2024

  • 2024

    8 NOV

    11 NOV

    UN Datathon 2024

    Medellín, Colombia
    2024 UN Datathon

    Hosted in Medellín, Colombia by Ruta N and DANE and organized by the United Nations and partners in conjunction with the World Data Forum, UN Datathon 2024 will challenge participants to localize the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at the city level, with a focus on Medellín, Colombia. The event centers on urban sustainable development, addressing three critical themes: Sustainable Tourism, Urban Waste Management, and Circular Economy. Teams will develop innovative, data-driven solutions that strike a balance between economic growth, environmental preservation, and community well-being.

    The Datathon aims to showcase how localizing SDGs can foster resilient, inclusive cities and demonstrate how Medellín’s strategies can serve as blueprints for sustainable urban development globally.

  • 2024

    10 JUN

    14 JUN

    Informing Climate Change and Sustainable Development policies with integrated data
    8th International Conference on Big Data and Data Science for Official Statistics

    Bilbao, Spain
    8th Conference

    As the world grapples with numerous global challenges, including environmental issues, climate change, health crises, food insecurity, economic recovery, and human displacement, the need for knowledge integration has never been more critical. Amid a data landscape with fast-increasing volumes of data, information remains compartmentalised to pre-defined scales and fields, rarely building its way up to collective knowledge. The statistical community, the data science community, the geospatial community and the modelling community are tasked with delivering this integrated knowledge, to shed light on the ongoing “wicked problems”—intertwined, multistakeholder and with potential solutions dependent on subjective, competing interests.

    The purpose of the conference is to address and share knowledge on these emerging issues that require the timely and flexible production of integrated scientific, statistical and geospatial information. This involves collaboration with strategic partners from the public and private sectors, as well as from academic and research institutes, and needs a paradigm shift that will favour open synthesis to contribute and reuse knowledge and apply it toward decision making. The conference will consist of a ministerial opening, high-level panels, technical sessions as well as a several workshops. The overall theme of the conference is “Informing Climate Change and Sustainable Development policies with integrated data”.

  • 2024

    29 MAY

    31 MAY

    Measuring the Digital Economy
    5th International Seminar on Big Data for Official Statistics

    Xiamen, China
    5th seminar

    The digital economy heavily relies on ICT for information management, enhancing productivity supported by ICT goods, services, and trade. This economy is characterized by core technologies (e.g., semiconductors, computers), enabling infrastructures (e.g., the Internet), and digitalized sectors like finance and media. Despite widespread digitalization, traditional economic metrics often overlook digital aspects. The Digital Supply-Use Tables (SUTs) framework addresses this by incorporating digital products and actors into national statistics.

    The 5th International Seminar aims to equip staff from developing countries' NSOs with skills to produce high-quality digital economy statistics, supporting informed policymaking and sustainable development.

  • 2024

    29 FEB

    Enabling responsible access to sensitive microdata using privacy enhancing technologies
    Side Event of the 55th Session of the United Nations Statistical Commission

    New York, USA

    This webinar aims to explore cutting-edge approaches for handling sensitive microdata while preserving privacy. Experts will discuss state-of-the-art techniques, real-world applications, and collaborative efforts across international projects. Join us for insightful presentations, engaging discussions, and an open Q&A session.

  • 2024

    8 FEB

    Towards a Data Science Playbook
    Side Event of the 55th Session of the United Nations Statistical Commission

    Virtual

    The members of the Data Science Leader's Network (DSLN), under the umbrella of the Committee of Experts on Big Data and Data Science for Official Statistics, have agreed to develop a DSLN Playbook with the objective to provide a comprehensive guide for integrating data science into the work of National Statistical Offices, and to offer a systematic approach to piloting projects, pooling resources, documenting successes, and overcoming institutional barriers.

    The "playbook" format has been chosen as a way of capturing (in a user-friendly manner) a structured set of practical guidelines designed to help NSOs achieve specific objectives towards the mainstreaming of data science in the day-to-day business of official statistics, providing both strategic and tactical guidance. It aims to be a practical, hands-on resource that can be easily consulted and followed by practitioners at the frontlines of statistical work, with step-by-step procedures, best practices, checklists, and real-world examples that help a team understand not just the "what" but also the "how" of implementation.

