From Berkely
Christian Marc Schmidt is principal and founder of Schema, a creative design and technology studio based in Seattle. Schema focuses on the intersection of interaction design and data visualization. Clients range from corporations such as Bloomberg and Microsoft, to startups such as Actively Learn and institutions such as the University of Washington. Christian’s experience spans the fields of information design, interaction design, and media installation.
Statistics Data Literacy
torsdag 31 mars 2016
tisdag 29 mars 2016
Datavisualisering: Briljant förklaring av opinionsmätningars osäkerhet
Från Journalism++ Stockholm Superpedagogiskt och snyggt. Spara den här länken till nästa gång du behöver argumentera kring om det är en nyhet att Moderaterna ökat med 0,3 procentenheter.
http://rocknpoll.graphics/index.html
lördag 26 mars 2016
Skattemiljoner till dålig statistik
 |
| Lars Pehrson/SvD/TT |
Tillväxtverket har lagt miljoner skattekronor på statistik om turism som underkänns i en utredning. Resultatet riskerar att bli felsatsningar inom turistbranschen.
Tillväxtverkets statistik om svenskars affärsresor och privatresor till och från Sverige utgår från en metod som underkänns i en utredning från SCB.
onsdag 23 mars 2016
Lies, damned lies, and statistics
From UQ NewsBig data that could be used to identify people as likely child abusers or alcoholics should be treated with the utmost caution, according to University of Queensland researcher Dr Philip Gillingham.
The School of Nursing, Midwifery and Social Workdata expert said a fascination with exploring the potential of technology was fraught with human and financial danger.
“It is possible that bringing together and mining multiple databases will provide terrific insights into social problems,” Dr Gillingham said.
tisdag 22 mars 2016
Sverige växer – och en fortsatt ökad folkmängd förväntas i fyra av fem kommuner
I detta inlägg presenterar vi årets befolkningsprognoser för Sveriges kommuner. Vi belyser även den framtida befolkningsutvecklingen i Sverige som helhet samt för landets regioner.
Förra året uppgick antalet folkbokförda personer i Sverige till 9 851 017. Detta motsvarar en ökning med drygt 108 000 personer under 2015 och utgör den största årliga befolkningsökningen i närtid. Den främsta förklaringen till att Sverige fortsätter växa är utrikes inflyttning. En annan förklaring är landets demografiska struktur där generationen som föder barn är förhållandevis stor och den äldre generationen som går ur tiden är förhållandevis liten.
Läs mer....
New book outlines ‘the intellectual terrain of statistics’
 |
Stephen Stigler, the Ernest DeWitt Burton Distinguished Service Professor of Statistics, is the author of a new book, The Seven Pillars of Statistical Wisdom, published in March by the Harvard University Press.
Photo by Robert Kozloff
|
In The Seven Pillars of Statistical Wisdom, published in March by the Harvard University Press, Stephen Stigler identifies seven fundamental principles of statistics, a largely interdisciplinary field.
Stigler, the Ernest DeWitt Burton Distinguished Service Professor of Statistics, explained that statistics is not a field that feeds on itself. Rather, statistics addresses quantitative questions in a variety of fields, such as philosophy, literature, medicine, physics, economics, and sociology. In his book, Stigler aims to differentiate statistics from mathematics and computer science as a data science, and point out what makes statistics unique.
“The pillars are the support, not the substance, of statistics,” said Stigler. “This book is a taxonomy of the intellectual terrain of statistics.”
While writing The Seven Pillars of Statistical Wisdom, Stigler embraced the challenge of trying to communicate to a broad audience and make clear concepts that took 100 years to develop.
måndag 21 mars 2016
Osborne OKs Data Science Campus for ONS
From UKAuthority.com Office of National Statistics receives £10 million investment to give it more weight in the big data arena
A Data Science Campus is to be set up within the Office of National Statistics (ONS), with Chancellor George Osborne pledging more than £10 million in the Budget to meet the recommendations of the Charlie Bean review on economic statistics.
