saraewood.com

So, I am having a bad day. And a good day.

I found out that the startup idea I have been planning and talking (and hinting) about ad nauseaum for the past few years has been built.

The soon-to-be-launched Swivel seems to be EXACTLY what I have been proposing to build. It is an idea I feel passionate about - not only for the cool factor of what can be done when data becomes comparable, but for the fact that by making data accessible, it becomes a way to generate hypothesis and promotes innovation.

I am a huge believer in the power of data and in my various roles over 10+ in dotcoms and places like the UN and Harvard I have found that is the most challenging aspect of web work: Combining information in new ways to form new ideas.

Do sports outcomes affect the stock market? Can presidential elections be predicted by polling data in one rural area? Do airplane flight patterns have an influence our health? Do tides or sonar testing cause whales to beach themselves?

These guys, as I have, imagine a site where you could cross reference incidence of avian flu cases with migratory bird flight patterns with local rainfall tables. Or whether your own personal information on the wines you prefer have anything to do with pollen count. Imagine then the ability to discuss these findings with others who are interested, either personally or professionally, in these same issues. The ability to cross-reference information from different sources and create maps, charts, data tables, discussion groups, and then collect more and different data easily does not currently exist on the web.

This type of ability on-line would encourage cross-referencing, data mining and discovery and leads to evidence-based decision making. As we have seen with the proliferation of sites like MySpace, Flickr and Wikipedia, users are actively looking not only for access to information, but the ability to engage with other users in a community environment as well. Furthermore, people are becoming more comfortable with concepts such as user ratings and social networking on-line. The power of the web as a social medium to filter and weight importance, relevance and quality of content also applies to data. The advent of devices like WAP-enabled mobile phones and blackberries further feed our need for instant access to data in real time.

Data are incomparable for five main reasons. First, for many users there is no effective way to know what datasets exist in the public domain on a particular topic. For example, at present, it is not easy to know who has measured global temperatures over the past century. Second, even if one can identify what datasets exist on a topic; a different standard is often used for reporting, different data architecture and different ways to describe data set documentation. Third, some data that make it to the public domain are only in the public domain temporarily. The organization that collected the data may not support the data archive except for a short period of time. Fourth, enormous volumes of data are only available in hardcopy from sources such as government annual reports or statistical digests and have never been digitized. Fifth, unfortunately, many datasets are collected but never put in the public domain. The reasons include the extra costs and effort of putting the data in a public archive, providing documentation and the tendency for some groups to see datasets as their personal property.

A solution to these problems such that any individual whether they are in Bangladesh or in Boston would have equal access to all relevant data both for their own decision-making and for research purposes. It seems that Swivel’s on-line community and suite of functionality and tools enables users to compare and contrast indicators from vastly different data sets on different topics for a variety of purposes - which is EXACTLY what is needed.

So, I feel like crying - the laws of inertia have done me wrong again. But at least I can take comfort in that the idea was thought feasible by people other than me (I had the experience of people saying: “I don’t get it” or “Data are boring.”) And I feel even better when I realize that now these tools will exist in the world.

On Salon.com this week, an article was published titled “A mother’s love” by Sallie Tisdale. Definitely the type of title I am not normally drawn too - as it sounds so corny and all. But for some reason I clicked on it and started reading and couldn’t stop. It was a sad and poignant piece of writing and I found it quite moving. So, in my new series on irony, I thought I would include a pull quote from the text.

“The task of children is differentiation, and that means difference — different values, different goals. The struggle of a child is partly the struggle to be seen as something other than a child, until it becomes true. The struggle of a parent is that we never stop feeling like a parent, and a little responsible for their behavior. These are complex and textured relationships; we want them to grow, we want them to stay, and they want the same impossible things.”

Barrage après la saison sèche - Lac de Péligre, Centre, Haïti - © Martin Baran

One factor that drove the central plateau farmers of Haiti into deeper poverty in the mid-50s was the construction of a huge hydro-electric dam which forced them from their land.

The farmers were driven off their lands with the promise of electricity for the greater good of the country. Today, down the road from the huge dam, those same people are dying for lack of electricity in health clinics whose power comes and goes without warning. The farmers have no electricity, no water and no money to show for what they have sacrificed.

Health NGO working in the area worth knowing about: Zanmi Lasante