Data-driven web tools and Māori data sovereignty: building a data analytics platform for Aotearoa to share with the world
Dr Tom Elliot teaching basic data analysis using iNZight in Cook Islands (photo supplied)
Data has become a crucial resource in modern society, so democratising access to data and the information it contains is a critical role of data science. This involves building and updating data tools and platforms that make it easier for non-technical users to learn about their world. In Aotearoa, the analytics software ‘iNZight’ has become a core component of not only our statistical education curriculum, but more recently research organisations and government agencies have recognised its value in their own data environments. However, ‘iNZight’ is now facing technical barriers to meeting the increased demands of its users, which presents an opportunity to completely redesign the system for our new and expanding audience. During this redesign, we have the chance to incorporate Māori data sovereignty principles into the core of our framework, ensuring that the platform is suited to diverse Māori data environments. First, we will create open-source tools that allow data scientists to build flexible data-driven web applications, and then use these to build a state-of-the-art data analytics platform to rebuild and extend the existing ‘iNZight’ software. Our working partnership with Tūhono Trust, a Māori data organisation, enables us to trial the new data tools with te reo Māori capability in Māori data environments. We will apply our decade of experience developing ‘iNZight’ to creating a new, more powerful, flexible system that can work in a range of environments and enable a larger audience to interact with data and gain insights without the technical barriers that exist today. As the lead developer and principal investigator, this project will provide the secure funding needed for Dr Elliott to become an emerging Māori research leader doing data science research of international significance.