The ONS said the hub will be based at its headquarters in Newport and provide research for the whole of government. The organisation plans to work with academic bodies on producing more real time economic statistics so it can spot trends more quickly.
Osborne also gave the go ahead for an Economics Centre of Excellence at the ONS, which will help it to develop partnerships with academics and experts in an effort to 'future proof' economic statistics.
Jonathan Athow, deputy national statistician for economics at the ONS, said the moves should help it to provide policy makers with better insights into the economy.
Read more....
fredag 18 mars 2016
Det stora antalet asylsökande under 2015 ökade inte flyktinginvandringen nämnvärt
Från SCBUnder 2015 ansökte knappt 163 000 personer om asyl i Sverige vilket var dubbelt så många som under 2014. Då de flesta asylsökande kom under hösten och fortfarande väntar på att få uppehållstillstånd, har de inte hunnit ge avtryck i statistiken över flyktinginvandringen som endast ökade med fyra procent till 33 500 personer.
Läs mer....
Big data offers a new method for measuring inflation
 |
| The "digital price index" captures online purchases but misses key goods such as petrol. Bloomberg |
Inflation is a simple concept, but price rises are surprisingly hard to measure. First, statisticians must work out what stuff people buy, and in what proportions (the "basket" of goods). Then they must track the prices of those goods over time. Finally they must decide how to account for new products, changing tastes and the fact that if the price of, say, apples rises, some people will buy another fruit instead rather than pay more.
Read more...
torsdag 17 mars 2016
Lärarnas tidning kan vinna pris för journalistik på nätet
Lärarnas tidnings redaktion har blivit nominerad till priset för Bästa och mest innovativa sätt att använda nätets möjligheter för facklig journalistik.
– Det är extra roligt att bli nominerad i just denna kategori och ett kvitto på att redaktionen kommit långt i arbetet med webbjournalistik. Detta inte minst tack vare vår webbredaktör Lotta Holmström, som ligger i framkant när det gäller datajournalistik. Men det finns såväl goda kunskaper om, som en stor vilja att använda webbens möjligheter även hos övriga på redaktionen, säger Örjan Björklund, chefredaktör.
The mismeasure of scientific significance
From STATS March brings St. Patrick’s Day, the true significance of which has been lost in the froth of green beer and blarney. But without Patrick bringing Christianity to Ireland, Ireland could not have returned it through a rich Insular culture—the written word and the book—to Europe. Now, there is another auspicious moment in the history of learning to add to the month’s calendar of anniversaries: March 7, Significance Day, or—if you will—P Day.
The American Statistical Association—a clerisy for our quantified times—has issued a statement clarifying what a P-value means—or rather doesn’t mean. Indeed, it could be said that by adding up all the things a P-value isn’t you end up with an alarming sense of science in thrall to an absence—P-dolatory—the worship of false significance. As long as your study comparing X and Y ends up with P<0.05, it has found something that is unlikely to be unreal. Science could move forward; your career as an experimentalist had measurable success.
Read more....
Are Data Mining and Machine Learning Distinct from Statistics?
"I almost feel that folks in data science [excluding statisticians] are suddenly realizing that this kind of work is not new and are desperately looking for ways to justify a distinction." — Thomas Speidel
[Machine Learning is simply a] “loose confederation of themes in statistical inference (and decision-making)” — Michael Jordan
"Without a grounding in statistics, a Data Scientist is a Data Lab Assistant." — Martyn Jones
Myth #3: Data mining, machine learning, Big data analysis, business analytics, and data science are distinct from statistics
Repackaging statistics with complementary fields has the potential to create new synergies. E.g., econometrics is the marriage of economics and statistics. This repackaging has been extremely successful; surpassing Six Sigma's mixed results as we discussed in Blog 2. Econometrics has embraced statistics. Applied econometricians have helped develop best practice and some identify as applied statisticians. They are with the science.
Chancellor George Osborne approves Sir Charlie Bean's shake up of UK economic statistics
 |
| The overhaul is aimed at modernising the way the UK collects and manages statistics (Source: Getty) |
An overhaul of the way the UK collects and manages its economics data has been approved by the Treasury.
