http://doi.org/10.22215/CURRRG/2020.TracingCOVID19data
Tracey P. Lauriault
Associate Professor, Critical Media and Big Data,
School of Journalism and Communication, Carleton University
Tracey.Lauriault@Carleton.ca
@TraceyLauriault
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1847-2738
Data & Technological Citizenship
During the COVID-19 Pandemic
03/07/2020 | Zoom | OLIP Health and Wellbeing Sector Table Meeting, Ottawa
Tracey P. Lauriault
Associate Professor, Critical Media and Big Data,
School of Journalism and Communication, Carleton University
Tracey.Lauriault@Carleton.ca
@TraceyLauriault
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1847-2738

http://doi.org/10.22215/CURRRG/2020.TracingCOVID19data 2
Funded by
Carleton University COVID-19 Rapid Research Response Grant
https://carleton.ca/coris/cu-covid-19-rapid-research-response-grants-2/
Research Results
http://datalibre.ca/
PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
Tracey Lauriault
Critical Media and Big Data, School
of Journalism and Communication,
Carleton University
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1847-2738
RESEARCH ASSISTANT, DESIGN, & COORDINATION
Kit Chokly
Graduate Student, School of Journalism
and Communication, Carleton University
kitchokly.com
Research Team
RESEARCH ASSISTANT
Amanda Hunter
Graduate Student, School of Journalism
and Communication, Carleton University
https://www.linkedin.com/in/amanda-hunter-
b0382372/
RESEARCH ASSISTANT, ACCESSIBILITY
Aidan Battley
Undergraduate student in Communications and
Media Studies, at Carleton University
linkedin.com/in/aidan-battley-3b1274132/
RESEARCH ASSOCIATE
Sam Shields
Self-Employed, Graduate of Political Science &
Communications and Media Studies Programs
https://www.linkedin.com/in/samueltshields/
RESEARCH ASSISTANT, COMMUNICATION
Meelo Fairfax-Angod
Undergraduate Student in Faculty
of Communications and Media Studies
at Carleton University
https://www.linkedin.com/in/meelofairfaxangod/

http://doi.org/10.22215/CURRRG/2020.TracingCOVID19data
Contents
3
1. Introduction
2. Objectives
3. Rationale
4. Theoretical Framework
• Critical Data Studies
• Data & Technological Citizenship
• Rights Based Approach to Data during
a Crisis
5. Current Topic Areas
• Comparative analysis of official COVID-
19 demographic data reporting &
• Intersectionality & COVID-19 Data &
telling data stories visually
• Design & telling visual data stories
• Disability Data & COVID-19
• Open Science, Open Government and
Open Data
• Framework & foundational Datasets
6. Refences

DOI 10.1000/xyz123
Objectives
•The project’s objectives are to:
1. Compare official COVID-19 public health data reports to identify gaps
and best practices
2. Identify and support the building of framework datasets to standardize
reporting
3. Analyze data standards and protocols to support data management,
interoperability and cross-jurisdictional reporting
4. Publish case-studies, resources, archives of official reporting, and a
glossary
5. Rapidly conduct expert analysis, peer review, knowledge mobilization
and provide evidence-based recommendations to improve how data
are reported
4

http://doi.org/10.22215/CURRRG/2020.TracingCOVID19data
Rationale
• Official COVID-19 public health data are inconsistently reported,
impeding comparability, and the ability to assess impact and target
actions.
• Data to inform the inequities experienced by Indigenous &
racialized groups are inadequate as are data about people with
disabilities, gender beyond the binary and some classes of labour
• Lack of framework and foundational datasets upon which analysis
can be made – data infrastructure
• There is a lack of standards & protocols in reporting impeding
interoperability
• Need to rapidly report observations and critical data research to
advance and frame public policy about the response
5

http://doi.org/10.22215/CURRRG/2020.TracingCOVID19data
Theoretical Framework
• The project is theoretically informed by
1. Critical Data Studies
• Data have social and material shaping qualities and they
are never politically neutral
• Data are inseparable from the people and institutions who
create & own them nor from the practices, techniques,
and infrastructures of their life-cycle
• Data are viewed as a social and technological assemblage
2. Data & Technological Citizenship
• Data & their technologies are political, and actors beyond
government ought to actively be part of the deliberations
of how data are created, managed and used
3. Rights-based approach to the management of data &
technologies
• A pandemic is a crisis, but this does not mean that rights
ought to be waved in the name of efficiency, expediency
and technological solutionism
6

http://doi.org/10.22215/CURRRG/2020.TracingCOVID19data
Current topic areas
• Intersectional Empiricism
1. Indigenous Rights & Traditional Knowledge approaches
to data
2. Critical race theory & data
3. Critical gender & feminist theory & data
4. Critical disability studies – social model of disability &
data
• Openness
• Open science
• Open government
• Open data
• Design & Communication
7

http://doi.org/10.22215/CURRRG/2020.TracingCOVID19data
What kind of demographic data are reported?
• Comparative analysis of the data reported on Official Federal,
Provincial and Territorial Websites (Shields & Lauriault)
• What kind of demographic data are reported in official
COVID19 reports?
• Age
• sex variables
• labour classifications
• Indigenous, Black and Racialized People
• Disability
• http://datalibre.ca/2020/04/17/covid-19-demographic-reporting/
8

