January 12, 2018
Predict-a-palooza: Civil Society Forecast 2018
Podcast: An expert panel and our virtual audience forecast the most important trends and challenges facing digital civil society in 2018.
Digital Impact was created by the Digital Civil Society Lab at Stanford PACS and was managed until 2024. It is no longer being updated.
August 29, 2017
Considering Bias
Human perceptions and decision-making are riddled with cognitive biases. Cognitive biases are tendencies to think in certain ways that sometimes lead to irrational judgments. For example, you might think you are more likely to die in a plane crash than die of a heart attack (that’s caused by the availability heuristic). While that can impact […]
February 8, 2017
Announcing the Digital Impact World Tour
Digital data offers a world of possibilities for civil society to achieve greater impact – data transforms how we operate, interact and serve constituents. At the same time, poorly-managed data can cause great harm. Civil society’s rising dependence on digital data and infrastructure has raised new ethical and governance challenges, generated a new set of […]
September 19, 2016
Social media data for social good: The pros and cons
With each passing day, new technologies crop up and become integral parts of our social media-entrenched, smart device-embedded lives. When we use these new technologies, we trade access to our intimate moments for convenience and entertainment. The petabytes of data generated by each waking (and sleeping!) nanosecond are a treasure trove for the companies that […]
September 15, 2016
Data Conversation with Steve MacLaughlin
Steve MacLaughlin, Director of Analytics at Blackbaud, talks about his new book.
July 6, 2016
When Algorithms Run the Government
The Impact Lab’s Andrew Means calls for transparency in algorithmic decision-making to ensure proper, equitable practice in service of the public good.
February 4, 2016
Your guide to the key EU-US data-sharing pact
After days of negotiation, the US and European Union (EU) have reached an agreement, known as the “Privacy Shield,” to better protect and continue to allow the transfer of personal data between the US and EU countries. This new agreement also grants Europeans the ability to seek legal action if they feel their personal […]
January 14, 2016
Unearthing Data to Unleash Impact: Using Unique Data Sources to Drive Change
Introduction At DataKind and Tableau Foundation, we regularly work with nonprofits that have important questions to answer, but not necessarily the data to do so. Or, at least, they don’t think they have the data to do so. The truth is, in this awesome age of the Internet, satellites, sensors and extreme […]
January 5, 2016
How To Stem The Global Shortage Of Data Scientists
The term “data scientists” was rarely used 20 years ago, even 10 years ago most employers didn’t grasp the value of this specific skill set. A data scientist uses a combination of computer science, statistics, operations research, engineering, business insights and strategy to interpret data and find key insights. Now, the term is widely […]
December 15, 2015
Case Study: Constructive engagement in the Matema Water Project, Kenya.
Arnold Kipchirchir completed his Community Integrity Building training with National Taxpayers Association in August 2015 and was allocated a water project in Matema, Nandi province. Matema is a prime example of just how drastically projects can stall and how long delays can go unresolved without dedicated resource or individuals working to bring the various […]