From the course: Data for Good: Using Data Science in Nonprofits and NGOs

How data is used everyday

From the course: Data for Good: Using Data Science in Nonprofits and NGOs

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How data is used everyday

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- [Instructor] As you know, every day we are collecting more and more data. And more and more data is being collected about us. These points can be sometimes quite difficult to connect. And now there is no shortage of tools, guides, or resources to help analysts understand large amounts of data. Regardless if your intention is to perform research or analysis for commercial purposes or use it for volunteering, at its core, the usage guidelines are the same. Data can be used to understand the past, describe the present, and infer the future. Different approaches are used to ensure the information can be extracted and presented at the right time. In a not-for-profit the same type of profitability analysis can be used as for a small e-commerce store. In some cases, the customer relationship management or CRM system may be in the same location to implement these tools. What is different now is the increase in support for this process. By support, I'm mainly talking about the resources that are available through the internet to not only work on projects, discover new methods, but also share the work that's being done. With the increase in computing power it's been possible to share work across boundaries and work on large problems remotely opening up a huge amount of opportunities to donate time across the globe. With the increase in accessible research new applications and machine learning can be introduced to fields that would normally be excluded from having this knowledge. With the increase of open-source data new insights can be connected to bolster existing data sets. With the increase of open-source tools, license costs are no longer prohibitive. As we work to continually connect the dots the resources have made it easier to access and perform the tasks regardless of the initial purpose. But as you will see, it also means that the same rules need to be applied regarding oversight and implementation.

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