Number Savvy : From the Invention of Numbers to the Future of Data

"This book is written for the love of numbers. It tells their story, shows how they were invented and used to quantify our world, and explains what quantitative data mean for our lives. It aspires to contribute to overall numeracy through a tour de force presentation of the production, use, and evolution of data. Understanding our physical world, our economies, and our societies through quantification has been a persistent feature of human evolution. This book starts with a narrative on why and how our ancestors were driven to the invention of number, which is then traced to the eventual arrival at our number system. This is followed by a discussion of how numbers were used for counting, how they enabled the measurement of physical quantities, and how they led to the estimation of man-made and abstract notions in the socio-economic domain. As data don't fall like manna from the sky, a unique feature of this book is that it explains from a teacher's perspective how they're really conceived in our minds, how they're actually produced from individual observations, and how this defines their meaning and interpretation. It discusses the significance of standards, the use of taxonomies, and clarifies a series of misconceptions regarding the making of data. The book then describes the switch to a new research paradigm and its implications, highlights the arrival of microdata, illustrates analytical uses of data, and closes with a look at the future of data and our own role in it"-- Provided by publisher Cover Half Title Title Page Copyright Page Dedication Table of Contents Acknowledgements Author Author’s Log Welcome 1 We Got Number Where It All Starts An Ancestor’s Epiphany From Number to Counting and Measuring A Triple Problem Towards a Complete Number System Is This the End? Take-Aways For the Love of Numbers Fact-Checking Tips Notes 2 Measuring, With Instruments Units and Instruments Standards Interrelationships Among Units Expansion of Measurements and Instruments Superior Data? Games of the Mind Empirical Matters Shifting Interests Range, Not Point Applied Cases Around the House In the Backyard That Matter of Time Fact-Checking Tips Notes 3 Humanity’s Numbers Just Imagine... Count Me In The Census Clouds Ahoy More Than a Count The Tribulations of a Decent Synthesis The Act of Aggregation Harmonization Go Forth and Multiply Rewind to Blurry Shadows Fast-Forward to a Mirage Live Long and Prosper What’s in Store? Fun and Games What Happened to ‘The Good Old Days’? A Proposal Fact-Checking Tips Notes 4 The Socio-Economic Realm The Rate of Unemployment Give Me a Theory... Kicking the Can A Stylized Approach The Makings of an Expert Inside Empirical Research A Metaphor Mental Creations Output and GDP Overlaps and Implications Fact-Checking Tips Notes 5 The Art of Drawing Lines The Opening Act Know No Boundaries? A Sense of Taxonomy Geography Grid Systems Making Data From the People to the Stockroom Back to the People Full Circle Nothing Personal, All Business A Particular Set of Matrices Industry Classifications Additional Cast Flexible Classifications and Alternative Views One Data Fact-Checking Tips Notes 6 The Old Guard The Players The Rise of Governments and National Statistical Offices Additional Public Sources The Private and Non-Profit Sectors The Researcher ‘Community’ International Organizations Modus Operandi Surveys Administrative Data Transitions Speed and Higher Expectations Digitization Acquisition, Curation, and Use of Administrative Data A Very Big Deal Fact-Checking Tips Notes 7 The New Era of Data On New Sources and Methods Transactional Data Log Server and Web Data Search Engines and Social Media Earth Observations Sensory Data Crowdsourcing Open Data Lessons From the Early Go Keep an Eye On These Research (Re)Design The Humpty-Dumpty More Art Than Science A Morning Message Data Flows and Intercepts The Graduate Course Fact-Checking Tips Notes 8 It’s All About the Microdata Macro Vs. Micro Off to a Slow Start The Power to Reveal Coming of Age Statistical Registers Clinical Trials in Economics Playing at the Margins Deep and Dynamic Research Problems and Data Stewardship Fact-Checking Tips Notes 9 Data Analysis A Marvellous Toolbox Descriptive and Inferential Analysis Regressions and Correlations Hypothesis Testing The Truth, the Fractional Truth, and Nothing But Enough Truth Probability and Human Nature Selected Topics Stock-and-Flow Interpretation Slippery Impacts League Tables Fact-Checking Tips Notes 10 The Future of Data A Messy Neighbourhood Co-habitation and Strange Bedfellows Data as a Strategic Resource Playing in the Sandbox A Trusted Third Party More Reflections Revisiting Data Confidentiality and Privacy The End of Theory Data By Machines, for Machines Fact-Checking Tips Notes Index