    The event will be an opportunity to present and discuss the progress towards the development of the Data Science Playbook, based on the outcome of the 2nd Sprint of the Data Science Leaders' Network, which took place in Dubai from 22 to 24 January, as part of the International Seminar on Data Science for the Statistical and Transport Communities.

  • 2024

    30 JAN

    10-years of use of Big Data and Data Science - a review
    Side Event of the 55th Session of the United Nations Statistical Commission

    Virtual

    The webinar is an overview of the report on the 10-years of use of Big Data and Data Science for Official Statistics. The survey details will be described along with results and recommendation based on the survey. The full report of the 10-year review has been released as a background document to the Statistical Commission and is available here.

  • 2024

    22 JAN

    24 JAN

    International Seminar on Data Science for the Statistics and Transport Communities

    Dubai, UAE
    Transport Seminar

    Integrating data science into the production of official statistics to inform and enhance efficacy of policy decisions, with a special focus on the transport sector.

    Get practical insights into human-centric transformation of transport information systems and see how modern transportation information systems play a pivotal role in designing and implementing sustainable transportation policies utilizing new data sources and technologies.

    The second sprint of the Data Science Leaders Network will focus on developing a detailed outline of a playbook to integrate data science into National Statistical Offices.

    The International seminar will also feature a workshops on Mobile Phone Data in transport statistics and hands-on GIS training for SDGs.

 

2023

  • 2023

    3 NOV

    6 NOV

    UN Datathon 2023

    Montevideo, Uruguay Virtual
    2023 UN Datathon

    Leverage technology and your expertise to develop innovative solutions for a more sustainable and equitable future.

    Join us on this journey of innovation, exploration, and problem-solving as we harness the power of data to create a more sustainable and resilient world.

    Datathon participants will develop innovative data-driven applications, tools or statistical models combining geospatial data with other data sources to help advance the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals.

    Register today!

  • 2023

    6 JUL

    10-year review of the UNCEBD
    UN Committee of Experts on Big Data and Data Science awareness webinar

    Virtual

    During the webinar we will announce the survey on the 10-year review of the UNCEBD. The objective of the webinar is to raise awareness for the survey and generate interest by statistical agencies to complete the survey.

    We would like to take this opportunity to evaluate, if NSOs and other statistical agencies are familiar with the work of the UN Committee of Experts on Big Data and Data Science for Official Statistics (UNCEBD, previously also known as the Global Working Group on Big Data for Official Statistics).

  • 2023

    26 FEB

    UNCEBD Open House on Big Data and Data Science

    In-person Side Event of the 54th Session of the United Nations Statistical Commission

    In this UNCEBD Open House, we will review of activities of the task teams, the regional and sector hubs and the UN Global Platform, and discuss four proposals, namely (A) a more systematic collaboration between the task teams and the regional and sector hubs to improve the synergies of methodological development with project and training activities; (B) active collaboration between UNCEBD and the Expert Group on Integration of Statistical and Geospatial Information (EG-ISGI); (C) the terms of reference for the Data Science Leaders' Network; and (D) concrete and practical use of privacy-enhancing technologies for access to sensitive data. This meeting serves the purpose of providing information as well as gathering additional ideas and proposals, which UNCEBD could use in further developing its work programme.

  • 2023

    16 FEB

    Use of Mobile Phone data for statistics and indicators

    Virtual Side Event of the 54th Session of the United Nations Statistical Commission

    The UN-CEBD Task Team on Mobile Phone Data will be discussing the applications of mobile phone big data for official statistics in the following areas: Dynamic population and census, Tourism statistics, Migration statistics, Displacement and disaster statistics Information Society statistics, Transport statistics. The webinar will also take a look at various projects and case studies from around the world and provide an introduction to the new e-learning course developed by the task team.

  • 2023

    10 FEB

    2022 UN Big Data Hackathon Closing Ceremony

    Virtual Side Event of the 54th Session of the United Nations Statistical Commission
    2022 UN Big Data Hackathon

    The United Nations Committee of Experts on Big Data and Data Science for Official Statistics (UNCEBD), Major Group for Children and Youth (MGCY) and Statistics Indonesia (BPS) hosted the "2022 UN Big Data Hackathon" in November 2022. It is jointly organized by the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD), Global Platform Regional Hubs (Rwanda, UAE, Brazil & China), UN Global Pulse, Asian Development Bank (ADB), Islamic Development Bank (IsDB), UK ONS Data Science Campus, Statistics Canada, and United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), in consultation with the members of the Task Teams of UN Committee of Experts on Big Data and Data Science.

