Want to have a positive social impact as a data scientist?

As presented at PyConDE & PyData Berlin 2019.

Transcript

1. WANT TO HAVE A POSITIVE SOCIAL IMPACT AS A DATA SCIENTIST? Ellen König ThoughtWorks // Data Science for Social Good Berlin @ellen_koenig
3. TL;DR
4. TECH AMPLIFIES SOCIAL DEVELOPMENTS https://www.ellenkoenig.de/blog/add-three-tablespoons-of-data-science-stir-gently
5. SO WHAT CAN WE DO AS TECH PEOPLE? If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together. —Probably not an "African“ proverb
6. HOW EXACTLY CAN WE CONTRIBUTE?
7. NONPROFIT VOLUNTEER NONPROFIT EMPLOYEE DATA SCIENTIST DONOR MEETUP ORGANIZER VOLUNTEER COACH SOFTWARE ENGINEER CORPORATE EMPLOYEE DIVERSITY ADVOCATE DATA ENGINEER HALLO!
8. MEET ALINA MSc. in Data Science (Potsdam) Data Scientist (3 years) Large travel company (Berlin) Working on pricing strategies
9. Select a relevant social issue Select interesting organizations Select your impact goals Experiment with directions Experiment with challenges STRATEGY IMPLEMENTATION Experiment with tools YOUR PATH TO POSITIVE SOCIAL IMPACT https://www.ellenkoenig.de/blog/want-to-have-a-positive-social-impact-as-a-data-scientist
10. STRATEGIC DECISIONS Select a relevant social issue Select interesting organizations Select your impact goals
11. 1. WHICH SOCIAL ISSUE DO YOU WANT TO ADDRESS THE MOST? APPROACHES FOR CHOOSING YOUR ISSUE Emotional Attraction Saving As Many Lives As You Can Reduction of Existential Risk Issues Affecting You Personally Social Sector Capacity Building
12. ✓ Homelessness ✓ Sexism/ Feminism X Too removed for her X Not a priority for her ✓ Global Warming Emotional Attraction Saving As Many Lives As You Can Reduction of Existential Risk Issues Affecting You Personally Social Sector Capacity ALINA’S CHOICES
13. ✓ Homelessness ✓ Sexism/ Feminism X Too removed for her X Not a priority for her ✓ Global Warming Emotional Attraction Saving As Many Lives As You Can Reduction of Existential Risk Issues Affecting You Personally Social Sector Capacity ALINA’S PRIORITIES
14. 2. WHICH ORGANIZATIONS? Provides on-the-street services such as food, clothing and sleeping bags Small nonprofit helping the homeless Encourages IT companies to use 100% green energy for servers Advocacy group for „Green IT“ Pursues worthwhile laws for both of her chosen issues Political party Helps organize the local “Fridays for Future” climate protest marches Activist organization Time for research! •Which organizations work on the issues you selected? •What is their impact on these issues?
15. 3. WHICH IMPACT IS MEANINGFUL TO YOU? Time for more research! •How severe is the issue? •Who is most affected? •Where is it most prevalent? ➡ Sets her primary goal to help homeless people in Berlin Alina prefers tangible immediate impact ➡Her ambition: Help around 300 of homeless people within a year 6,000 - 10,000 homeless people in Berlin
16. IMPLEMENTATION EXPERIMENTS Experiment with directions Experiment with challenges Experiment with tools
17. 1. EXPERIMENT WITH YOUR DIRECTION Each direction will work for a different resource constraint Volunteering Your Skills Best for implementing best practices in small nonprofits or small projects in large nonprofits lacking people Improving Ethical Standards in Your Industry Best when your organization lacks expertise on implementing existing ethical best practices Academic Research Best where no best practices exist yet to address your chosen social issue Contribute a unique skill set Contribute to data protection, data & model bias, … Contribute to empirical studies
18. 1. EXPERIMENT WITH YOUR DIRECTION Each direction will work for a different resource constraint Donating Part of Your Income Best if your chosen organization is more constrained by funding than staff or knowledge Advocating for Changes in the Legal Environment Best when best practices exist that need to be implemented on a large scale across many organizations Professional Nonprofit Work Best if best practices exist that need high effort and long-term implementation projects Contribute a percentage of your usually high income Contribute for example audience analysis, impact measurement, … Contribute a unique skill set
19. ALINA DECIDES TO VOLUNTEER AT THE NPO AND JOIN THE POLITICAL PARTY Alina spoke with the nonprofit staff providing services to homeless people • They receive enough funding • They lack volunteer staff • Their local laws are not always supportive
20. 2. EXPERIMENT WITH CHALLENGES TO ADDRESS IN YOUR ORGANIZATION Implementing Programs Fundraising Advocacy Organizational Management Staffing Monitoring …
21. ALINA ROBERT, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR "What can I do specifically to achieve my goal of helping 300 homeless people this year?“ “I don’t have an answer to that question. We don’t track our impact to that level of detail.” "Well, I can help you figure that out!“ ➡Alina decides to work on impact measurement!
22. 3. EXPERIMENT WITH DATA SCIENCE TOOLS AND METHODS Which tools and methods fit the context of the organization you are working with?
23. HAVE FUN, ALINA!
24. … AND OVER TO YOU! 1.Decide on the impact you want 2.Experiment to find out what works to achieve that impact Tech is an amplifier of social developments Which ones do YOU want to amplify?
25. If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together. —Probably not an "African“ proverb
26. QUESTIONS? @ellen_koenig www.ellenkoenig.de/blog/want-to-have-a-positive-social-impact-as-a-data-scientist
27. United Nations Department of Public Information, United Nations, S-1018, New York, NY 10017, USA Slide 1,2,7: Sustainable Development Goals IMAGE CREDITS lilcomrade.com/product/tech-won-t- save-us-t-shirt Slide 3: „Tech won’t save us“ T-Shirt https://www.flickr.com/photos/ mastermaq/13490939065 Slide 7 Jabra speaker