---
title: Measuring the world
page_type: course
track: Exploration
course_type: Short Course
feature_img: /assets/images/2023-24/year-1/t-2/measuring-the-world.png
img_caption:
faculty:
    - oscar-gonzalez
    - guillem-camprodon
ects: 1
---

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## Syllabus

This course will introduce students to the concept of _a world in data_ by designing artifacts to measure their daily analogue and digital activity. The fundamental aspect is to understand nowadays data-driven world from the sourcing, that could range from a temperature sensor to an Instagram like, processing, storage and consumption. It aims to work both as an introduction to some key concepts behind physical computing as well as an introduction to the idea of information and how it's created, modified and consumed.

**Keywords: data, platforms, measurement, data-awareness**

### Learning Objectives

This course aims to introduce briefly students to data concepts a

- Data vs. information concepts
- Basic hypothesis formulation and research questions
- Data awareness, criticism

### Methodological Strategies

- Lectures
- Group discussions
- Practical work

## Schedule

The course will take place during 2.5 days, in-person format, divided in 4 sessions. Students will organize as one collective around a creative challenge and organize in interdependent smaller teams.

=== "07/02"

    **Morning:** Theory Session I: Learning to ask. Introduction to the Data and information.

    **Afternoon:** Practical Tools I: Collecting our own data.

=== "08/02"

    **Morning:** Theory Session II: Demons of data. Data-awareness raising and discussion.

    **Afternoon:** Practical Tools II: Collecting data from others.

=== "09/02"

    **Morning:** Presentation

## Deliverables

- Sense-Making Journal + Presentation
- Free data-demonisation reflection essay

## Grading Method

| Percentage  | Description                         |
| ----------- | ------------------------------------|
| 30%         | Participation                       |
| 20%         | Practical work quality              |
| 25%         | Presentation                        |
| 25%         | Reflection essay                    |

!!! ects "European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS)"

    {{ ects }} ECTS

## Additional Resources

**Privacy**

- [_Book_ - The Filter Bubble: What the Internet is Hiding From You](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10596103-the-filter-bubble?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=Vz2TLUup2J&rank=1), Eli Pariser.
- [_Book_ - Infocracy: Digitization and the Crisis of Democracy](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/60659995-infocracy?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=2mIIViIz7M&rank=1), Byung-Chul Han.
- [_Book_ - The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26195941-the-age-of-surveillance-capitalism), Shoshana Zuboff.
- [Data brokers netflow](https://www.vice.com/en/article/jg84yy/data-brokers-netflow-data-team-cymru)
- [Private intelligence location](https://www.vice.com/en/article/qj454d/private-intelligence-location-data-xmode-hyas)
- [Strava military case](https://www.wired.com/story/strava-heat-map-military-bases-fitness-trackers-privacy/) and [consequences](https://edition.cnn.com/2018/01/28/politics/strava-military-bases-location/index.html)

**Science and questioning**

- [Rising up agains statistical significance](https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-00857-9) also [here](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30894741/)

**Tools and use cases**

- [air/aria/aire - Evidència Cartogràfica](http://air.300000.eu/#ca)
- [Smart Citizen Kit and Station: An open environmental monitoring system for citizen participation and scientific experimentation](https://www.hardware-x.com/article/S2468-0672(19)30020-3/fulltext)

**Capitalism and data exploitation**

- [Amazon Mechanical Turk](https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2018/01/amazon-mechanical-turk/551192/)
- [_Book_ - Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28186015-weapons-of-math-destruction), Cathy O'Neil.

**Courses**

- [FastAI Ethics](https://ethics.fast.ai/syllabus/)
- [Open data for beginners](https://ukdataservice.ac.uk/learning-hub/)

**To install**

- [Arduino IDE](https://www.arduino.cc/en/software)
- [Orange Data Mining](https://orangedatamining.com/)
- [Python 3 Installed](https://fablabbcn-projects.gitlab.io/learning/fabacademy-local-docs/clubs/codeclub/scripting/#installing-python) and under control (know how to run a predefined script and to install packages)
- Some short of spreadsheet app

## Faculty

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