Team

Jo Bates

I am a lecturer at the University of Sheffield Information School. My main research interest is the political economy of data, particularly datasets that are produced by public bodies. My work explores the socio-cultural and political economic factors shaping developments in the re-use of such data, for example, the Open Government Data initiative.

I am particularly interested in the ideas, practices and policies shaping the production and distribution of public datasets and their re-use by third parties including citizens and businesses. I am leading on the Secret Life of a Weather Datum cases on the production and collation of weather data, and its re-use in climate science and financial markets.

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Yuwei Lin

I am Course Leader for BA(Hons) Media and Communications in the School of Film and Media at the University for the Creative Arts, UK. My background and training in sociology (PhD, York) has inspired and enabled me to conduct research on the socio-technical dynamics within and across open innovation systems, including free/libre open source software (FLOSS), open data, amateur/citizen science, and participatory/social media.

In addition to my teaching and research, I also advocate for free/open source software, open data, digital rights and encouraging female participation in science and technology in my spare time. I am Co-Investigator for the Secret Life of a Weather Datum Project. I lead on the investigation into the socio-technical dynamics in citizen science/open science with regard to the production, solicitation, collection, analysis, re-use and re-mix of big weather data.

Paula Goodale

I am a Research Associate at the University of Sheffield Information School and also studying for a PhD. My research focuses on the inter-related areas of information access, information interaction and information use and re-use. In current and recent projects I have investigated the needs, processes and interactions of information users, and the interpretation and transformation of information by users in different contexts; effectively a parallel emphasis on the information journey of the user, and on the journey of the information as it is used.

For the Secret Life of a Weather Datum project I am primarily working on data collection and analysis, and public engagement via the web, social media, and events.

Dave Mee

I am a creative technologist with an interest in human factors and open data. My work ranges from building environmental sensor embedded systems to developing non-expert education programmes and workshops.

For the Secret Life Of a Weather Datum project, I developed a standards-compliant web publishing platform using novel map navigation which reinforces the data narrative.