Starting March 1st, 2022, Data School (Data School) will become part of the Centre for Digital Humanities (CDH) at Utrecht University under the joint deanship of the Faculty of Science and the Faculty of Humanities.  Investigating the implications of AI and datafication for our digital society requires concerted interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary efforts. Over the past…

Are you curious, eager to learn and would you like to have an enriching experience during your summer holidays? The Data School Summer School would make a great opportunity! We are more than happy to invite you to the Utrecht Data Summer School 2021. From Monday 19th of July until Friday 23st of July, we…

Nederlanders protesteren wat af. Zo klonk er afgelopen weekend nog in heel het land een #klimaatalarm en protesteerden mensen op het #Malieveld tegen de coronamaatregelen. Protestgroepen vinden elkaar op sociale media en roepen op tot protest. Hoe organiseren protestgroepen zich online en wat is de rol van de mainstream media hierin? In hoeverre zien we…

Voorlopige resultaten van het onderzoek: “Hoe digitaal werken niet helpt bij het transformeren van de organisatie”. Dit onderzoek heeft een speciale focus op thuiswerken.

Recently we started a new project together with the Association of Dutch Municipalities (VNG) and seven municipalities. We will observe the implementation of data projects in seven different municipalities, starting from an initial data ethics impact assessment to their implementation into the public management process. Since 2016 we have had a lot of experience with…

“Data and algorithms offer many possibilities, but they are not neutral. What you analyse, which algorithms you build, the data you use and what for, these are political and ethical choices. Policy makers are insufficiently aware of this. Furthermore, basic knowledge of data literacy is absolutely necessary for local politicians.” That’s what the Dutch data…

One of the four newly identified focus areas at Utrecht University is Governing the Digital Society. Focus areas interdisciplinarily address research objects of societal relevance and develop novel ways of scientific inquiry. The four new focus areas will receive a total of 1,6 million Euro funding for the period September 2019 to August 2023. Big…

De ‘datarevolutie’, ‘data is de nieuwe olie’, men hoort steeds vaker grootse uitspraken over dataficatie. Maar wat kunt u met alle data die uw organisatie vergaart? En ook: wat kun u er niet mee? Data School houdt zich bezig met dit soort vragen en met sociaal-maatschappelijke en ethische vraagstukken met betrekking tot data. U kunt…

For “Big data Histories”, a special issue of the TMG Journal for Media History, Karin van Es and Eef Masson interviewed the Data School co-founder and project lead Mirko Tobias Schäfer. In this interview he describes our distinct approach to research the impact of data and digitization. Initially it was lack of funding that pointed…

In its most recent predictions of trends for the coming year, Gartner indicates digital ethics and privacy as a top strategy for companies. As the technology and financial industries, governments and even research institutions grapple with ethical issues raised through the data practices and their social impact, ethics starts to fill the vacuum left by…