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Data 4 Policy: Is the Statistical Era Being Replaced by an Era of Data?

This workshop is part of the series “Statistics for the Public Good – Infrastructure Decision Making, Research and Discourse”, which introduces participants to public statistics as a process in which the design, production and communication of information (statistics) are an integral part. As with other products (architecture, furniture, food, cars, smartphones, etc.), the aim is to optimize the design (form) in relation to the use (function) of the products (“form follows function”).

In this respect it is about more than just the application of statistical methods. Rather, the focus must be on the questions that a society wants to have answered with solid statistics for its current, pressing and conflict-laden issues. Other aspects then play a role here, namely whether politics values and finances this infrastructure, whether corresponding data literacy is available in the population at large, and so on.

Various use cases relevant to current policy at international and national level will be used, in which the course participants will act as statistical stakeholders with distributed roles.

Values, Ethics and What They Mean for Data Quality

Registration open soon

This workshop is part of the series “Statistics for the Public Good – Infrastructure Decision Making, Research and Discourse”, which introduces participants to public statistics as a process in which the design, production and communication of information (statistics) are an integral part. As with other products (architecture, furniture, food, cars, smartphones, etc.), the aim is to optimize the design (form) in relation to the use (function) of the products (“form follows function”).

New data sources and data science methods open up substantial opportunities for research and for improving statistics. However, the integration of traditional and newer methods requires more than the merging of methodology and technology. Rather, it is also a matter of further developing the other dimensions of good information quality, namely those of infrastructure, language and values, simultaneously in an integrative manner in this sense. 

Various use cases relevant to current policy at international and national level will be used, in which the course participants will act as statistical stakeholders with distributed roles.

The Public Good Statistics: Let’s talk about Data Culture!

Registration open soon

This workshop is part of the series “Statistics for the Public Good – Infrastructure Decision Making, Research and Discourse”, which introduces participants to public statistics as a process in which the design, production and communication of information (statistics) are an integral part. As with other products (architecture, furniture, food, cars, smartphones, etc.), the aim is to optimize the design (form) in relation to the use (function) of the products (“form follows function”).

You will get to know the conditions for evidence-based policy to contribute to shaping the transformation processes that arise in times of crisis and to reducing social conflicts to their minimum. In addition to its function as a common language for public (national and international) discourse, public statistics also serve as a data source and partner for research on individual and social behavior.

Convention Theory (“Économie des Conventions”) will be used as a conceptual guide for the exercises and explorations of statistical terrain.

The Public Good Statistics: A Reflective Introduction

Registration open soon

This self-paced learning module is part of the series “Statistics for the Public Good – Infrastructure Decision Making, Research and Discourse”, which introduces participants to public statistics as a process in which the design, production and communication of information (statistics) are an integral part. As with other products (architecture, furniture, food, cars, smartphones, etc.), the aim is to optimize the design (form) in relation to the use (function) of the products (“form follows function”).

Learn about the DNA of official statistics, what quality means and how to achieve it, especially under the challenges of modern societies. In times of data revolution, artificial intelligence and a ubiquitous flood of permanently produced and consumed information, orientation and differentiation of good and less good information, of fact-checks, and of verification of statistical evidence is crucial. The public infrastructure called ‘official statistics’ plays an essential role in this respect.

You will gain access to this online module when you participate in the in-person workshops of the series.

Statistics for the Public Good – Infrastructures for Decision Making, Research, and Discourse Workshop SeriesStatistics for the Public Good

In this workshop series, you will learn about the DNA of official statistics, what quality means and how to achieve it, especially under the challenges of modern societies. Various use cases relevant to current policy at the national and international level will be used, in which the course participants will act as statistical stakeholders with distributed roles. We recommend participating in all events of this series, which includes access to introductory videos.

More Information

free, no prerequisites, limited seats, organized by LMU

The Public Good Statistics: A Reflective Introduction by Walter J. Radermacher

Self-Paced Learning Online- Videos

1- 9 October 2022

The Public Good Statistics: Let’s talk about Data Culture! by Walter J. Radermacher

In-Person Workshop, LMU Munich

10 October 2022

9 a.m. – 12 p.m. and 2 p.m. – 5 p.m.

Should Government Data Concern or Serve Us? by Julia Lane

In-Person Workshop, LMU Munich

11 October 2022

2 p.m. – 5 p.m.

Values, Ethics and What They Mean for Quality by Walter J. Radermacher

In-Person Workshop, LMU Munich

12 October 2022

9 a.m. – 12 p.m. and 2 p.m. – 5 p.m.

Data 4 Policy: Is the Statistical Era Being Replaced by an Era of Data? by Walter J. Radermacher

In-Person Workshop, LMU Munich

13 October 2022

9 a.m. – 12 p.m. and 2 p.m. – 5 p.m.

How to Make Use of Machine Learning & Microsimulation in Official Statistics

Dates and Registration soon

How can we make use of new data sources and data science methods to enhance public statistics?

This course gives an overview of advanced topics in official statistics such as Big Data, machine learning, and microsimulations. The benefits and downsides of using Big Data as a data source for official statistics production are discussed and examples of its use are given, including machine learning applications.

In addition, the course provides insights into microsimulation and gives an overview of the past, the present, and the future state-of-the-art of microsimulation methods and applications within official statistics.

This online course uses a flipped classroom design, which means that you can watch the weekly hour of video lectures according to your own schedule. In the weekly one-hour online meetings you have the chance to discuss the material and hands-on applications with the instructors from destatis and Statistics Netherlands

Basic R knowledge is required. Having some familiarity with the official statistics system as taught in Walter Radermacher’s BERD Academy workshop series  “Statistics for the Public Good” can be helpful.

