Ben Waber reviewed How Data Happened by Chris Wiggins
An Incredible Look at the History of Data, Statistics, and Analysis
5 stars
Wiggins and Jones provide an amazing dive into the history of the concept of data, starting at the concept of alphabetization and ending in the present. Throughout they show how the notion of what is data, how one encodes phenomena, and how this data is analyzed and used is inherently bound up with social norms and politics in addition to the state of technology. I also love how this book goes beyond the headlines to surface different papers illustrating different aspects of data harms and ethical frameworks that have arisen both in and outside of technological disciplines. Highly recommend
