Data-Pop Alliance

Data-Pop Alliance is the first think-tank on Big Data and Development, co-created by the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, MIT Media Lab, and Overseas Development Institute to promote a people-centered Big Data revolution.

Data-Pop functions as a distributed network, with our headquarters in New York, where we are incubated by ThoughtWorks NYC, co-directors and staff at HHI, MIT Media Lab and ODI, research affiliates in various organizations, and individual and institutional partners around the globe.

The vision is a future where Big Data is leveraged to improve decisions and empower people, especially at the community level, in ways that avoid the pitfalls of a new digital divide, de-humanization and de-democratization.

Work is organized along there main strategic streams:
(*) Advancing Knowledge and Innovation with Big Data
(*) Building Capacities and Connections in Big Data
(*) Crafting Ethical and Equitable Systems for Big Data

Data-Pop operates through research, training, technical assistance, convening, knowledge curation, and advocacy, with systematic engagement of local partners and communities.

Work is structured around five thematic areas: Official statistics, governance and policy; Demo-economic processes including migration; Violence, social cohesion and peacebuilding; Climate change, resilience and humanitarian action; and Literacy, ethics and rights. Each of these areas benefits from the inputs of a corresponding working group.

The main funder is The Rockefeller Foundation. Please sign up to receive our updates & newsletters, and contact us with questions or suggestions.