Citizen’s Guide to a Better Information Future
written by Jer Thorp, Book 49 of 2021
“The lesson that I had learned was one that has guided my approach to solving data problems for the last decade; to treat the data and the systems it lived in not as an abstraction, but as a real thing with particular properties, and to work to understand these unique conditions as deeply as I can. I learned other things from the project too, about paying careful attention to what is missing in data.”
Jer Thorp “Living in Data”
I truly enjoyed this nonfiction work detailing the pitfalls of modern data collection and sharing. I’ve already thought of several ways to apply some of Thorp’s ideas to my work in public health and I found his examples very engaging and useful. We are all subject to data collection and this work raises some very important and timely questions about who creates it, who views it, and who benefits.
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for this ALC.
Recommended for: folks who work with data collection and visualization, anyone who wants to be a better informed consumer of information.
Content Warnings: Privacy, colonization, climate change, racism