Blog
Project event
On 16 March we are hosting an end-of-project event at the Information School, the University of Sheffield. Participants include representatives from academic research, education, citizen science and more.
The event schedule includes:
Presentation of project methods and key findings
Talks on citizen projects
Launch of our interactive website
Impact workshop
Panel discussion
Have a go at building a Raspberry Pi weather station
The day starts with project talks from Jo Bates (project PI) and Paula Goodale (RA). Jo and Paula will present on some of the key findings from our analysis of the Secret Life of a Weather Datum data, and give insights into how the data was collected.
In the citizen science session, research participant Joan Arthur will talk about her experience of volunteering on the Old Weather project, and Danny Antrobus of Better With Data will talk about the Air Quality+ project.
During lunch, participants will have the opportunity to try their hand at building a simple Raspberry Pi weather station, based upon the SheffieldPiStation project, developed by our student Romilly Close. Full instructions and code are available online for anyone who wants to have a go in their own time.
At our website launch, participants are invited to explore the site, contribute to the public conversation about the findings, and give us feedback for future development. The website presents findings from the project in an interactive style, incorporating a novel map-based navigation. We welcome contributions to this session both live at the event and from people joining us online at lifeofdata.org.uk, from 1.30–2.30pm.
The impact workshop focuses on exploring ideas for developing the impact of the project outside of academia. Context from a research council perspective will be given by Professor Andrew Prescott (Leadership Fellow for AHRC’s Digital Transformations theme), and we welcome ideas from practitioners and public perspectives.
A panel discussion on the theme of ‘Data dissonance – hype, power and engagement in the data revolution’ will provide an opportunity to hear from contrasting points of view and to contribute to a lively discussion. Panel members are Professor Andrew Prescott (Glasgow/AHRC), Danny Antrobus (Better with Data Society/Open Data Sheffield), Professor Helen Kennedy (Sheffield), and will be chaired by Jo Bates (project PI, Sheffield).
We will also be live-tweeting throughout the day from our Twitter @lifeofdata and #lifeofdata, so even if you can’t be in Sheffield, we hope you will join us, and join in the conversation.