures across infrastructure
Open discursive spaces (genuine, transparent, trust)• Data production
• Weston Park• Old Weather• Amateur observers• Archives
Politically restricted discursive spaces• Climatic Research Unit (anxious transparency)• Met Office (anxious transparency; brand control)• IPCC (science-government consensus; on message)
Market restriction of discursive spaces• Weather market data supplier (control)• Financial markets (closed off)• Met Office (Bow-tie)
Interrelations between people – space-time
Transparency and openness of cultures
Transparency and openness of data
Dependency on particular cultural values #lifeofdata
Key themesPolitics being enacted through data sharing practices
Local data sharing ecologies• Weston Park – public ownership/heritage
Climate science v climate sceptics• Desire to share in a complex, contested and
shifting socio-political environment
Tension between desire for open data and openness of discursive space• Weston Park• Weather Market Data Supplier
Interrelations between people – space-time
Transparency and openness of cultures
Transparency and openness of data
Dependency on particular cultural values #lifeofdata
Key themesDependency of data infrastructure on cultural values of voluntarism, good will, public service, collective action, making a contribution
Givers• Citizen science, Weston Park, Climate ScienceTakers• Climate scientists and meteorologists
• Citizen science and voluntary labour
• Weather markets (and other private sector)• Demand on state (open data)• Amateur data/Potential for investment in
data infrastructure
Funding and investment • Sustainability issues – austerity + funding priorities
(data isn’t sexy)• Resilience of the infrastructure is value based
Interrelations between people – space-time
Transparency and openness of cultures
Transparency and openness of data
Dependency on particular cultural values #lifeofdata
Mapping data journeys…
Illuminates shifting cultures and politics across the infrastructure
Draws out relations and dependencies between different nodes
Emphasises the role of the local in these ‘big’ global data infrastructures
Communicates to a wider audience
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