Plans for an Economics Centre of Excellence and Data Science Campus at the Office for National Statistics (ONS) have been announced as part of the budget. Around £17m of investment will support the initiatives at headquarters of the ONS in Newport in South Wales over the next two years, the ONS said today.
Read more...
Plans for an Economics Centre of Excellence and Data Science Campus at the Office for National Statistics (ONS) have been announced as part of the budget. Around £17m of investment will support the initiatives at headquarters of the ONS in Newport in South Wales over the next two years, the ONS said today.
Read more...
tisdag 15 mars 2016
SCB Årets statistikfrämjare
Från SCB:s Facebooksida SCB:s satsning Sverige i siffror har utsetts till Årets statistikfrämjare med motiveringen: ”För en satsning, riktad främst till unga och ovana statistikanvändare, där statistik presenteras visuellt och interaktivt via ett nytänkande grafiskt formspråk, vilket gör statistiken mer intressant och angelägen".
Vi är jätteglada för den fina utmärkelsen!
måndag 14 mars 2016
The Tools of Big Data Science: The Technologies & Languages of Statistical Analysis
From UpworkYou’ve read about many of the kinds of big data projects that you can use to learn more about your data in our What Can a Data Scientist Do for You? article—now, we’re going to take a look at tools that data scientists use to mine that data: performing statistical techniques like clustering or linear modeling, and then turning them into a story through visualization and reporting.
You don’t need to know how to use these yourself, but having a sense of the differences between these tools will help you gauge what tools might be best for your business and what skills to look for in a data scientist.
Municipal waste statistics
 |
| Figure 1:Municipal waste generated by country in 2003 and 2013, sorted by 2013 level (kg per capita).png ) - Source: Eurostat (env_wasmun) |
This article shows trends in municipal waste generation and treatment in the European Union (EU) from 1995 to 2013. There is a very distinct trend towards less landfilling as countries move steadily towards alternative ways of treating waste.
Municipal waste accounts for only about 10 % of total waste generated when compared with the data reported according to the Waste Statistics Regulation (tab env_wasgen). However, it has a very high political profile because of its complex character, due to its composition, its distribution among many sources of waste, and its link to consumption patterns.
Read more....
Environmental Policies and Economic Performance
From OECD A dirty, rundown environment has quantifiable costs for the economy and the well-being of societies. For example, the welfare costs of air pollution from road transportalone are estimated to amount to around 1.7 trillion USD in OECD countries, 1.4 trillion USD in China and 0.5 trillion in India. Without adequate policy action, costs will continue to increase, and can have tangible effects on economic growth, for instance via reduced labour productivity. Similarly, the prospects for long-term growth are under stress – for example, climate change is projected to decrease global GDP by 1 to 3.3 % by 2060.
Read more.....
söndag 13 mars 2016
lördag 12 mars 2016
Statisticians Found One Thing They Can Agree On: It’s Time To Stop Misusing P-Values
 |
| http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=espn:14212614 |
How many statisticians does it take to ensure at least a 50 percent chance of a disagreement about p-values? According to a tongue-in-cheek assessment by statistician George Cobb of Mount Holyoke College, the answer is two … or one. So it’s no surprise that when the American Statistical Association gathered 26 experts to develop a consensus statement on statistical significance and p-values, the discussion quickly became heated.
Statisticians issue warning over misuse of P values
From Nature
This is the first time that the 177-year-old ASA has made explicit recommendations on such a foundational matter in statistics, says executive director Ron Wasserstein. The society’s members had become increasingly concerned that the P value was being misapplied in ways that cast doubt on statistics generally, he adds.
Read more....
Misuse of the P value — a common test for judging the strength of scientific evidence — is contributing to the number of research findings that cannot be reproduced, the American Statistical Association (ASA) warns in a statement released today1. The group has taken the unusual step of issuing principles to guide use of the P value, which it says cannot determine whether a hypothesis is true or whether results are important.
This is the first time that the 177-year-old ASA has made explicit recommendations on such a foundational matter in statistics, says executive director Ron Wasserstein. The society’s members had become increasingly concerned that the P value was being misapplied in ways that cast doubt on statistics generally, he adds.
