Laura Dewis: Better Statistics, Better Decisions

This deck by Laura Dewis supported her talk on better statistics for better decisions at http://power-of-data-2017.swirrl.com/. She highlights the need for statistics to be accessible and interoperable and discusses changes that the Office for National Statistics are making with publishing data.

Transcript

1. Better statistics,
   better decisions
   Laura Dewis
   Office for National Statistics
   @lauradee
   

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2. https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/jan/19/crisis-of-statistics-big-data-democracy
   How statistics lost their power – and why we should
   fear what comes next - The Guardian - William Bain
   The  ability  of  statistics  to  accurately  represent  the  
   world  is  declining.
   

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3. Due accuracy
   Land transport accidents leading cause of death for 5-
   19 year olds
   The leading cause of death for both males and females
   aged 5-19 was land transport accidents, accounting
   for 13% of deaths at this age group. This was more
   common among males than females.
   

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4. 7 Principles
   1. Uncertainty
   2. Trends
   3. Accessible explanation
   4. International comparisons
   5. Context
   6. Attribution
   7. Causation
   

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5. http://visual.ons.gov.uk/the-value-of-your-unpaid-work/
   Place your screenshot here
   

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6. https://fullfact.org/blog/2016/aug/automated-factchecking/
   

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7. Standards
   Bristol City, City of Bristol and Bristol, City Of.
   

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8. Adoption
   Use official lists consistently
   Apply established metadata standards
   Follow dataset structure definitions eg
   schema.org
   Work towards CSV on the Web standards
   Make use of RDF to describe relationships
   Agree and implement API and URI standards
   

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9. Sorry Technology, but it’s
   not all about you.
   

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10. Credit @SamHallWales
    

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11. Starting point
    1.Develop an editorial policy and guidelines
    2.Make time to focus on the fundamentals of
    data quality and recognise people for it
    3.Build a solid community of good practice in the
    analytical community
    4.Capture user needs more regularly and
    systematically
    

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12. https://www.statisticsauthority.gov.uk/monitoring-and-assessment/code-of-practice/code-of-
    practice-stock-take-latest-news/
    Ask
    Engage with the consultation to review the Code of
    Practice for Statistics
    5 July – 5 October 2017
    

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13. Thanks
    laura.dewis@ons.gov.uk
    https://digitalblog.ons.gov.uk/
    

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