Date: January 17, 2024
Time: 12:00pm – 1:00pm
Location: Zoom
Abstract:
This is an exciting time to be part of official statistics. There is growing demand for statistical products that traditional surveys alone cannot address. Stakeholders want timelier, more accurate, more granular, and differently structured information about people, places, and the economy than ever before. New data sources and data science innovations allow us to meet those demands. In today’s digital era, massive amounts of data are generated as we go about our daily lives. This volume of data generated every day, through commercial and personal transactions and the management of federal, state, and local programs, continues to grow exponentially. This provides an incredible opportunity to revolutionize how we capture and use data to develop relevant products. Instead of limiting ourselves to the data our surveys produce, we can flip the paradigm to design products based on what data users need. To do this we must integrate our survey data with other data sources. This presentation will share how the U.S. Census Bureau plans to re‑envision its data enterprise based on a statistical product‑first approach. This approach includes eliciting the purposes and uses our data are to support, collaborating with internal and external data users to develop the products using ALL our data assets, and then embracing varying access modes for statistical product dissemination to support stakeholder needs at all levels of data acumen. This work will modernize and transform our official statistical infrastructure.
Presented by:
Sallie Ann Keller, Ph.D., Chief Scientist and Associate Director
Research and Methodology Directorate
U.S. Census Bureau
Hosted by:
Frauke Kreuter
Co-Director, Social Data Science Center (SoDa)
Professor, Joint Program in Survey Methodology
University of Maryland
Chair of Statistics and Data Science in Social Sciences and the Humanities
Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich
The SoDa Center at UMD
SoDa Symposia highlight the diverse challenges and opportunities in the emerging area of Social Data Science. Combining insights of SoDa researchers and partners from UMD and around the world, these regular virtual events showcase research and expert commentary about advances and open problems in the use of surveys, administrative, and trace data to understand and shape the social world we live in. Ranging from technical challenges of gathering high-quality data, ethical management of social data at scale, or examples of the power of social data science in education, business, government, or civic life, SoDa Symposia provide an opportunity for a broad audience of researchers, students, and practitioners to learn more about the potential of social data science to change the world.
Professor, Robert F. Wagner Graduate School, New York University