    Join us for the Closing Ceremony where we will be announcing and celebrating the winners of the Hackathon.

  • 2023

    9 FEB

    Privacy Enhancing Technologies for Official Statistics
    Launch of the UN Guide on Privacy-Enhancing Technologies for Official Statistics

    Virtual Side Event of the 54th Session of the United Nations Statistical Commission
    UN Guide on Privacy-Enhancing Technologies for Official Statistics

    In recent years, almost every government has been faced with very serious challenges, such as the global health pandemic, supply chain disruption, rising energy and food prices, and decreasing household budgets. To handle these crises in the right way, our leaders need the right data at the right time. National statistical offices are tasked to provide these trusted, relevant, timely and high-quality data. All of those data are very sensitive in terms of private information on persons or businesses.

    To gain access to the sensitive data while guaranteeing that privacy will be preserved, privacy-enhancing technologies (PETs) are receiving increased attention. Whereas legal arrangements on data sharing can lead to unwanted breaches, the promise of PETs is that privacy is guaranteed. If you cannot see the original data at any time, you cannot by accident reveal any original information.

    In this webinar, experts of the task team on PETs will launch the "UN Guide on PETs for Official Statistics". The program is as follows.

 

2022

  • 2022

    7 NOV

    11 NOV

    Global Challenges and the Importance of Relevant and Timely Data
    7th International Conference on Big Data and Data Science for Official Statistics

    Yogyakarta, Indonesia
    7th International Conference on Big Data

    At this moment the world faces many global challenges related to environment, climate change, health, food insecurity, economic recovery or human displacement. To take appropriate action, governments have to understand and monitor the existing situation and therefore need relevant and timely data. The statistical community is tasked to deliver these data, in particular also data on the Sustainable Development Goals.

    Emerging issues require timely and flexible production of indicators often in collaboration with strategic partners from public and private sector as well as academia. The Big Data Conference, which will take place from 7 till 11 November 2022 in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, will focus on the use of new data sources and use of data science in dialogues with decision makers and experts from all stakeholder communities. It will also include the 2022 Big Data Hackathon.

  • 2022

    8 NOV

    11 NOV

    UN PET Lab Hackathon

    Various Virtual

    The United Nations Privacy-Enhancing Technologies Lab, known as the PET Lab, will be running a third hackathon stream for the first time this year. The PET stream will take the form of a typical data science competition, such as those on the Kaggle or DrivenData platforms, but with one special new characteristic: participants will interact with training data only via privacy-enhancing technologies. For more information, check the UN PET Lab Hackathon page.

  • 2022

    8 NOV

    11 NOV

    2022 UN Big Data Hackathon

    Yogyakarta, Indonesia Virtual
    2022 UN Big Data Hackathon

    Following the AIS Big Data hackathon of 2020 and the UN Youth Hackathon of 2021, this year, The United Nations Committee of Experts on Big Data and Data Science for Official Statistics (UNCEBD), Major Group for Children and Youth (MGCY) and Statistics Indonesia (BPS), is hosting the "2022 UN Big Data Hackathon". It is jointly organized by the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD), Global Platform Regional Hubs (Rwanda, UAE, Brazil & China), UN Global Pulse, Asian Development Bank (ADB), Islamic Development Bank (IsDB), UK ONS Data Science Campus, Statistics Canada, and United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), in consultation with the members of the Task Teams of UN Committee of Experts on Big Data and Data Science.

    The Hackathon aims at developing ideas and solutions to help achieve the Sustainable Development Goals and assist in resolving Global challenges

  • 2022

    2 NOV

    3 NOV

    Data Stewardship and the secure sharing of data

    Seoul, Korea

    The UN Statistics Division and Statistics Korea (National Statistical Office of the Republic of Korea) have co-organized every year an international seminar regarding important issues on the global statistical agenda since 2010. The seminar has covered a variety of social and economic issues from the perspective of statistics. For example, we have discussed the role of data and statistics in understanding open data and data disaggregation for reaching Sustainable Development Goals; and using big data for official statistics. As we recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, the significance of timely data using new data sources and data linkage has increased and it has provided us with new opportunities to the international statistical community for discussing the data stewardship and the data security issues.

