When we launched this initiative last summer, we chose the name “Data Without Borders” so that we could start working right away on harnessing the amazing energy and enthusiasm of the community for solving the world’s toughest problems with data. Data Without Borders was a successful stand-in name – people related to the concept and our parents “got it” – but we knew from Day 1 that we needed an identity that truly captured our mission and ethos, a name that was truly our own.

During our work together over the past several months, we have been endlessly inspired by your generosity, expertise, and commitment to using data in the service of humanity. As we considered names, DataKind emerged as the perfect encapsulation of this purpose and passion, and we are incredibly happy to share it with you today. We think it truly encompasses our mission, and we are excited to work with you under the banner of DataKind for years to come!

In the coming months we will be launching multiple new initiatives to connect data scientists with civic and social organizations. We hope that you’ll continue to follow us and participate in the exciting endeavors that we have planned, from our weekend DataDives to building out our DataCorps to hiring new scientists on-staff. You can stay up to date on everything we have planned by checking out our new website, our new Facebook page, or by following us at @datakind on Twitter.

We owe thanks to a huge number of people in getting us to where we are today, not least of which is the wonderful Cheryl Heller, who graciously guided us toward the perfect name (for you data volunteers with an eye for design, check out Cheryl’s wonderful Design for Social Innovation program at SVA). Moreover, we have all of you to thank for the awe-inspiring momentum of this project, and we’re looking forward to your continued inspiration, motivation, and support as DataKind grows!

We’re DataKind. Are you?

We’re super excited to announce that DataKind is coming to Chicago for our next DataDive! Over the weekend of May 11th – May 13th, our crew will head to the Windy City to roll up our sleeves alongside teams of volunteer data scientists and non-profit organizations to assess, analyze, and visualize data in a way that has lasting impact for our partners and the community at large. We know that there’s a thriving data community in the heart of the country, and we’re really looking forward to a challenging and rewarding weekend with you all! Our homebase will be the truly excellent new co-working space 1871, and we can’t thank them enough for opening their doors for a weekend of intense work. If you are interested in joining us, as a non-profit with data to share, as a data volunteer, or anything in between, we would love to have you. Please RSVP on our sign-up page to officially join in the fun, and stay tuned on Twitter with the hashtag #chidatadive for announcements about our non-profit partners and other updates. Can’t wait to see you soon!

Responsibilities include:
- Matching members of our volunteer / contractor pool to potential projects.
- Initiating the project with the data volunteers and social organization.
- Checking in on the project to make sure the volunteers are fulfilling the project goals.

Skills required:
- Background in data science (statistics, computer science, or similar field)
- Good communication skills
- Project management experience a plus

If interested please send a resume to contact@datawithoutborders.cc with the subject “Data Ambassador Position”.

Responsibilities include:
- Organizing our active DataCorps and fellowship projects.
- Corresponding with the Data Ambassadors on each team to ensure that projects are moving ahead smoothly.
- Working with the Data Ambassadors to help assemble data teams for new projects.

Skills required:
- Project management experience
- Exceptional communication and organization skills
- Knowledge of the field of data science
- Experience working with social organizations a plus.

If interested please send a resume to contact@datawithoutborders.cc with the subject “DataCorps and Fellows Program Director”.

Requirements:
- Social media experience (Twitter and Facebook updates)
- Great writing skills – we want someone who enjoys writing! You will be communicating on behalf of Data Without Borders.
- Experience with updating Word Press is a huge plus

Responsibilities:
- Updating social media (Twitter & Facebook) – 3-4 times per week
- Writing blog posts (updates, events, results) – ~ 1 per week
- Outreach to press with updates and events – 2 per month
- Writing copy for the monthly newsletter – 1 per month
- Minor updates to our website (slideshow, featured blogs, site copy) 2-4 per month

If interested please send a resume to contact@datawithoutborders.cc with the subject “Marketing Assistant”.

I know what you’re thinking – “Man, DWB just announced their March DC Datadive, but I’m stuck out here on the West coast. How can I get my Data Without Borders fix this spring without traveling all the way across the country?” Good news for you, friend. Data Without Borders will be at the Strata Big Data Conference in Santa Clara, CA from 2/28 – 3/1! We are thrilled and honored to be giving a presentation on the power of big data in the social sector alongside our good friend Virginia Carlson from the Metropolitan Chicago Information Center. For those of you who may just be learning about MCIC, they’re an incredible group that links data scientists and analysts with Chicago-based social organizations and government agencies. We’re very excited to be sharing the stage with this wonderful group and look forward to bringing DWB’s message and latest findings to the data community this year. We’ll be speaking on Thursday at 4PM, but will be around for the whole conference.

More information on Strata can be found here. See you there!

We got feedback from all over the world about where we should be hosting our next Datadives, and while we’re actively working to make all those wishes come true, we had to address one that we heard more than most – please bring DWB to Washington DC. Well, today we’re pleased to announce that we’ve heard your calls and Data Without Borders will be throwing a DC Datadive the weekend of March 2nd – March 4th! This time around we’re teaming up with a truly spectacular group of people, the Independent Sector’s 2011 American Express NGEN Fellows. This class of Fellows is comprised of thought leaders from some of the most incredible social organizations around, including The Knight Foundation, Livestrong, Bechtel, Habitat for Humanity, amongst others. It’s going to be a wonderful weekend of digging into data for the social good in the heart of the nation’s capital, so whether you’re a social organization or a data scientist or something in between, come join us!

