Sense about Science, headquartered in the UK, is in its own words (from its homepage)
Sense about Science is an independent campaigning charity that challenges the misrepresentation of science and evidence in public life. …
According to an October 1, 2019 announcement from Sense about Science (received via email), the organization has published a new guide,
Our director warned yesterday [September 30, 2019] that data science is being given a free
pass on quality in too many arenas. From flood predictions to mortgage offers to the prediction of housing needs, we are not asking enough about whether AI solutions and algorithms can bear the weight we want to put on them.
It was the UK launch of our ‘Data Science: a guide for society’ at the Institute of Physics, where we invited representatives from different sectors to take up the challenge of creating a more questioning culture. Tracey Brown said the situation was like medicine 50 years ago: it seems that some people have become too clever to explain and the rest of us are feeling too dumb to ask.
At the end of the event we had a lot of proposals for how to make different communities aware of the guide’s three fundamental questions from the people who attended. There are many hundreds of people among our friends who could do something along these lines:
* Publicise the guide
* Incorporate it into your own work
* Send it to people who are involved in procurement, licensing or
reporting or decision making at community, national and international
levels
* Undertake a project with us to equip particular groups such as
parliamentary advisers, journalists and small charities.
Would you take a look at the guide [1] here and tell me if there’s something you can do? (alex@senseaboutscience.org)
There are launches planned in other countries over the rest of this year and into 2020. We are drawing up a map of offers to reach different communities. I’ll share all your suggestions with my colleague Errin Riley at the end of this week and we will get back to you quickly.
Before linking you to the guide, here’s a brief description from the Patterns in Data webpage,
In recent years, phrases like ‘big data’, ‘machine learning’, ‘algorithms’ and ‘pattern recognition’ have started slipping into everyday discussion. We’ve worked with researchers and experts to generate an open and informed public discussion on patterns in data across a wide range of projects.
Data Science: A guide for society
According to the headlines, we’re in the middle of a ‘data revolution: large, detailed datasets and complex algorithms allow us to make predictions on anything from who will win the league to who is likely to commit a crime. Our ability to question the quality of evidence – as the public, journalists, politicians or decision makers – needs to be expanded to meet this. To know the questions to ask and how to press for clarity about the strengths and weaknesses of using analysis from data models to make decisions. This is a guide to having more of those conversations, regardless of how much you don’t know about data science.