Where is the knowledge we have lost in data? – May 15, 2018, University of Copenhagen | DASTS

"Professor Sally Wyatt, Maastricht University.

Centre for Medical Science and Technology Studies, University of Copenhagen announces the following seminar: Data are amazing. These remarkable representations of the results of observations, experiments and simulations can be made to travel, to circulate, and are often taken up as evidence for research orpolicy. In recent years, ‘data’, and especially ‘big data’ have been endowed with almost magical properties by research and other policy makers, seen as having the potential to offer solutions to all sorts of scientific and public policy questions. In this lecture, I will examine five myths of big data:

Data is the new oil

Data are givens

Data speak for themselves

Everything is already digital

FAIR data principles are about fairness

The lecture draws on three experiences. The first is conducting case studies about open access to research data, as part of an EU-funded project called RECODE (http://recodeproject.eu/). The second set of experiences arises from my involvement in various national and international policy-making initiatives and committees around big data and research infrastructure. The third relates to my long engagement with science and technology studies (STS), and how it helps us to understand the role of research infrastructure in the production of knowledge.

May 15, 2018, at 10:00-11:30, in room 5.0.22 at CSS, Øster Farimagsgade 5A, building 5