Seoul (Republic of Korea) Virtual, 31 August - 2 September – The 6th International Conference on Big Data for Official Statistics from 31 August to 2 September 2020 was a virtual event hosted in Seoul, Republic of Korea. The Conference was organized by Statistics Korea (KOSTAT) and United Nations Global Working Group (GWG) on Big Data. The Conference built on the UN Global Platform, established in 2014, as a collaborative environment to discuss new data sources and advance technologies to assist the global statistical community.
This Conference brought together statisticians and leaders in the field of Big Data to focus on how new technologies, such as AI and machine learning, can be used to assess the socio-economic impact of COVID-19. The Conference also discussed the use of Big Data in other fields such as data collection for SDG indicators and collecting data for evidence-based policy-making.
The main theme of the Conference was to discuss “how can Big Data be utilized for COVID-19 responses?” Related themes included: “how can Big Data support the monitoring of the progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals?”; and “the need for global data collaboration on global emerging issues”.
The CoE, a joint project of KOSTAT and United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), co-organized Session 7, "Using Big Data for SDGs - SDG 16” on 1 September. The session was moderated by the Chief of the UNODC Research and Trends Analysis Branch, Angela Me, and brought together four experts in the field of Big Data and Crime, Francesca Rosa, UNODC Statistician, Dilek Fraisl, Chair of the WeObserve SDGs & Citizen Science Community of Practice, Juyoung Song, Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice, Penn State University, and Erin Miller, Program Manager of the Global Terrorism Database, University of Maryland. The session focused on the importance of collecting data for SDG 16 by using Big Data to identify crime patterns and trends.
Ms. Me, highlighted the possible opportunities Big Data provides to fill the gaps in administrative data collection, whilst reducing the associated costs of conducting crime Victimization Surveys. The role of UNODC as an innovative entity was reiterated as Ms. Rosa provided insight into the role exploring new data sources to gain insight into the impact of COVID-19 on crime. The innovative approaches presented by each panellist led to an lively session with a highly engaged audience, which asked questions focused on the uses of citizen driven data, particularly the challenges of its legitimacy.
To watch the session click here starting at 09:01:16.
