Announcement

Join Change.org and DataKind as they Talk About Data Science for Good

We are excited to host another data science meetup in our San Francisco office on Tuesday, March 1st at 6:00 pm.

This time, we’re hosting the #ODSC meetup and the night will include presentations about using data science for good from Change.org and DataKind.

This is the second data science we’ve hosted this year. If you weren’t able to make the last one, check out some of the some of the fun facts that came out of it.

We had such a great time during that meetup and we’re sure that this one will be just as fun and informative. Tim Catlin, Change.org’s VP of Engineering, will give an introductory address to start the evening. Then, you will learn about:

Data Science for Social Good at Change.org
Andy Veluswami (Change.org)
Andy Veluswami, Head of Data Science at Change.org, the world’s largest platform for social activism and a leader in using technology/data science in social good, will discuss ways in which one can use algorithms and machine learning to build social movements by connecting people to causes and organizations they are passionate about.

Using Metadata and Text Data to Find Petitions’ Locations
Dr. John Rehling (Change.org)
John Rehling, Principal Linguistics Scientist, will be discussing methods to use metadata and text to determine the location of change.org petitions. What is the geographical location that is relevant to an online petition? Are user metadata, activity logs, or natural language content best for answering that question? Why choose?! Different sources of data have their strengths, and can combine to produce more accurate and more dynamic answers than any one of them can achieve alone.

Workflow For a Nonprofit Data Science Project
Dr. Brian Spiering (DataKind.org)
Dr. Brian Spiering is a Data Science Faculty member at GalvanizeU which, in cooperation with the University of New Haven, offers an accredited Master’s degree program in Data Science. He will propose a workflow for data science projects and share a case where that framework helped a nonprofit and DataKind complete a successful data science project.

DataKind SF Overview
Louis Potok (DataKind.org)
Louis Potok, a chapter leader at DataKind, works at the intersection of data science, behavioral economics, and social impact. He is currently trying to rid the world of shady debt collectors at TrueAccord. Previously, at ideas42, he consulted for NGOs and policymakers across the world, where he got acquainted with the many ways that data can be used to achieve social impact.

If you’re unfamiliar with #ODSC — Open Data Science News — it aims to bring together the open source and data science communities. It works with meetup groups, non-profits, and other organizations to present lectures, workshops, code sprints, and networking events to grow the use of open source languages and tools within the data science community.

We hope you can join us!

Written by
Change.org
February 26, 2016 4:02 pm