Read more....
fredag 11 mars 2016
Future of UK economic statistics set out at Imperial
The UK must harness the potential of big data to improve economic statistics, says a report launched at Imperial's Data Science Institute today.
Professor Sir Charlie Bean – former Deputy Governor of the Bank of England and author of the independent report, said that UK economic statistics need to be transformed in order to fully capture all the activity in the economy.
Read more....
News from the World of Statistics
From March 11, 2016, (special issue):
Nominations Are Open for the International Prize in Statistics
ASA Releases Statement on P-values and Statistical Significance
News from the World of Statistics to Resume Regular Publication Soon
Read more....
Beginner´s Guide to the History of Data Science
“Big data” and “data science” may be some of the bigger buzzwords this decade, but they aren’t necessarily new concepts. The idea of data science spans many different fields, and has been slowly making its way into the mainstream for over fifty years. In fact, many considered last year the fiftieth anniversary of its official introduction. While many proponents have taken up the stick, made new assertions and challenges, there are a few names and dates you need know.
1962. John Tukey writes “The Future of Data Analysis.” Published in The Annals of Mathematical Statistics, a major venue for statistical research, he brought the relationship between statistics and analysis into question. One famous quote has since struck a chord with modern data lovers:
“For a long time I have thought I was a statistician, interested in inferences from the particular to the general. But as I have watched mathematical statistics evolve, I have had cause to wonder and to doubt…I have come to feel that my central interest is in data analysis, which I take to include, among other things: procedures for analyzing data, techniques for interpreting the results of such procedures, ways of planning the gathering of data to make its analysis easier, more precise or more accurate, and all the machinery and results of (mathematical) statistics which apply to analyzing data.”
onsdag 9 mars 2016
Temadag - befolkningsprognoser under osäkra tider
Ksp:s prognosgrupp bjuder tillsammans med SKL in till en temadag tisdag den 10 maj om befolkningsprognoser under osäkra tider. Under dagen kommer ett antal aktuella frågor med kopplingar till prognosarbete att behandlas, bl.a. bedömningar över antalet flyktingar på kommunal nivå, nybyggnadsprognoser och hur man kan hantera osäkerheter i prognoser. Temadagen hålls hos SKL i Stockholm till självkostnadspriset 400 kr. Mer info och anmälan finns på föreningens webbplats
Statistics Are a Part of the Massive Big-Data Future
From Wall Street Journal
Statistical methods make it possible to run the analyses that make big-data analytics possible.
Michael S. Malone’s “The Big-Data Future Has Arrived” (op-ed, Feb. 23) provides an interesting overview of the benefits being made possible through the abundance of data and the capabilities to analyze it. However, it also propagates a common myth that this new world of data “signals the end of the reign of statistics,” with the argument given that being able to measure all the data negates the need to sample and extrapolate. ---------
Statistical methods make it possible to run the analyses that make big-data analytics possible.
Michael S. Malone’s “The Big-Data Future Has Arrived” (op-ed, Feb. 23) provides an interesting overview of the benefits being made possible through the abundance of data and the capabilities to analyze it. However, it also propagates a common myth that this new world of data “signals the end of the reign of statistics,” with the argument given that being able to measure all the data negates the need to sample and extrapolate. ---------
tisdag 8 mars 2016
Knowledge Gap Series: The Myths Of Analytics
From InformationWeekDo you have your eye on machine learning or a nice neural network to help your security team make decisions faster? Be aware that there are quite a few myths circulating about how these work; even the language used can be confusing. Many new terms -- and some familiar words -- have different meanings in the world of statistical analytics. For example, “variable” means something significantly different to a programmer than to a statistician. And the capabilities of a statistician are different from those of a data scientist.
Read more.....
lördag 5 mars 2016
Data visualization: Showing isn’t always telling
Data visualization may not deliver revelation on demand, but diligent visual exploration can unlock insights that might otherwise remain hidden.