  • 2022

    15 FEB
    08:00 - 9:00 AM
    (NY Time)

    The role of the Regional Hubs in mainstreaming Big Data and data science in official statistics

    Virtual side event of the 53rd United Nations Statistical Commission

    With all these efforts of accelerating the modernization of official statistics, it is still difficult to reach and involve the statistical offices in all corners of the world. To be more inclusive and bring modernization closer to home, four Regional Hubs for Big Data in support of the UN Global Platform were established in Brazil (Rio de Janeiro), China (Hangzhou), Rwanda (Kigali) and UAE (Dubai) during 2020 and 2021. The main objectives of the Regional Hubs are the facilitation of innovation projects, the sharing of methods, algorithms and tools, and the provision of training in the use of Big Data and data science for the community of official statisticians in their respective regions. The Regional Hubs will be used to organize international seminars and workshops on data science and modernization of official statistics. For example, the National Bureau of Statistics of China organized thus far two international seminars in December 2020 and September 2021 in hybrid format, with in-person participation of national statisticians and remote participation of international statisticians.

  • 2022

    8 FEB
    10:00 - 11:00 AM
    (NY Time)

    What is the UN PET Lab and why is it important?

    Virtual side event of the 53rd United Nations Statistical Commission

    The UN Committee of Experts on Big Data and Data Science for Official Statistics has announced the launch of a pilot programme, to make international data sharing more secure by using Privacy Enhancing Technologies (PETs). The UN PET Lab is running a pilot program with several National Statistical Offices (NSOs). The lab will demonstrate that PETs can make fully compliant data sharing between organizations possible. PETs help data providers and data users to safely share information by using encryption and protocols that allow someone to produce useful output data without “seeing” the input data. They also typically ensure that data will be protected throughout its lifecycle, and that outputs cannot be used to ‘reverse engineer’ the original data. The PET Lab will see statistical organizations collaborate with technology providers who offer PET technologies. The Lab expects new users and providers to join in due course.

  • 2022

    25 JAN

    27 JAN

    Mobilizing Big Data and Data Science for the Sustainable Development Goals

    Dubai, United Arab Emirates Virtual

    The Federal Competitiveness and Statistics Centre (FCSC) of the UAE together with the United Nations Committee of Experts on Big Data and Data Science for Official Statistics (UN-CEBD) welcome the world to explore data science and big data during a three-day event at Expo 2020. FCSC also invites everyone to witness the ceremonial launch of the Regional Hub for Big Data and Data Science in UAE, which serves the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Region.

 

2021

  • 2021

    14 DEC
    08:00 - 9:30 AM
    (NY Time)

    Big Data and SDGs

    Part of the "Road to EXPO2020" Webinar Series
    Road to EXPO2020

    The fourth Road to Expo 2020 will be held on 14 December and will focus on concrete methods for calculation of SDG-indicators by big data.

    Sustainable Development Goals with their broad coverage of societal, environmental and economic fields pose challenges to a comprehensive statistical follow-up. Possible data sources towards this aim are widely discussed and data from non-traditional sources are frequently mentioned in this regard. In this context, data from non-traditional sources can include big data, geo data or citizen generated data. The webinar will present concrete examples of how selected SDG-indicators can be calculated with the use of non-traditional data, hereby giving countries a concrete tool for reinforcing their statistical follow-up on the SDG. Furthermore, the webinar will discuss future possibilities for monitoring the SDG with non-traditional data, including geo and citizen generated data. Finally, while giving an insight into monitoring the SDG by non-traditional data, the webinar will build up to the workshop during the EXPO 2020, which subsequently will expand the topic and present the calculation methods in detail.

  • 2021

    23 NOV
    08:00 - 9:30 AM
    (NY Time)

    Capacity development and training

    Part of the "Road to EXPO2020" Webinar Series
    Road to EXPO2020

    The third Road to Expo 2020 webinar will focus on the Capacity development and training work of the UN-CEBD.

    What products are currently available and what is currently under development to support big data capability building at the NSO? In this webinar, experts from the UN-CEBD Task Team on Training, Competencies and Capacity Development share the tools and products that are already in place for use by individuals and the NSO, such as the Big Data Competency Framework and Big Data Maturity Matrix. The team will also be casting an eye to the horizon, and showcasing some of the products currently under development, including the Big Data Training Curriculum, Big Data Training Catalogue, and the new Learning Management System. Presentations from the Shipping Data, Mobile Phone Data, Scanner Data and Earth Observation Data Task Teams, will highlight the latest progress with their big data training curricula and course developments.