How to Make Use of Machine Learning & Microsimulation in Official Statistics

How can we make use of new data sources and data science methods to enhance public statistics?

This course gives an overview of advanced topics in official statistics such as Big Data, machine learning, and microsimulations. The benefits and downsides of using Big Data as a data source for official statistics production are discussed and examples of its use are given, including machine learning applications.

In addition, the course provides insights into microsimulation and gives an overview of the past, the present, and the future state-of-the-art of microsimulation methods and applications within official statistics.

This online course uses a flipped classroom design, which means that you can watch the weekly hour of video lectures according to your own schedule. In the weekly one-hour online meetings you have the chance to discuss the material and hands-on applications with the instructors from destatis and Statistics Netherlands

Basic R knowledge is required. Having some familiarity with the official statistics system as taught in Walter Radermacher’s BERD Academy workshop series  “Statistics for the Public Good” can be helpful.

Data 4 Policy: Is the Statistical Era Being Replaced by an Era of Data?

This workshop is part of the series “Statistics for the Public Good – Infrastructure Decision Making, Research and Discourse”, which introduces participants to public statistics as a process in which the design, production and communication of information (statistics) are an integral part. As with other products (architecture, furniture, food, cars, smartphones, etc.), the aim is to optimize the design (form) in relation to the use (function) of the products (“form follows function”).

In this respect it is about more than just the application of statistical methods. Rather, the focus must be on the questions that a society wants to have answered with solid statistics for its current, pressing and conflict-laden issues. Other aspects then play a role here, namely whether politics values and finances this infrastructure, whether corresponding data literacy is available in the population at large, and so on.

Various use cases relevant to current policy at international and national level will be used, in which the course participants will act as statistical stakeholders with distributed roles.

Values, Ethics and What They Mean for Data Quality

This workshop is part of the series “Statistics for the Public Good – Infrastructure Decision Making, Research and Discourse”, which introduces participants to public statistics as a process in which the design, production and communication of information (statistics) are an integral part. As with other products (architecture, furniture, food, cars, smartphones, etc.), the aim is to optimize the design (form) in relation to the use (function) of the products (“form follows function”).

New data sources and data science methods open up substantial opportunities for research and for improving statistics. However, the integration of traditional and newer methods requires more than the merging of methodology and technology. Rather, it is also a matter of further developing the other dimensions of good information quality, namely those of infrastructure, language and values, simultaneously in an integrative manner in this sense. 

Various use cases relevant to current policy at international and national level will be used, in which the course participants will act as statistical stakeholders with distributed roles.

Should Government Data Concern or Serve us?

This workshop is part of the series “Statistics for the Public Good – Infrastructure Decision Making, Research and Discourse”, which introduces participants to public statistics as a process in which the design, production and communication of information (statistics) are an integral part. As with other products (architecture, furniture, food, cars, smartphones, etc.), the aim is to optimize the design (form) in relation to the use (function) of the products (“form follows function”).

There has been a marked surge in the way in which data and evidence are being used in new ways to inform policy in the United States. Although many blue ribbon committees are established whose recommendations are ignored, the U.S. Commission on Evidence-based Policymaking (Evidence Commission) has been one notable exception.Established in 2016, 11 of the 22 recommendations were enacted into law in 2018, including establishing or reinforcing leadership positions, planning processes, data sharing authorities, and privacy protections necessary to modernize the national evidence-building infrastructure. An advisory committee established in the law currently is mulling how to implement the rest, given the twin goals of increasing the value of data for evidence building through access while also ensuring the continued trust of data providers – trust that the access to data will generate evidence that improves policies, and trust that privacy will be respected and confidentiality will be protected.[1] Yet, the interest and need is so great, exciting activities are already underway.

Historically, states in the U.S. have been remarkably effective in their use of data.  As far back as 1932, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis argued that states could be “laboratories” of experimentation; that is, states could test the effects of different policies, determine what worked and what didn’t, and lead the way to national programs [2]. States have proven Justice Brandeis right time and again – from Massachusetts’s experiment with health care reform to California’s pollution controls. Now states are innovating and experimenting with ideas about how to best use data to produce evidence and inform policy. A recent conference “Multi-State Data Collaboratives: from Projects to Products to Practice” provided a glimpse into a future of new types of collaborations, new types of measurement and new ways of protecting privacy.  The impact of many state programs – training, human services, criminal justice, and education – is often measured by the labor market outcomes of the individuals they serve, yet each state’s data ends at state lines. That situation has posed problems for states that know their residents often cross state lines to go to school, work, and unfortunately, become incarcerated, particularly when population centers are near to state borders. 

However, a  secure data sharing platform, established with federal dollars as a possible blueprint to inform the Evidence Commission at the start of its deliberations, has proven to be wildly successful in providing the opportunity for states to share highly sensitive data across state lines.  With additional philanthropic and state funding, the data sharing platform provided the core infrastructure needed to enable the establishment of a MidWest state collaborative in 2018 [3] and a series of cross-state data collaborations.  It is a blueprint, based on a five safes framework, that can serve as a roadmap to additional collaborative activities to propel evidence-building forward at an accelerated pace – and how they can lead to new, critically-needed measurements resulting from the massive changes in the economy and society.

This workshop will provide a discussion of the five safes framework in helping conceptualize and implement the joint determination of risk and utility. It will describe the Coleridge Initiative’s use of the US FedRAMP framework, as well as the FedRAMP approach in more detail, in terms of minimizing risk.  It will then work through the role of training classes in creating value.

The workshop will feature hands-on examples of how the training class worked with active discussions of what might or might not be applied to the German context.