Our Data Mindset

Today, I spoke at this month's Women in Data Science event @ Kennesaw State University about our data mindset. A rather diverse group of data practitioners and professionals (see the above photo) engaged in a robust conversation about equitable participation, access, inclusion and representation of data in our algorithms, processes and systems. How do you approach engaging with new, existing and old data? Do you fold in this content and re-evaluate situations? Do you accept new content? Do you discard content? Do you choose to ignore it?

I introduced two notions to data mindset: data neutrality and data partiality. I believe we all aspire to be guided by discernment and seeking understanding (data neutrality), while operating in a more single-dimensional data mindset (data partiality) more often than we'd like to admit. Using The BlackTwitter Project as an example, elements of our data mindset is exposed as we blend data analytics, social impact and race as a lens to understanding cultural sentiments.

May you continue to talk about data, challenge your beliefs and evolve your mindset. Slides are available here.