The area of value combines the traditional discipline of ethics with the professional activities of business planning, policy making, developing motivations for scientific research, and other activities that have a direct impact on people and the planet.
This is the area where we determine what we do versus what we do not do, in order to maximize societal benefit and minimize harm. It is also the area that looks inward to the other data science areas and provides guidance on such issues as algorithmic bias or open science. Common activities include the forming of value propositions that initiate data science projects, research into how data is created and used “in the wild,” understanding the ethics of data acquisition, manipulation, communication, and sharing, and the application of data products in the world.
- Key tensions: enterprise vs ethics, private interest vs public good (see Plato’s Republic).
- Common theme: human value.
- Realm: concrete humanity.
- Keywords: ethics, justice, wealth, value, social good, motivation, meaning, eudamonia.
Values: responsibility, diversity, inclusion, flourishing, excellence, arete.
Subareas and Courses
- Ethics of Big Data
- Social History of Data
- Value Propositions
- The Data-centric Organization
- Ethnography of Data
- Economics of Big Data