I think we’ll start to see the potential for big data to turn into important findings that really do make the world better.
- Lawrence King
The American economist Alan Greenspan once described corruption as “the way human nature functions”, it’s just that successful economies manage to keep it to a minimum. The question, of course, is how.
In the digital age, with its ‘freedom of information’, corrupt uses of public finance for political and corporate cronyism should have fewer dark corners to hide in.
Since the late 2000s, virtually all developed countries digitised and made available public procurement data. However, this data deluge can create the illusion of transparency, with a fog of information so vast as to seem impenetrable.
Previously, exposing corruption often relied on the diligence of journalists and campaigners to sift through data and make connections. Such investigations require time and luck, and can be biased.
But now a team of data-driven sociologists have created a new measurement system for detecting exploitation of public finance, designed to take advantage of the new data avalanche. It’s a system that is likely to rattle those profiting corruptly at the public’s expense (and give activists good cause to salivate).
Read the full story
Image: Whistle while you work
Credit: Holly Occhipinti
Reproduced courtesy of the University of Cambridge
________________________________________