Data visualization is one of the hottest areas of big data, but it may offer more noise than signal. According to Jeff Jonas, an IBM Fellow and Chief Scientist of IBM's Context Computing group, "Contrary to hype, hopes, and dreams, big data visualization is generally not helping humans make novel discoveries." In his view, data visualization is mostly useful as a way of telling stories about the data we already understand.
Read more.....
fredag 4 mars 2016
How Can Citizen-Generated and Civil Society Data Be Used as an Advocacy Tool to Change Official Data Collection?
Following on from our discussion paper on “Democratising the Data Revolution”, today we’re pleased to announce the release of a new report titled “Changing What Counts: How Can Citizen-Generated and Civil Society Data Be Used as an Advocacy Tool to Change Official Data Collection?”.
Undertaken as a collaboration between Open Knowledge and the CIVICUS DataShift, the report contains seven case studies accompanied by a series of recommendations for civil society groups, public institutions and policy-makers. The case studies cover data collection initiatives around a wide variety of different topics – from literacy rates in East Africa to water access in Malawi, migration deaths in Europe to fracking pollution in the US.
EU - Record number of over 1.2 million first time asylum seekers registered in 2015
From Eurostat
In 2015, 1 255 600 first time asylum seekers applied for international protection in the Member States of the European Union (EU), a number more than double that of the previous year.
The number of Syrians seeking international protection has doubled in 2015 compared with the previous year to reach 362 800, while the number of Afghans has almost quadrupled to 178 200 and that of Iraqis has multiplied by 7 to 121 500. They represent the three main citizenships of first time asylum applicants in the EU Member States in 2015, accounting for more than half of all first time applicants.
Europe’s migrant crisis in numbers
From Economist
SINCE the summer of 2014, Europe has been struck with its worst refugee crisis since the second world war. Millions have fled their war-ravaged homelands in search of safety, causing political turmoil in a continent still recovering from economic disasters. Below is our interactive guide to the numbers behind the crisis.
SINCE the summer of 2014, Europe has been struck with its worst refugee crisis since the second world war. Millions have fled their war-ravaged homelands in search of safety, causing political turmoil in a continent still recovering from economic disasters. Below is our interactive guide to the numbers behind the crisis.
European migrant crisis guide
Acceptances and EU relocation proposals
While Germany and Sweden have accepted a disproportionate share of Europe’s asylum seekers, nations on the front line of the influx must initially accommodate the new arrivals. Under a controversial EU plan, up to 160,000 asylum-seekers* who reached Italy, Greece and Hungary are to be relocated to other European countries. So far, only a few hundred have moved.
Using Data Science For The Physical World
What is your advice for someone to wants to go into data science?
The most successful data scientists I know are those driven by a curiosity for solving problems through data. To that end, I recommend starting by thinking about what kinds of problems they find most interesting. From there, go out and try to find some data in the problem area and begin experimenting. Run some basic summary statistics on the data, plot some basic graphs, or even build a simple model. This is also a great way to learn the relevant tools and methods, and the result of which can become a nice asset in a person’s portfolio. This also, typically, leads people to ask a lot of new questions, which creates a virtuous feedback loop of learning and community discovery.
torsdag 3 mars 2016
Asylum statistics
_in_the_EU-28_Member_States,_2004%E2%80%9314_(%C2%B9)_(thousands)_YB15_III.png)
From Eurostat This article describes recent developments in relation to numbers of asylum applicants and decisions on asylum applications in the European Union (EU). Asylum is a form of international protection given by a state on its territory. It is granted to a person who is unable to seek protection in his / her country of citizenship and / or residence, in particular for fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion.
Outcomes of the UNECE Project on Using Big Data for Official Statistics
From UNECE and LinkedIn“Big Data is a term that describes large volumes of high velocity, complex and variable data that require advanced techniques and technologies to enable the capture, storage, distribution, management, and analysis of the information.” Many authors adhere to the “Four Vs definition” that points to the four characteristics of Big Data, namely Volume (the amount of data), Variety (different types of data and data sources), Velocity (data in motion) and Veracity (data uncertainty).
Prenumerera på:
Inlägg (Atom)