Data

My primary reflection on 2021: it was marginally less crap than 2020. Certainly not the magnitude of crap that was 2020, but with insurrections, revelations and mutations, it still seemed a year we were all happy to see come to an end. Perhaps if we keep our expectations low and […]

Learnings we will take from 2021 into 2022

This blog is cross-posted from the 360Giving Blog. Big thanks to Jeremy Peters, Rachel Rank & Mor Rubinstein for their edits and inputs. Communities are complex and getting a clear understanding of them is a journey FabRiders’ capacity building work has focused on researching data literacy, designing social learning experiencesand co-creating knowledge assets […]

What We’re Learning From Building A Data Champions Network

This workshop will help participants understand how to build compelling stories from datasets. We start with focusing on the ‘who’ we are telling the story to and how to craft a narrative that is compelling to them. We then explore the data that the participants are working with and draft […]

Data & Storytelling Workshop

In FabRiders’ work, we have researched data literacy, designed and facilitated social learning experiences, and co-created knowledge sharing assets with communities and networks. In the first half of 2018, we co-edited IFRC’s Data Playbook (Beta), which brought together our skills in all of those areas. The approach to identifying the […]

We’re Convening a Data Literacy Consortium

FabRiders’ Network-Centric Resources project supports the development of people-powered and participatory resources that establish assets for networks and communities. On Friday, December 14th, 2018, we held an online discussion with Heather Leson, Data Literacy Project Lead at the International Federation of the Red Cross Red Crescent (IFRC) Societies about collaborating with […]

Co-Creating IFRC’s Data Playbook, Online Discussion Notes

FabRiders’ Network-Centric Resources project helps resource developers understand how to develop people-powered and participatory resources and establish assets for networks and communities that share ownership, enable contribution and support collaboration. In this online discussion, Amnesty International’s Milena Marin shared wisdom and lessons learned about enabling thousands of digital volunteers to […]

Crowdsourcing Human Rights Research with Amnesty’s Decoder Project, Online Discussion ...

FabRiders’ Network-Centric Resources project helps resource developers understand how to develop people-powered and participatory resources and establish assets for networks and communities that share ownership, enable contribution and support collaboration. What’s critical to grow a community around a resource is to understand the barriers to broader participation. To help exemplify […]

Redesigning for the Responsible Data Community, Online Discussion Notes

On June 12th and June 13th, FabRiders collaborated with two doctoral researchers, Lydia Medland and Maria-Teresa Pinto, to design and deliver a workshop at the University of Bristol aimed at helping doctoral researchers strengthen their fieldwork practices and protect themselves and their research participants. To develop this participatory workshop, we […]

QAF’s and Resources to Mitigate Risks in Academic Research

This is a day-long training that we’ve run in at least a dozen countries for a variety of individuals involved in social change at various levels of ‘data literacy.’  Big thanks to all the participants that have provided feedback, along with: School of Data for all their curriculum on data literacy, […]

A Data Strategy Workshop Curriculum

This article will help people working on social change efforts understand what they need to know before undertaking a technology project and how to communicate that to internal technology related staff or a potential external developer/consultant hire. This document was created with the input of several colleagues, including Tin Geber, […]

Tech Project Specifications and Social Change Efforts

Introduction In 2015, FabRiders helped School of Data undertake its first research project to understand data literacy efforts around the world.  We published a series of blog posts on the School of Data website to share our findings. This is a repost of the Introduction, the links below will take you […]

Data Literacy Research Findings

In this talk I gave at TEDXEastEnd Salon on December 10th, 2015, I explore how my understanding of anonymity and privacy was formed during the HIV/AIDS crisis of the 1980’s and how since that time our sense of privacy has been manipulated by our use of new technologies. I also look at how […]

Privacy, new technologies and turning the tables on the state

Our learnings never happen in isolation and we are always grateful to those who have helped inform us along the way. We learned a hell of a lot from Misty Avila and Allen Gunn (Gunner) at Aspiration, who shared their methodologies to get tool developers to focus on users’ needs.  We […]

Hacking user centred design for social change efforts.

