The document discusses the Vienna Data Science Group (VDSG), a nonprofit organization that aims to promote data science. It has diverse members from various academic and professional fields. VDSG brings data science to life through talks, conferences, workshops, and networking events. It also discusses the impact of data science on society through applications like autonomous vehicles, smart home devices, and predictive analytics. Data science is changing areas like mobility, sports, finance, and advertising. Emerging technologies like the Internet of Things and predictive modeling raise important questions for society regarding privacy, ethics, and the limits of data-driven decisions.

1. Data Science and its impact on
society
Lecture at ‚5. Netzpoli9scher Abend‘,
7.5.2016
Vienna Data Science Group (vdsg.at)

2. Vienna Data Science Group
• Nonprofit associa9on which aims to promote knowledge about data science
methods/big data techniques.
– Applica9ons of these methods (eg. Machine learning, Random forest, Scoring,...)
– New research (deep learning,...)
– Impact on society (autonomous cars, IOT,...)
• First ideas in 2014, established in 2015
• Diverse members
– Academics, professionals, students and all other data science enthusiasts
• Different fields
– Mathema9cs, physics, econometrics, electrical engineering, medical science, finance, real
estate, computer science and social sciences)
• How do we bring that to life?
– Talks and seminars
– Conferencences (planned)
– Workshops (Industry 4.0,...)
– Hackathons (Julia, machine learning, ...)
– Networking (NetzPAT,...)

3. Vienna Data Science Group
Knowledge
sharing
Impact on
society
Projects Educa9on
4 Pillars

4. Impact on society
Yesterday
• Life insurance
• Credit scoring
Today
• Mobility
(Autonomous
cars,...)
• Sports
• Bitcoin
• ‚Quan9fy me‘
movement
(RUNTASTIC,...)
• Da9ng plaforms
• Adver9sement
(Google,
Facebook,...)
Tomorrow
• Here be dragons...

5. Internet of Things (IOT) and the
worlds biggest robot?
• Term was coined by Bruce Schneier (
hgps://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2016/02/the_internet_of_1.html)
Image taken by user 'AZAdam‘ (hgp://www.flickr.com/photos/38074672@N00/83278753/in),
License - hgps://crea9vecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/

6. Internet of Things (IOT) and the
worlds biggest robot?
Sensors (‚Feels‘)
Brains
(‚Thinks‘)
Actuators
(‚Acts‘)
Two (Schneier) to three (VDSG)
parts
• Sensors (Smartphones,
Thermostats, street and
highway sensors,....)
• Brains (Systems smarts
(Schneier), data science
methods (VDSG))
• Actuators (Thermostats set
the temperature,
smartphones send GPS data
for example to Google to
avoid conges9on,...)

7. Internet of Things (IOT) and the
worlds biggest robot?
• World-Sized Web (WSW): Persistent, mobile, cloud-based
• Biggest impact: interac9on of the different parts
• Behaviour: organism with millions of parts and billions of
interac9ons
• Consequences: highly unpredictable
• Schneier suggests a ‚Department of Technology Policy‘ with broad
exper9se and authority to deal with the complexi9es of the WSW

8. On the road to predic9on of future
crimes?
• Risk assessment quan9fies whether or not a criminal will re-offend
• Aims:
– iden9fy individuals suitable for rehabilita9on
– reduce incarcera9ons
– reduce crime as truly dangerous criminals are kept off the streets
100 % 0 %
75 %

9. On the road to predic9on of future
crimes?
‚Old school‘
• expert knowledge
• discre9onary
• personal biases
• decision process invisible
• limited auditability
‚New style‘
• systema9zed, ordered
• consistent
• neutral
• certain transparency
• easy to validate and to
improve

10. On the road to predic9on of future
crimes?
• Risk Assessment raises ques9ons
relevant for society
What do we do with that
informa9on?
Should we force persons with high
risk score to register?
Do we trust sta9s9cal data analysis
to accurately assess how people
might behave in the future?

11. Food for thought
• hgp://fivethirtyeight.com/features/prison-reform-risk-assessment/
• hgp://thedigitalife.com/bull-session/future-crime
• hgp://archive.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/ar9cles/2011/02/20/
you_will_commit_a_crime_in_the_future/?page=full
• hgps://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2016/02/the_internet_of_1.html
• hgp://www.theguardian.com/technology/blog/2014/oct/06/big-data-
revolu9onising-sport-in-unexpected-ways
• hgp://commonstransi9on.org/the-revolu9on-will-not-be-decentralised-
blockchains/
• hgps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_table
• hgps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Equitable_Life_Assurance_Society
• hgps://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/finance/credit-score/origin-credit-score-
history/
• hgps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Credit_score
• hgps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Credit_history

12. Happy to talk/meet/work with you!
• Homepage: www.vdsg.at
• Email: contact@vdsg.at
• Contact persons per pillar:
– Impact on society (society@vdsg.at): Mar9n Scheifele, Margarete Hlinicky
– Knowledge sharing (knowledge@vdsg.at): Peter Koglmann
– Projects (project@vdsg.at): Wolfgang Weidinger
– Educa9on (educa9on@vdsg.at): Edmond Konya