Interview: Emmanuel Letouzé, Data-Pop Alliance on Big Data for Development and Future Prospects
We discuss the field of Big Data for Development, current projects and future plans for Data-Pop Alliance, public participation opportunities, advice, and more.

Emmanuel is the author of UN Global Pulse's White Paper "Big Data for Development" (2012), the lead author of the 2013 and 2014 OECD Fragile States reports and a regular contributor on Big Data and development.
He previously worked for UNDP in New York (2006-09) and in Hanoi for the French Ministry of Finance as a technical assistant in public finance and official statistics (2000-04). He holds a BA in Political Science and an MA in Economic Demography from Sciences Po Paris, and an MA in International Affairs from Columbia University, where he was a Fulbright fellow.
He is also a political cartoonist for various publications and media outlet including Medium and Rue89 in France, and a member of The Cartoon Movement.
First part of interview
Second part of interview
Third part of interview
Here is fourth and last part of my interview with him:
Anmol Rajpurohit: Q9. In the field of "Big Data for Development", can you name a few individuals or organizations whose work you admire?

Sandy’s student Yves-Alexandre de Montjoye is doing great work—and despite his exposure he has remained humble. A few of our Research Affiliates have been especially active in the space for several years and published really good research—Linnet Taylor, Simone Sala, Bruno Lepri and Emilio Zagheni for example.

AR: Q10. What are the major projects that you are currently working on? What are your priorities for 2015?

I’d say three of our big priorities for 2015-17 are ethics and human rights on the one hand—with a series of papers, events, in partnership, with the AAAS; and training and capacity on the other hand; in partnership with several organizations like Paris21, SciDev.net. The needs for training are huge and it’s an area where I think we are well positioned. The third one is the development of Data Spaces—physical multi-partner and interdisciplinary collaborative spaces—in Bogotá first in 2016 and Dakar next in 2016 or 17—where we and other partners would run a lot of our activities in these regions, from training to research via events, art fairs, etc.
AR: Q11. How can one join and contribute to the Data-Pop Alliance initiative? Are you looking for contributors with any particular skills?

And we will offer positions as funding becomes available for specific projects. We have too much to do so really all help is welcome. We are also developing a process for people to become Research Affiliates, and a proper internship program. But all of this takes time if you want to do it well.
The nature of our activities are to be very multidisciplinary—or ‘anti-disciplinary’ as the MIT Media Lab characterizes itself. We need people with data science skills, econometrics skills, writing skills, and communication skills. Above all, we need and will seek people who are driven, motivated, creative, humble, who have a collaborative spirit and are not afraid of taking a bit of risks in their careers.