  • 2021

    9 NOV
    08:00 - 9:30 AM
    (NY Time)

    Methods and Applications

    Part of the "Road to EXPO2020" Webinar Series
    Road to EXPO2020

    The second Road to Expo 2020 Webinar will focus on Methods and Applications and will feature the work of the UN-CEBD Task teams.

    What kind of methods do we need if we want to change real-time mobile positioning data into tourism or migration statistics, or estimate a consumer price index from high-frequency retail scanner data? In this webinar, experts from the UN-CEBD task teams will show how national statistical offices could use such data with corresponding new methods and new technologies to produce tourism, migration and price statistics. Since mobile phone data and retail scanner data are sensitive for persons and businesses, good privacy preserving measures should be taken to guarantee the protection of privacy and confidentiality. Experts from the UN-CEBD task team on privacy preserving techniques will show how advanced encryption and technology can help. This second webinar will describe the methodology which is being developed and will give hands-on demonstration of some applications.

  • 2021

    19 OCT
    08:00 - 9:30 AM
    (NY Time)

    UN Global Platform

    Part of the "Road to EXPO2020" Webinar Series
    Road to EXPO2020

    As part of the EXPO2020, the Federal Competitiveness and Statistics Center of UAE (FCSC) will host a 3-day event in January 2022 organized jointly with the United Nations Committee of Experts on Big Data and Data Science for Official Statistics (UN-CEBD). The event is about data solutions that will support the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals and help in overcoming emergency situations such as the COVID-19 pandemic, for example, by using mobile phone data. It will showcase collaboration opportunities on the UN Global Platform and the Regional Hubs for Big Data, especially the Regional Hub in Dubai. From September to December 2021, UN-CEBD will organize a series of webinars in close collaboration with FCSC/UAE, paving the road to the event.

    The first of these webinars will be held on 28 September and will focus on the UN Global Platform and show several projects currently running on the platform.

  • 2021

    12 OCT

    14 OCT

    Workshop on Scanner Data and Web Scraping

    Virtual

    Eurostat together with the Scanner Data Task Team of the UN Committee of Experts on Big Data and Data Science for Official Statistics will organize a workshop on scanner data and web scraping on 12-14 October 2021. The objectives of the workshop are to exchange on practical experiences related to the use of new data sources in consumer price statistics, and to present and discuss some of the work conducted by the Task Team and by the European Statistical System.

  • 2021

    9 SEP

  • 2021

    14 JUL

    16 JUL

    Invited Paper Sessions on using Mobile Phone Data for Official Statistics

    ISI World Statistics Congress 2021

    Two Invited Paper Sessions on using Mobile Phone Data for Official Statistics were presented at the ISI World Statistics Congress 2021:

    • Exploring Statistics on Tourism, Migration, Population and Displacements by Using Mobile Positioning Data
    • Towards 2030 Agenda: The Use of Mobile Data to Measure SDGs Indicators on Information Society
  • 2021

    30 JUN
    10:00 - 11:30 AM
    (NY Time)

    Data Science and Official Statistics

    Part of the "Road to Bern" Webinar series

    The Federal Statistical Office (FSO) of Switzerland together with the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD) and Facebook are organizing a webinar on the topic of Data Science and Official Statistics. FSO recently established a Data Science Competence Centre which will benefit all government departments of Switzerland, while UNSD has been supporting the UN Committee of Experts on Big Data and Data Science for Official Statistics since 2014. Facebook uses Data Science in developing market strategy, but also to support a large Open Source community, called PyTorch, which has developed a machine learning framework that accelerates the path from research prototyping to production deployment.

  • 2021

    20 APR
    8:00 - 9:00 AM
    (NY Time)

    Oman's Experience in Utilizing Mobile Positioning Data for Official Statistics

    Global Network Webinar

    The NCSI Oman has accomplished a major achievement by using mobile positioning data for official statistics and making it one of the important data sources for the measurement of tourism, population, and commuting in the Sultanate of Oman. The use of mobile positioning data allows to reduce the volume of field surveys, reduce frequent visits to families and companies to conduct field surveys, and increase the speed of response to the requirements of development plans. In addition, it can be used to cover new statistical areas that development plans may require. This achievement of using Big Data is a paradigm shift in the production processes of high-quality official indicators.

