The Secret

Life of a Weather

Datum

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#lifeofdata

Romilly Close – Pi weather station designer (Aerospace Engineering UG student)Fred Sonnenwald - Pi weather station project co-supervisor (Civil Engineering)Sophie Rutter – Usability testing (Information School)

Jo Bates, Information School, University of Sheffield

Paula Goodale, Information School, University of Sheffield

YuWei Lin, University for the Creative Arts

Dave MeeTandot/The Garden

#lifeofdata

11.00am – 12.00pm – Intro to the projectJo BatesPaula Goodale

12.00 – 12.30pm – Citizen science and data production (RC204)Joan Arthur – Old Weather projectDanny Antrobus – Air Quality+

12.30 – 1.30pm – Lunch (iSpace)Build a Raspberry Pi weather station

1.30 – 2.30pm – lifeofdata.org.uk website launch (RC205)

2.45 – 3.45pm – Impact workshop (iSpace)

3.45 – 4.45pm – Data dissonance - hype, power and engagement in the data revolutionDanny Antrobus (Better with Data Society), Prof. Helen Kennedy (Sheffield), Prof. Andrew Prescott (Glasgow/AHRC) (iSpace)

4.45pm – drinks in iSpace

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#lifeofdata

The Secret Life of Data?Big data, open data, managing data, data = oil….Lots of talk about data!

Critical Data StudiesDalton and Thatcher (2014): “in both its production and interpretation, all data – ‘big’ included – is always the result of contingent and contested social practices that afford and obfuscate specific understandings of the world”

How to capture the complex socio-cultural shaping of (‘big’) data infrastructures?

Where to begin? Where to end?

How to talk to people about it? #lifeofdata

The Secret Life of a Weather Datum Research Questions

1. What is the ‘journey’ that weather data produced by the UK’s Met Office takes from its production through to its collation and re-use as ‘big’ weather data in different contexts?

2. What socio-cultural values and practices are articulated in the transformation of this data on its journey from production through to various contexts of collation, distribution and re-use, and how do these socio-cultural values and practices themselves transform as they interact with the data over the course of its journey?

3. What institutional policies and practices, and government policies and legislation, shape the distribution and licensing of weather data for re-use in different contexts?

4. How can the complexity of the socio-cultural dynamics shaping the production, collation, distribution and re-use of ‘big’ weather data be communicated to a wider audience?

#lifeofdata

lifeofdata.org.uk

#lifeofdata

The Secret

Life of a Weather

Datum

MethodsCase studies and participants

Semi-structured interviews and Observations

Documentary evidence and Digital ethnography

Thematic analysis

Challenges and lessons learned

Data production• Weston Park weather station• Met Office• Amateur observers• Old Weather• Policy maker

Climate Science• Met Office Hadley Centre• Climatic Research Unit, UEA• Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)• Met Office projects – ACRE and Old WeatherFinancial Markets• Weather Market Data supplier• [Financial markets]• Policy makerCitizen Science• Amateur observers• Old Weather / Archives• Met Office projects

- WOW and Old Weather#lifeofdata

MethodsCase studies and participants

Semi-structured interviews and Observations

Documentary evidence and Digital ethnography

Thematic analysis

Challenges and lessons learned

Towards ethnography• Site visits• Multiple interviews• Observation

• Field notes• Photographs• Video

• Interviews - core themes• Own role, data practices • Motivations and challenges• Relationships with other people and

organisations• External environment – e.g. economic and policy

issues• Tailored to individuals

• Observations – working environment• Communal and personal space• Branding and artefacts• Personal interactions• Technology #lifeofdata

MethodsCase studies and participants

Semi-structured interviews and Observations

Documentary evidence and Digital ethnography

Thematic analysis

Challenges and lessons learned

Extending coverage and filling in gaps• Official records• Access restrictions• Discourse• Community

Documentary evidence • Reports• Policy documents• Research papers• Web sites• Corporate publications

Digital ethnography• Twitter

• IPCC conference• Online forums

• Citizen scientists

#lifeofdata

MethodsCase studies and participants

Semi-structured interviews and Observations

Documentary evidence and Digital ethnography

Thematic analysis

Challenges and lessons learned

Coding• Manual• 2-3 coders

Coding themes• Attitudes, values and beliefs• Valuable activities and practices• Social relationships• The data journey

Working papers• One per case• Analysis by coding themes• By organisation

Cross-case analysis• Web site• Research papers

#lifeofdata

MethodsCase studies and participants

Semi-structured interviews and Observations

Documentary evidence and Digital ethnography

Thematic analysis

Challenges and lessons learned

Gaining access• Gatekeepers

• Press• Senior staff

• Staff availability• Observing work practices• Photography and video

Negotiating permissions• Open research data• Transcript style• Transcript content• Audio• Photographs

Reflections• Pre-existing relationships• Resource limitations• Time limitations• Little precedent in social science s

#lifeofdata

The Secret

Life of a Weather

Datum

Visualisation of research design

Embed user in a data journey

Structure is non-linear and non-complete

#lifeofdata

Node specific empirical findings

Embedded research data – rich, transparent, bring the social alive

Third person – emphasise the people, culture, stories, relations

Relatively descriptive (through a critical lens)

Leave discursive space open for public discussion

Key themesInterrelations between people – space-time

Transparency and openness of cultures

Transparency and openness of data

Dependency on particular cultural values

Social relations across space • Local – global

• Weston Park – local data ecology; national Met Office; global climate science and financial markets

• Domestic - workplace• Citizen Science – individual homes -> global

climate science (and potentially forecasting)

Social relations across time• Inter-generational connections

• Previous generations – curators, observers• Future generations – archiving for posterity

• Empathetic relations• Old Weather project • Weston Park

#lifeofdata

Key themesDiversity of discursive cultures across infrastructure

Open discursive spaces (genuine, transparent, trust)• Data production

• Weston Park• Old Weather• Amateur observers• Archives

Politically restricted discursive spaces• Climatic Research Unit (anxious transparency)• Met Office (anxious transparency; brand control)• IPCC (science-government consensus; on message)

Market restriction of discursive spaces• Weather market data supplier (control)• Financial markets (closed off)• Met Office (Bow-tie)

Interrelations between people – space-time

Transparency and openness of cultures

Transparency and openness of data

Dependency on particular cultural values #lifeofdata

Key themesPolitics being enacted through data sharing practices

Local data sharing ecologies• Weston Park – public ownership/heritage

Climate science v climate sceptics• Desire to share in a complex, contested and

shifting socio-political environment

Tension between desire for open data and openness of discursive space• Weston Park• Weather Market Data Supplier

Interrelations between people – space-time

Transparency and openness of cultures

Transparency and openness of data

Dependency on particular cultural values #lifeofdata

Key themesDependency of data infrastructure on cultural values of voluntarism, good will, public service, collective action, making a contribution

Givers• Citizen science, Weston Park, Climate ScienceTakers• Climate scientists and meteorologists

• Citizen science and voluntary labour

• Weather markets (and other private sector)• Demand on state (open data)• Amateur data/Potential for investment in

data infrastructure

Funding and investment • Sustainability issues – austerity + funding priorities

(data isn’t sexy)• Resilience of the infrastructure is value based

Interrelations between people – space-time

Transparency and openness of cultures

Transparency and openness of data

Dependency on particular cultural values #lifeofdata

Mapping data journeys…

Illuminates shifting cultures and politics across the infrastructure

Draws out relations and dependencies between different nodes

Emphasises the role of the local in these ‘big’ global data infrastructures

Communicates to a wider audience

#lifeofdata