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ODID DPhil Marco Haenssgen Invited to UN Expert Group Meeting on Big Data

ODID DPhil Student Marco Haenssgen was recently invited to contribute to a United Nations Expert Group Meeting on “Big Data and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development,” where he represented Oxford’s Big Data and Human Development research network

In September 2015, the UN member states adopted a new agenda to end poverty by 2030. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development succeeds the Millennium Development Goals and comprises 17 goals and 169 targets.

Held in Bangkok from 14 to 15 December 2015, the Expert Group Meeting brought together policy-makers and experts from the Asia-Pacific region and beyond to debate whether and how “Big Data” can inform Sustainable Development policy

“Big Data” involves the collection and analysis of large amounts of information captured intentionally or coincidentally as a by-product of human-computer interactions. Recent applications include, for example, the use of network operators’ mobile phone records to understand migration patterns or to estimate wealth distributions in low- and middle-income countries

Marco’s research at the Oxford Department of International Development examined the various ways in which rural dwellers in India and China engage with mobile technology

Some of his recent publications involve an analysis of how conventional measures of mobile phone adoption deviate from a more comprehensive understanding of technology utilisation (http://www.istas2015.org/home/outbox/ISTAS_Paper_ref_30_388.pdf).

With his interdisciplinary research background, Marco contributed a critical perspective on representation and other problem areas in Big Data to the Expert Group Meeting

Photo credit: Eri Nomikou