In line with the recommendations of the UN Secretary-General's Report of the High-level Panel on Digital Cooperation, as well as the Secretary-General's Data Strategy, this blog aims to foster a multi-disciplinary exchange of ideas on the topic of data. In this space, data experts and data champions will share their experiences and perspectives on topics such as data strategy, literacy, policy, governance, open data, privacy, ethics, AI, and more. Through this exchange of ideas, OICT ultimately hopes to contribute to a diverse and inclusive data culture.
Thank you for visiting this space. Questions related to this blog can be sent to unite@un.org.
25 November 2020
A Q&A with Jordan Morrow, Head of Data, Design, and Management Skills, Pluralsight
In this Q&A, Jordan Morrow, Head of Data, Design, and Management Skills, Pluralsight, shares insights on what can help drive data and analytics success in an organization, and how curiosity, creativity, and critical thinking play key roles in this process.
14 October 2020
By Yu Ping Chan, Senior Programme Officer/Team Leader, Digital Cooperation, Office of the Special Advisor to the Secretary-General
As we continue the conversation on how the international community should engage with data, we must also consider the broader context: the need for global steerage on digital technologies. Today, more than ever before, the international community must carefully examine and confront the world of digital technologies.
8 September 2020
A Q&A with Melanie A. Mecca, Chief Executive Officer, DataWise
The scope of information that the UN defines, produces and uses is vast and complex. In June, the UN published the Secretary-General’s "Data Strategy for Action by Everyone, Everywhere" – a roadmap for data-driven change in the Organization.
4 August 2020
By Lambert Hogenhout, Chief of Data Analytics and Innovation, OICT
Databases have been around a long time, since the 1960s. Times when the world was less complicated and less inter-connected, at least in a data sense. Traditional databases focused on "things" with properties, like employees with birthdates and addresses and salaries. Even though they are called relational databases, the relationships were secondary.
8 July 2020
By Wafa Aboul Hosn, Chief of Economic Statistics, and Juraj Riecan, Director of Statistics, Information Society and Technology Cluster, Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia
Data and statistics are no longer the purview of researchers and academics. This has become most evident with the COVID-19 pandemic, as people worldwide are following daily statistics on confirmed cases, deaths, and PCR (polymerase chain reaction) testing, and governments put in place policies to contain the spread of the disease among their population.
