“Yeah, Says Who?” – Influence Through Data

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You know you’ve achieved results – the data tells you so – but how do you influence sceptics to believe it? It can be a rude awakening to take the findings of a study outside your own team or organisation, where trust and mutual support are more or less a given. In front of a wider audience of funding providers or other stakeholders, you will inevitably in my experience find yourse
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Using Data to Shed the Cloak of Invisibility

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Since time immemorial we have been fascinated by the power of invisibility. Plato used the “Ring of Gyges” to wrestle with the ethical and moral dilemmas it poses. Just think of H.G. Wells’ “Invisible Man”, Tolkien’s One-Ring, or Harry Potter’s Cloak of Invisibility.  Does invisibility free us from moral obligations, and if we possessed this power would we become corrupted
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No Data? No Voice, No Idea – The Importance of Data

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The collection and analysis of data must never be allowed to fall by the wayside – it’s a founding stone, not a ‘nice to have’. Of course, I would say that, wouldn’t I? But here are six concrete reasons why data is important, drawing on Get the Data’s recent work with the Advice Services Alliance (ASA) as a case study.
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Choosing a Database? Just Keep It Simple

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When choosing a database for your project or programme, made to measure software or flashy online tools aren’t necessarily the right choice. If you’re going to gather and analyse data in a serious way of course you need a database of some sort and, having spent much of my academic and professional career buried in them, I’m very much an advocate.
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