http://doi.org/10.22215/CURRRG/2020.TracingCOVID19data
Intersectionality & COVID-19
• Developing an intersectional
approach to assess official COVID-
19 data reporting (Chokly &
Lauriault)
• What does an intersectional graphic
vocabulary look like?
• How to visually communicate
intersectionality to tell data stories?
• What is the visual narrative expressed
in official COVID-19 dashboards
• What does an intersectional data life-
cycle look like?
• Stay tuned for the first blog post!
9

http://doi.org/10.22215/CURRRG/2020.TracingCOVID19data
Disability & COVID-19
• What does a social model of disability of COVID-19 data
reporting look like? (Battley & Lauriault)
• What are standardized classifications?
• Are official sites accessible?
• What datasets are missing? Datasets on accessible
accommodation and long term dwellings?
• How are people with disabilities classified in CERB? ODSP?
Taxation?
10

http://doi.org/10.22215/CURRRG/2020.TracingCOVID19data
Open Science, Open Government & Open Data
• What type of open principles should apply to COVID-19 Data
and reporting? (Hunter & Lauriault)
• Open by Default?
• How do the principles of FAIR + RDA + OEDC + Open Science + OCAP
apply to COVID-19 Data?
• What principles should be applied to COVID-19 data & what is missing?
• What does the COVID-19 data lifecycle look like?
• How does official report fare according to these?
11

http://doi.org/10.22215/CURRRG/2020.TracingCOVID19data
Framework Data
• Framework data (Lauriault)
• are a “set of continuous and fully integrated geospatial [or topical] data
that provide context and reference information for the country.
Framework data are expected to be widely used and generally
applicable, either underpinning or enabling geospatial applications” P.7.
12

http://doi.org/10.22215/CURRRG/2020.TracingCOVID19data
References
• @Rede4BlackLives Protocol https://rede4blacklives.com/the-protocol/
• Agency and Citizenship in a Technological Society http://www.sfu.ca/~andrewf/copen5-1.pdf
• Canadian Geospatial Data Infrastructure Framework Data http://ftp.geogratis.gc.ca/pub/nrcan_rncan/publications/ess_sst/288/288855/cgdi_ip_09_e.pdf
• CanCOVID Speaker Series: Integrating age, sex, gender, race and other factors into COVID research
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbZ3IAWTJAg&pbjreload=10
• Critical Race Theory, Race Equity, and Public Health: Toward Antiracism Praxis https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2837428/
• Data Feminism https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/data-feminism
• Data Standards for the Identification and Monitoring of Systemic Racism https://www.ontario.ca/document/data-standards-identification-and-monitoring-
systemic-racism
• Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory and Antiracist Politics
https://chicagounbound.uchicago.edu/uclf/vol1989/iss1/8/
• First Nations Information Governance OCAP Principles https://fnigc.ca/
• GO-FAIR Starter Kit https://www.go-fair.org/resources/rdm-starter-kit/
• HHI The Signal Code: A Human Rights Approach to Information During Crisis https://hhi.harvard.edu/publications/signal-code-human-rights-approach-
information-during-crisis
• Nested Models for Critical Studies of Race & Racism: Creating Measures of Supraindividual Racism
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04OZ3BFPpVg&feature=youtu.be
• OECD Principles and Guidelines for Access to Research Data from Public Funding https://www.oecd.org/science/inno/open-science.htm
• Open Government Canada https://open.canada.ca/en/about-open-government
• Research Data Alliance (RDA) The final version of the RDA COVID-19 Recommendations and Guidelines for Data Sharing, published 30 June 2020 https://www.rd-
alliance.org/group/rda-covid19-rda-covid19-omics-rda-covid19-epidemiology-rda-covid19-clinical-rda-covid19-1
• Roadmap to Open Science https://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/063.nsf/eng/h_97992.html
• Toward a Critical Data Studies http://mural.maynoothuniversity.ie/5683/1/KitchinLauriault_CriticalDataStudies_ProgrammableCity_WorkingPaper2_SSRN-
id2474112.pdf
• WHO ICD International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) https://www.who.int/classifications/icf/en/
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http://doi.org/10.22215/CURRRG/2020.TracingCOVID19data
Current Outputs
• July 7, OLIP Health and Wellbeing Sector Table Meeting Slides
http://datalibre.ca/2020/07/03/olip-health-and-wellbeing/
• June 1, Tracing COVID-19 Data: Project Description:
http://datalibre.ca/2020/06/01/tracing-covid-19-data-data-and-technological-citizenship-
during-the-covid-19-pandemic/
• May 30, Applications de traçage de contacts: entre doute et inquiétude
https://www.lesoleil.com/opinions/point-de-vue/applications-de-tracage-de-contacts-
entre-doute-et-inquietude-ec471da8755aa3efa84afd5da47b025e
• Apr. 17, COVID-19 Demographic Reporting http://datalibre.ca/2020/04/17/covid-19-
demographic-reporting/
• Apr. 7, Framework Data by Health Region? http://datalibre.ca/2020/04/07/where-is-the-
national-map-of-covid-19-data-by-public-health-units-in-canada/
• Mar. 31, Data Humanitarianism during a Pandemic http://datalibre.ca/2020/03/31/data-
humanitarianism-during-a-pandemic/
• Mar. 25, COVID-19 Cell Phone Tracking Data – A Health Surveillance Privacy
Paradox? http://datalibre.ca/2020/03/25/covid-19-cell-phone-tracking-data-a-health-
surveillance-privacy-paradox/
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