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The Third Sector and Big Data

Verantwortlicher Autor: Carlo Marino Rome, 23.09.2020, 14:41 Uhr
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Rome [ENA] Less than ten years ago, Big Data was presented to the public as the solution to most of humanity's problems. Big Data had to help by taking more informed decisions, by solving health problems, logistics and by accurately predicting the spread of pandemics. These expectations were not met and the dramatic Covid-19 emergency confirmed they are not the answer to a all problems.

In part, the expectations were probably excessive, dictated by marketing and by the enthusiasm of the "revolution" that had just exploded, but still to be tested and validated. The potential of Big Data is great, but the road ahead may be full of obstacles. For all stakeholders. Given that large amounts of data are not necessarily synonymous with value, large companies are more or less strenuously converting their nature into data-driven, building teams, culture and adapting technological infrastructures. However, they still limit themselves to mainly using their own company data (not always really Big) and rare are the exceptions in which different subjects decide to build projects based on mutual data access.

Universities and Research Institutes were the cradle of the first generation of Data Scientists and over time they have adapted their training plans and sequences of programs and courses that give a deep understanding of this field of study. The universities are today called to respond to important challenges such as finding funds, severely affected by the pandemic, as well as to try to mitigate the effects of some forms of misalignment in the production / industrial context. The main objective for researchers remains publication and on this front the peer review process, although solid, appears anachronistic with the needs of a rapidly evolving market.

While noting multiple positive results and without oversimplifying, the Italian Public Administration, for example, showed slow and lacked momentum. Local and central governments often struggle to fulfill the role of strong counterpart, technologically up to date, such as to counter the logic of profit and private interests to safeguard the rights of citizens. In short, the “data revolution” is easy to communicate, but it takes time to be implemented and the best practices and the winning models will emerge in a self-selective manner from the transitional period.

The Third Sector, a term that covers a range of different organisations with different structures and purposes, belonging neither to the public sector (i.e., the state) nor to the private sector (profit-making private enterprise) could become the ideal innovation hub in which the original promise of Big Data in the near future can be invigorated. In fact, the aims of the projects go beyond a logic of pure interest and profit and go well with academic research (for publication purposes). For their part, companies can be able to collaborate on projects for social purposes and validate outside the company perimeter the actual value of proprietary datasets.

Last but not least, the public body is entitled to play an active role as mediator and guarantor. However, in terms of technical skills and data culture, the Third Sector has a large gap to fill. The issue is not so much equipping non-profit organizations with Data Scientists (this will be feasible only for a limited number of subjects), but rather enabling a constructive dialogue between the parties: domain experts and data experts. Profound connoisseurs of "social issues" are needed. In fact, they are able to bring specific questions to the attention of Data Scientists and have the knowledge to set up the project in a Data-Driven perspective, quantifying effort and complexity.

Training and education are therefore the key to overcoming resistance and skepticism. In parallel with training, it is necessary to build operational reference models that allow to reduce the intrinsic complexity in data sharing situations. The crucial point is to be aware of how the benefits resulting from the progress on this front represent an advantage from the productive fabric to pure research, from public administration to the relationship with citizens. The Third Sector in this sense could really reconcile the Big Data phenomenon with its original vision.

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