  • 2021

    5 APR

    Mobile phone data for official statistics – addressing data accessibility, privacy, and regulatory issues

    Asia-Pacific Stats Café Series

    This Stats Café will present the experiences of the National Statistical Offices of Indonesia, Republic of Korea and Georgia in addressing challenges of using mobile phone data in population and tourism statistics. It will also discuss the supporting efforts of the UN Committee of Experts on Big Data and Data Science for Official Statistics and the Task Team on Mobile Phone Data.

  • 2021

    11 MAR
    8:00 - 9:30 AM
    (NY Time)

    Training in the Use of Big Data and Data Science

    Virtual Side Event of the 52nd UN Statistical Commission

    This side-event will showcase the competence framework on Big Data and data science and the related maturity matrix for statistical offices, the training program on Earth observations for agriculture statistics and the training courses on privacy preserving techniques. The objective is to convey the message that training in Big Data and data science is being developed and is available and open to all the members of the Commission.

  • 2021

    9 MAR
    9:00 - 10:30 AM
    (NY Time)

    Big Data for the SDGs - What is the Way Forward
    An Interactive Exchange of Views

    Virtual Side Event of the 52nd UN Statistical Commission

    In the context of the Global Working Group on Big Data and its Task Team on Big Data for the SDGs in particular, the purpose of this side-event is to share status of the current work on monitoring the SDGs with the help of non-traditional data, including big data sources such as Earth observations and citizen generated data. The aim of the side event is to provide inspiration and knowledge exchange for countries wishing to exploit big data for their SDG reporting.

  • 2021

    23 FEB
    9:00 - 10:30 AM
    (NY Time)

    Using Big Data on the UN Global Platform

    Virtual Side Event of the 52nd UN Statistical Commission

    This side-event of the 52nd UN Statistical Commission will showcase the projects on Sen2Agri, AIS data and .STAT. The objective is to convey the message that the data, services, technology and applications on the platform are available and open to all the members of the Commission. More projects can be onboarded. The side event will be conducted virtually and showcase 3 presentations with Q&A.

 

2020

  • 2020

    11 NOV

  • 2020

    15 OCT

    Data Innovation in Official Statistics

    Virtual

    The UN Global Working Group (GWG) on Big Data for Official Statistics will conduct a webinar jointly with the Federal Statistical Office (FSO) of Switzerland on the topic of data innovation in official statistics. FSO has taken the initiative to include data science into the portfolio of its work. This will be for the benefit not only of the Federal Statistical Office but also of other government departments. The GWG just conducted a Hackathon in the use of AIS data on the UN Global Platform. AIS is real-time data which tracks the position of ships around the world, and the UN Global Platform is a cloud-based collaborative environment for the GWG community of statisticians and data scientists. During the Hackathon 17 teams used AIS data to develop new applications, which can help in the COVID-19 response or in Climate Action. The winner and runner-up of this contest will present their application during this webinar.

  • 2020

    3 SEP

    6 SEP

    AIS Big Data Hackathon

    Virtual / Remote

    Automatic identification system (AIS) data allows for real-time geo-tracking and identification for equipped vessels. AIS data provides a big data source of unrivaled quality. The number of possible applications for this data is enormous. To quickly utilize the data to its full potential, we need a surge of creative researchers to come up with equally creative ways to use it!

  • 2020

    31 AUG

    2 SEP

    6th International Conference on Big Data for Official Statistics

    Virtual Conference via Seoul, Republic of Korea
    Seoul 2020

    The main theme of the Conference is "How can Big Data help in the COVID-19 response?" Related themes are: "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".

    Use of new data sources and new technologies, such as AI and machine learning, can make statistical operations more cost effective and provide timelier, more frequent and more granular statistical outputs, which is especially important to support rapid assessment of the COVID-19 situation and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 231 SDG indicators.

 

2019

  • 2019

    16 OCT

    18 OCT

    International Symposium on the use of Big Data for official statistics

    Hangzhou, China
    Hangzhou 2019

    The symposium aims to increase the knowledge and skills of statistical offices in using new data source, tools and methods, and to foster collaboration among countries in the Asian-Pacific region in the use of Big Data for official statistics. The symposium will give an overview on the work of the GWG and its Task Teams. Special attention will be devoted to the UN Global Platform as a digital platform enabling international and regional collaboration. This platform enables statisticians, data scientists and other researchers from different countries and locations to work together on projects involving, for example, satellite data to estimate crop production.

