Presentation given by Peter Bull of DrivenData at the August 2017 Data for Good meetup in San Francisco. Crowdsourcing Data for Good: Lessons from the social sector and how to get involved Just like every major corporation today, nonprofits and governments have more data than ever before. And just like those corporations, they are eager to tap into the power of their data. But the social sector doesn’t have the same resources to attract talent. Jeff Hammerbacher put it best: “The best minds of my generation are thinking about how to make people click ads. That sucks.” At DrivenData our goal is to make the world suck a little less by empowering impact organizations to get the most from their data. Peter Bull, co-founder at DrivenData, will speak on the ways in which statistics, computer science, and machine learning can be applied to the challenges in the social sector. The talk has two parts: the first is the big-picture context of the data for good movement, how to get involved. The second is an in-depth case study of the methods which won DrivenData’s recent machine learning competitions.

1. Crowdsourcing
Data for Good
Data for Good Meetup
Domino Data Labs – 30 August 2017

2. About me
Philosopher
then
Software Engineer
then
Data Scientist
Co-founder of DrivenData
@pjbull | @drivendataorg

3. Agenda
Data and the social sector
The crowdsourcing approach
Case studies
How to get involved

4. What is data for good?

5. Hackers (1995) 6.2/10 stars on IMDB

6. That’s a beautiful vision, but
more often it feels like…

7. Transformers: Age of Extinction (2014) 5.8/10 stars on IMDB
Simple coding…ALGORITHMS!MATH!Why can’t we make what we want to make the way we want to make it?

8. But, for social sector organizations,
the reality is…

10. Why?

12. THE DATA CAPACITY GAP
$135,000
average salary
executive director
US nonprofit
140k – 180k
shortage of data
scientists
$118,700
average salary of
data scientist

13. “Finding ways to make big data
useful to humanitarian decision
makers is one of the great
challenges and opportunities of
the network age.”
UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

14. “The best minds of my generation
are thinking about how to make
people click ads… That sucks.”
Jeff Hammerbacher, Former Data Manager, Facebook

15. How can we help?

17. ?

18. Benefits of competitions

19. Two-way
Visibility

20. Community
Building

21. Accuracy
Matters

22. Fun

23. What can non-profits do with data?

24. Measure Impact!

26. DATA FOR
ACTION
Collection Plan Data Collection Data Storage Data Analysis Results
DATA FOR IMPACT
data
scientist
domain
expert
data
scientist
domain
expert

27. There’s more to
data for good than
impact measurement.

28. What can nonprofits do
with data today?

29. Education Resource Strategies
Budget
We are
budget-
ing our
things
$
Expenditures
Monies for
making
students
good
Beware
there be
dollars
here

30. PETRO-VEND FUEL AND FLUIDS
MAINT MATERIALS
SATELLITE COOK
UPPER EARLY INTERVENTION PROGRAM 4-5
Regional Playoff Hosts
Supp.- Materials
ITEMGH EXTENDED DAY
FURNITURE AND FIXTURES
NON-CAPITALIZED AV
Water and Sewage *
Instructional Materials
Food Services - Other Costs
Capital Assets - Locally Defined Groupings

31. Regular *
TEACHE
R
Special
Instruction
TCHR, SCNDY
MATH
Certificated
Employees
Salaries And
Wages
IN OTH
CERTIFICAT
ED PERSON
1
Disadvantage
d Youth *
$104,928.19
Title I -
Disadvantaged
Children/Target
ed Assistance
BUILDING
ALLOCATION
S
LABEL COLUMN Function Sharing Object_Type Student_Type Position_Type
MOST LIKELY Teacher Compensation School Reported
Base
Salary/Compensatio
n
Poverty Teacher
2ND LIKELY Food Services
School on Central
Budgets
Benefit Unspecified Coordinator/Manager
3RD LIKELY NO_LABEL NO_LABEL Supplies/Materials NO_LABEL NO_LABEL
New Data
Predictions!

32. Education Resource Strategies
Saving about
300 staff-hours
per year

33. Data for Action
Use 1: Automation

41. Data for Action
Use 2: Smarter Strategy

46. 4 years of history
8,000 locations
315,000 violations

48. • RATINGS
• REVIEWS
• Date of the review
• Free form text
• CATEGORIES
• Cuisine
• Format
• NEGHBORHOODS
• CHECKINS

49. "The muffins are great...esp
the blueberry! I have
never had that good a
blueberry muffin...its not
super sickey sweet like
most...."

50. "Food was soggy and cold
by the time I got it and they
messed up my order.
Better food and better
service from other places
nearby."

52. NEXT NEXT NEXT

53. Data for Action
Use 3: Better Targeting

54. DATA FOR
ACTION
Data Analysis Results
> automation
> smarter strategy
> better targeting

55. What can I do?

56. www.drivendata.org

58. drivendata.org/
competitions

59. CONCEPT 2
CLINIC SLIDES

64. concepttoclinic.drivendata.org

65. What else can I do?

66. 1. Join data for good
groups

67. www.datakind.org

68. meetup.com/DataScienceforGood/

69. 2. Do data for good in
your spare time

70. blog.datalook.io/openimpact/

71. datasf.org/opendata

72. www.drivendata.org

73. 3. Participate in a
fellowship

74. dssg.io

75. dssg-atl.io

76. escience.washington.edu

77. www.codeforamerica.org

78. www.deltanalytics.org

79. 4. Attend data for good
events

80. www.kdd.org

81. www.bloomberg.com/company/d4gx

82. dogooddata.com

83. 5. Get involved
professionally

84. Get your company involved!

85. Look for local non-profits!

86. Donate your skills and your
knowledge in the way that works
for you.
Data for Good Meetup
Domino Data Labs – 30 August 2017
Data has the power to change the world.