The Hart Leadership Program capped off its semester of Connect2Politics events with a discussion of the uses of data for organizing Monday evening.

The student moderated discussion featured featuring Amy Cox and Briana Brough, co-founders of Flip NC, and Karthik Balasubramanian Pratt ‘07, an assistant professor at Howard University and founder of the 14 Cities initiative. Panelists shared how they use evidence-based strategies and data analytics for organizing communities around causes, whether it be for a candidate or to fix streetlights.

They also grappled with implications of big data for the future of community-engaged work, answering questions such as: What counts as data? Does it change the fundamental nature of organizing or is it simply another tool in the organizer’s tool kit? What are the implications of this for protection of citizens’ trust and privacy? Does big data provide political and community organizers with new tools and strategies?

A video of the discussion is available below:



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