Datasets, even if honest, still don’t necessarily tell us about the subject of the data. Despite this, datasets can tell us where their collectors’ mindsets, biases, and perspectives are. I think it is dangerous (risking misinformation about the subjects’ lives and their truths) to allow datasets to shape how we think about or view a subject. In the context of how data is presented, we can also see what the collectors feel that they can extrapolate from this data.

I don’t think that there should be a standard for how we approach or trust the data itself or how it is presented to be. “Trusting” a dataset implies trusting that the data is both fairly representing and accurately communicating the reality of its subject.

With this in mind, I think that “trusting” data should mean going along for the ride that the data’s collector is steering. Trusting a dataset can be about trusting its collector (acknowledging the humanness of data collection) rather than trusting its truth (believing that the data holds a mythical, objective authority). I can learn so much by hearing out someone’s passions or worries that might be deeply informed by the data that they are presenting, and listening and empathizing can let me find beauty or concern where the collector finds beauty or concern.

I think that there surely exists “good” data that also represents the voice of its subject. For these sets, the data shows truths both of the collector’s perspective/interpretation and of the subject’s experience/insight. In some cases, this is amplified by the subject and collector being one and the same. So while there are datasets that speak well for their subject, I think that we should approach data seeking more truth about their collector than about their subject.

This post’s thoughts were insprired by the following works:

  • Five Things We Need to Know About Technological Change by Neil Postman
  • The Point of Collection by Mimi Onuoha
  • Representation and the Necessity of Interpretation by Laura Kurgan
  • Objectivity by Lorraine Daston and Peter Galison