This was originally posted in the School of Data blog and was written by Mariel Garcia As we shared a few months back, School of Data is working on a research project to understand data literacy efforts around the world. We are using a framework which is informed by the principles of […]

Data Literacy Research Update

Why we did it By Maya Ganesh, Beatrice Martini and Dirk Slater. If you haven’t, please read the introduction to this series. Tactical Tech’s initial goal was to learn how use of technology can impact and improve the advocacy efforts of marginalised communities.  In this section, we will define ‘marginalisation’, […]

Leave Your Potatoes at Home, Pt I

What we learned By Maya Ganesh, Beatrice Martini and Dirk Slater This series began with the post ‘Why We Did It‘, which provided background and context, including a definition of marginalisation, Tactical Tech’s objectives for the project and background on WNU and sex worker issues in Cambodia.  Our previous post […]

Leave Your Potatoes at Home, Pt. III

What we did By Maya Ganesh, Beatrice Martini and Dirk Slater. Our previous post ‘Why We Did It‘, provides background and context, including a definition of marginalisation, Tactical Tech’s objectives for the project and background on WNU and sex worker issues in Cambodia. In this post we provide details about […]

Leave Your Potatoes at Home, pt. II

Or ‘how to work with marginalised communities on using data and technology in advocacy’ By Maya Ganesh, Beatrice Martini and Dirk Slater. “You are welcome anytime, you’re not like others who come with their own bag of potatoes” It’s with these words that the chair of Women’s Network for Unity (WNU), […]

Leave Your Potatoes At Home, Intro

Data Advocacy Essentials FabRiders provides workshops, webinars and advice on how to use data effectively for advocacy, social change and social justice. This series of blog posts consolidates the information and advice we use. Much of this knowledge has been openly shared by many others, such as School of Data, Tactical […]

Data Advocacy Essentials

What is a data visualization? Data visualization is a visual representation of data that has been abstracted in some schematic form, meaning it has been put into a table, picture or diagram. A primary goal of data visualization is to communicate information clearly and efficiently to users. Effective visualization helps […]

Data Advocacy Essentials, Pt IV: FAQs on Visualising Data

Data Sources You have two options for finding data to use in your advocacy work: use existing data or collect it yourself.  Data that already exists has the benefit of not needing to be collected, but it may not be formatted, organised or aggregated in a way that is helpful.  […]

Data Advocacy Essentials Pt III: Data Sources

The data pipeline We are very grateful to the School of Data for their clear explanation on how the data pipeline works! Once you have a clear understanding of your data action cycle, stakeholders and targets, you can begin manipulating data. The process of working with data can be broken […]

Data Advocacy Essentials, Pt II: The Data Pipeline

What is data? How can we use it for advocacy? Advocacy is a process by which people, groups, networks and coalitions seek to bring about positive change by influencing policies, as well as the actions and opinions of others. In evidence based advocacy, facts in the form of data are […]

Data Advocacy Essentials, Pt I: Action Cycles and Stakeholders

Like most people who have been using computers and the internet, I’ve had a gradual creep of having more and more of my data in the cloud. I’m a long-term (aging?) Apple fan boy and have succumbed willingly to the ease of having my data accessible on any device anywhere. […]

What I’ve Learned about The Cloud

[print_link] Long before I got involved with the digital world, I learned an important lesson about privacy and anonymity, and about the kinds of security that are truly meaningful. This lesson had nothing to do with computers or the internet, but what I learned back then holds some valuable insights […]

What I’ve Learned about Privacy, Data & Digital Tools

This list of questions was derived during a session at the Responsible Data Forum in Oakland on March, 6th 2014. Our desire was to create a list of questions to ask yourself when working as an intermediary with marginalised communities. The answers you will come up with, might or might […]

Questions to Ask Frequently (QAFs) when working with Data and ...

Grateful thanks to Heather Leson (@HeatherLeson) and Maya Ganesh (@mayameme) from Tactical Tech for their valuable insights and input into this blog post. I’m working with Eurasian Harm Reduction Network on a project addressing police violence against women who use drugs in Eastern Europe. The overall goal of this project […]

What I’ve Learned About Mapping Violence

A very special thanks to Lucy Chambers from Open Knowledge Foundation for inspiration, review and advice on this blog post. You can find Lucy on twitter @lucyfedia. Over the last two decades of helping advocates and activists use technologies more effectively, the use of data in campaigns has always been […]

What I’ve Learned about Data Advocacy