Big Data for Social GoodDr Richard BenjaminsDirector for External Positioning and Big Data for Social Good

The UN has set 17 development goals for 2030:

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…and Big Data is a huge opportunity to measure progress and shape policy.

Payment Data

Search Queries

Satellite Imaging

Mobile Phone Data

• Estimation of consumer price index and poverty rates. • Economic impact of natural disasters.

• Identify influenza breakouts.• Monitor dengue fever spread geographically.

• Light emissions picked up by satellites to estimate GDP growth.• Time series of satellite images to identify flood risk areas.

• Estimating poverty maps.• Cell phone records to predict socio-economic levels.

Data Type Use Case

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...and World Bank Research shows this is really happening.

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Mobile phone data

Satellite imagery data

Other

Other social networks

Web data

Twitter data

Payment data

Scanner data

Facebook data

Sensor data

Smart meter data

Which data is used in projects?Number of projects per goal

No poverty

Peace, justice and

strong institutions

Good health and

wellbeing

Zero hunger

Decent work and economic

growth

Gender equality

Sustainable Cities and

Communities

Reduced inequalities

Partnerships for Goals

Affordable and Clean

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There are more than 6 billion mobiles worldwide & 90% are in developing countries…

• 320 million accesses.

• Over 21 billion mobile events globally on network every day.

• 13 countries in Latin America.

• More than 600 Data Scentistsworldwide.

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As part of LUCA, we can focus on BD4SG, leveraging research and commercial capabilities:

Tools & Infrastructure

Business Insights

Data ScienceBig Data for Social Good

Data Engineering

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1: Measuring the impact of an earthquake in Mexico:

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2: Analyzing the impact of floods in Mexico:

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3: Providing tourism indicators in Valencia to encourage sustainable tourism:

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4: Analyzing commuting in Barcelona as part of green city infrastructure plan:

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But Big Data for Social Good has its challenges:

Could this cannibalizecommercial opportunities?

Am I legally allowed to do this in this country?

Could this harm my reputationeven if it’s for social good?

If data is my biggest asset, should I be opening it up?

What if the competition got hold of my data?

What if the anonymisationprocess is not rigorous enough?

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The key is to learn by doing & experimenting:

CommercialBD4SG does not necessarily mean for free.

SecurityBring the algorithms to the data – OPAL

PartnershipsBuilding public and private sector alliances.

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Thanks for listening!@vrbenjamins / @LUCA_D3

www.luca-d3.com