    The UN-China Centre on Big Data is being set up as a regional hub of the UN Global Platform, giving countries in Asia a better opportunity to advance the work on Big Data. This Centre will be useful to initiate and execute innovative data projects. The Centre will also serve as a training institute to develop new skills for staff of national statistical offices.

  • 2019

    15 AUG

    17 AUG

    Symposium on Data Science and Official Statistics

    ISI WSC 2019 // Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

    Big Data is by definition different from traditional data sources currently used by national statistical systems (NSSs) requiring the development of new methodologies together with upgrading of quality assurance framework, technology, security, privacy and legal matters. This means that new skill sets and competencies are necessary. Some of which could be hired temporarily, others will need to become an integral part of the institution. Data science is one of those new competencies. It is likely that the staffing table of statistical institutions will show quite a few data scientists and data engineers in the near future.

    This symposium offers insights into activities on the nexus of Data Science and Official Statistics and corresponding training opportunities. It will consist of lectures, project presentations and hands-on demonstrations.

  • 2019

    11 JUN

    14 JUN

    Regional workshop on the use of mobile phone data for official statistics

    Jakarta, Indonesia

    Big Data is by definition different from traditional data sources currently used by national statistical systems (NSSs) requiring the development of new methodologies together with upgrading of quality assurance framework, technology, security, privacy and legal matters. This means that new skill sets and competencies are necessary. Some of which could be hired temporarily, others will need to become an integral part of the institution. Data science is one of those new competencies. It is likely that the staffing table of statistical institutions will show quite a few data scientists and data engineers in the near future.

    This symposium offers insights into activities on the nexus of Data Science and Official Statistics and corresponding training opportunities. It will consist of lectures, project presentations and hands-on demonstrations.

  • 2019

    29 APR

    3 MAY

    5th International Conference on Big Data

    Kigali, Rwanda
    Kigali 2019

    The 5th International Conference on Big Data for official statistics will be held in Kigali, Rwanda from 29 April until 3 May 2019. The first 3 days of the week will be devoted to training workshops for African countries and a seminar of activities of a Data Science Campus for official statistics. The seminar will demonstrate projects for the African continent, including projects on Digital Earth Africa. The last 2 days of the week will be for keynote speakers and several high-level panels. This week in Kigali will show that new data sources and new technologies can also be used in Africa to get better data for better policies.

  • 2019

    27 MAR

    29 MAR

    International Meeting on Measuring Human Mobility

    Tbilisi, Georgia

    The international meeting is built on three parts, namely (1) measuring human mobility using mobile phone data, (2) compiling migration and tourism statistics using traditional data sources, and (3) project implementation using the UN Global Planform.

    UNSD, ITU, national statistical offices, other national agencies and other international institutes will work together to develop and test methods to estimate migration and tourism statistics in Georgia with use of mobile phone data from Georgian mobile phone operators. Thereafter, other countries will test these new methods, such as Indonesia, Malaysia, Oman, Italy, the Netherlands, Columbia and Egypt.

 

2018

  • 2018

    21 OCT

    Open Day 2018

    Dubai, UAE
    Dubai 2018

    This year the GWG will meet the day before the 2nd UN World Data Forum. The GWG grasps the occasion to demonstrate its work to a wider audience. The GWG will show the progress made on the Global Platform – thanks to the great efforts made by ONS, UK – as a collaborative research and development environment for trusted data, services and applications by demonstrating [on the Global Platform] a number of projects in partnership with technology companies, data providers and academia. This Open Day of the GWG is an opportunity to show to all stakeholders where the GWG stands with the development of the Global Platform.

  • 2018

    18 JUN

    22 JUN

    Workshop on Earth Observation Data and Applications for Official Statistics

    Bangkok, Thailand

    This workshop provides an opportunity for statistical organisations to participate in discussion and training in the use of earth observation (EO) data, in particular satellite imagery, for official statistics and sustainable development goals (SDGs). The first day of the workshop provides an overview of EO and the ways in which it can be used to report on a variety of SDGs. This will include presentations from different country representatives and discussions among participants. The workshop will continue with a course on the use of satellite data for agricultural statistics. This will include presentations, practical demonstrations and hands-on tutorials focusing on data preparation, analysis and presentation. The practical focus of the course will be on crop-type classification, but the techniques and tools are more widely applicable. The workshop will conclude with a half-day wrapup including discussion about moving forward, priorities for participants and ongoing training opportunities.