You can register for the DC Datadive right here on the events page. Note that submissions for social organizations who would like to register to have their data analyzed are still open as of now.

See you all there!

Well this is just awesome. We always said from the start that, if you like what DWB is doing, you shouldn’t let us stand in the way of you doing it too. Well wouldn’t you know it, some wonderful people over at the University of Michigan’s School of Information, teaming with Open Michigan, have taken us up on that aspirational challenge and are hosting their very own Datadive! The weekend of 2/10 – 2/12 they’ll be hosting the A2 Datadive at the University of Michigan, which will feature social organizations teaming up with local data scientists to help explore their data. There will be educational seminars, talks, and a whole lot of data, so if you’re in the Ann Arbor area, sign up now! It’s going to be an amazing event and you can find more information on the A2 Datadive page here. Have fun, guys!

There have been a lot of exciting developments over at DWB HQ these past few months. From new events to new programs to a trip to the UN, we’ve had an exciting end to 2011 and wanted to share the good news with you all here!

NY AND SF DATADIVE RESULTS

We had two wonderful weekend-long Datadives this fall, one in New York and one in San Francisco. We worked with Grameen Foundation, Benetech, Mobilizing Health, MixMarket, NYCLU, and UN Global Pulse to find answers to their questions using data. The events were huge successes and lots of lessons were learned on both sides. You can read about the exciting results from both Datadives in more detail here.

2012 DATADIVES

Following on the heels of our other two successful Datadives, we’re unrolling a full slate of Datadives in 2012. We can’t spill all of the details yet, but plans are brewing for DC, Chicago, and London. We’ll be posting to our site and emailing again when we’ve got more info, so keep an eye out if you’re in one of those cities!

DATA WITHOUT BORDERS GOES TO THE UN

We’re extremely delighted to announce that one of our NY Datadive groups was recently honored by having their work shown in a presentation to the UN General Assembly! These dedicated Datadivers worked side-by-side with the UN Global Pulse to better understand the UN’s global wellbeing survey, and the results were used in a presentation on the importance of using data for development. Aside from beaming like proud parents that one of our teams got to sit in the same room as Ban Ki Moon, we recognize this as a momentous development in bridging the scientific and social communities. The work that both the Datadivers and UN Global Pulse did was truly excellent and a prime example of what can happen when people from the data community and the social sector work together. We’re incredibly excited for everyone involved in this project and can’t wait to see what they come up with next!

LASTING CHANGE – THE DWB DATACORPS

A lot of people who have just gotten involved with DWB think that our Datadives are our main focus. While we find the Datadives to be critical for getting people excited about the mission and for showing social organizations the power of data, our goal has always been to build a vast network of data scientists that can work internationally with anyone that needs them. In a major step toward that goal, we are proud to announce today that, based on the success of our Datadives, we will soon be launching our DWB DataCorps. The DataCorps consists of enthusiastic data scientists who are matched with social organizations for part-time projects that can be done over weekends, at nights, or as part of their 20% time at work. We’ll start tackling bigger data problems for longer amounts of time and really start to bring lasting change for those organizations who don’t have data resources.

Our initial program will be a pilot consisting of hand-selected volunteers to begin with. We’ll be opening the matching up more broadly over time, of course, so if you’re interested in helping, sign up at http://datawithoutborders.cc/get-involved if you haven’t already. We’re very excited to be able to launch this new branch of DWB and can’t wait to have you all be a part of it.

Looking back over this year, it’s amazing to think that everything we’ve done so far, all of the organizations we’ve worked with and all of the people that have volunteered to get involved, all started from a humble idea last June. Thanks to all of you who have made 2011 a truly amazing (half) year for us and we can’t wait to roll up our sleeves and make 2012 even better!

We had a lot of questions going into these events and a lot of experimentation we knew we’d have to do. We knew the events would be great collaborations for data scientists and social orgs, but would anyone come? We were confident we had found good data problems, but were we actually ready to start serving organizations with just local scientists who had never worked together before? We knew we weren’t going to solve an organization’s big problems in just one day, but would we be able to even show meaningful results? We went into the weekends expecting success, but prepared for the harsh reality that we might have a lot of work ahead of us.

What happened was beyond what we could have ever hoped for. Not only did none of our fears come true but, quite to the contrary, we had greater successes than we had even imagined. Organizations and data scientists alike asked how they could keep working together, emails flowed in asking us to help move the projects forward, and one team’s work was shown at the UN General Assembly! We’re still improving our Datadive model (data cleaning is still a drudgery oft grumbled about by our participants), but we were thrilled that these first two events were huge successes by all measures. Not only did they show that these two communities are, with some prepping, already able to work together and produce meaningful results, but also that our vision of a world where a global network of data scientists works alongside social organizations is not just a dream, but quickly becoming a reality.

New York Datadive

We were honored to have The UN Global Pulse, The Microfinance Information Exchange Market, and the New York Civil Liberties Union attend as our selected NGO’s for our New York Datadive. The work that teams produced ranged from a barrage of website scrapers, to time-lapse visualizations, to statistical analyses.

Click here to see the detailed results from New York.

San Francisco Datadive

We had an amazing group of social organizations at our San Francisco event, including The Grameen Foundation, Benetech, and Mobilizing Health. This event saw deep-dives of data on worker performance, statistics around human rights databases, and the beginnings of an automated prescription system.

Click here to see the detailed results from San Francisco.