Ok – So howabout a bit of Data Porn?

So firstly, OkCupid is a big dating site that are known for doing really interesting things with their data.  And stats nerds like me get totally excited when presented with a huge body of data on which one can run really interesting regression models where a whole stack of weird and interesting personal variables can be tested as predictors of a given behaviour.  Totally cool!

Which brings me back to the central thrust (ahem…) of some of Genevieve Bell’s talk recently where she was talking about ‘interrogating the algorithm’.  Ie: looking at algorithms that effect what we see, can and can’t do on the net and therefore irl (such as what kind of people are suggested as matches on dating websites) and exploring the value systems, assumptions and effects that these algorithms have.  Coz of course – if you end up meeting some-one and marrying them – that’s a substantial effect on your life that may well be the result of a completely opaque, proprietary formula.  Who knows what variables they are using in choosing people as your dates.

Norrie May-Welby. Photo credit: SMH

More on this soon.  But to illustrate the point, and also in honour of the landmark decision by the US Supreme court to repeal DOMA, here is a terrific little article about some of the challenges that Marriage Equality (and other hypothetical changes to marriage laws) may pose for database engineers.  Which is a powerful illustration of how the algorithm not only reflects value systems – in some cases, like our Norrie’s – it can also enforce them.