 

2017

  • 2017

    8 NOV

    10 NOV

    4th UN Conference on Big Data

    Bogota, Colombia
    Bogota 2017

    Data collaboratives are a new challenge and new opportunity for the community of official statistics - in relation to Big Data, to the SDGs, to the sharing of data, services, technologies, and know how.

    • How can statistical offices, technology companies and data owners collaborate in a mutually beneficial way in a changing world, in which data are seen as the most important source for creating wealth and development for all?
    • What are the experiences and lessons learned from existing data collaboratives in relation to coverage, inclusion (and exclusion) of partners, activities, management and financing?
    • How can we share micro-data and other sensitive data in a federated cloud environment given regulatory frameworks for data privacy and statistical laws protection confidentiality?
    • How could we effectively and collaboratively use modern tools and services, such as data lakes, integrated geo-spatial data and statistics, or open source elastic stack while adapting job profiles and skills sets in the statistical office?

    These and similar questions will be addressed at the 4th UN Conference on Big Data.

 

2016

  • 2016

    30 AUG

    1 SEP

    3rd International Conference on Big Data for Official Statistics

    Dublin, Ireland
    Dublin 2016

    In line with the priorities of work and with the urgent needs for support of SDG indicators, the third Global Conference on Big Data for Official Statistics wants to take the next steps in the utilization of Big Data in the production of official statistics, namely by (1) providing guidance for access to proprietary data and for successful partnerships with data owners, by (2) providing training courses on topics such as methodology, IT tools and project management related to Big Data, and by (3) supporting projects, which demonstrate the use of Big Data for official statistics, and especially for the compilation of SDG indicators.

 

2015

  • 2015

    20 OCT

    22 OCT

    International Conference on Big Data for Official Statistics

    Abu Dhabi, UAE
    Abu Dhabi 2015

    On 20-22 October 2015, the second global conference on Big Data for official statistics took place in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. This conference intends to take the development of Big Data one step further. Thus far, many examples of Big Data projects have been demonstrated. Now, the focus will be on lessons learned on the basis of detailed descriptions of those case studies. This is a first step towards guidance on using Big Data for Official Statistics, which can stimulate training, pilot projects and bringing pilot projects into the production environment. Therefore, the theme of the second global conference is 'moving from examples to guidelines'.

  • 2015

    4 MAR

    Big Data Seminar at the 46th UN Statistical Commission

    UNHQ, New York, USA
    Big Data Seminar 2015

    At its 45th session, the Statistical Commission recognized the importance of Big Data for official statistics and established a Global Working Group to develop guidance in this area. Big Data are potentially useful for official statistics, but require new tools and methods for capturing, managing and processing them efficiently. To take full advantage of these data sources, we need to adequately address issues pertaining to methodology, quality, technology, data access, legislation, privacy, management and finance, and provide adequate cost-benefit analyses.

    This seminar focused on the strategies developed by some national statistical offices to incorporate Big Data into the operations of the institute. They provided examples of some Big Data projects undertaken by their offices.

 

2014

  • 2014

    28 OCT

    30 OCT

    1st International Conference on Big Data for Official Statistics

    Beijing, China
    Beijing 2014

    The statistical community has recognized the potential use of big data for official statistics. The UN Statistical Commission therefore established in March 2014 a global working group mandated to provide strategic vision, direction and coordination of a global programme on Big Data for official statistics, to promote practical use of sources of Big Data for official statistics, while finding solutions for their challenges, and to promote capacity building and sharing of experiences in this respect.

    Currently, mostly developed countries have started using various Big Data sources encountering a number of challenges. Mobile phone data, Traffic loop data, Twitter data and Satellite imagery have all been successfully used. Whereas national circumstances can be fairly unique, it is still intended to generalize the use of such Big Data sources to other countries, especially also in developing parts of the world.

 

2013

  • 2013

    22 FEB

    Big Data Seminar at the 44th UN Statistical Commission

    UNHQ, New York, USA

    The advent of the Internet, mobile devices and other technologies has caused a fundamental change to the nature of data. Big Data has important, distinct qualities that differentiate it from "traditional" institutional data, in particular the timeliness of the data. If governments wanted to, they could already let Big Data (and the private sector) play a role in providing information on topics that are currently under the purview of national statistical offices. Should these NSOs change their business operations to take on the opportunities of using Big Data for official government purposes?