The value of data has grown exponentially in the last few years. As people realise that good data and analysis leads to good decisions, there’s a virtuous cycle that calls for more and more data. In digital technology (e.g. cellphones or websites), it’s pretty easy to collect data at every …
A multi-million rand problem Illegal dumping is a major headache for cities, and one that costs hundreds of millions of Rand to deal with every year. In Cape Town, it’s costing R350m per year to clean up. In Johannesburg, R50m per year. In Durban, it costs R20m to R50m per year. …
This quote from the Open Data Handbook is a perfect way to introduce this post: Open data, especially open government data, is a tremendous resource that is as yet largely untapped. Before recently, I had never heard of Mpofana Municipality in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. It’s a relativity small municipality in South …
Why gather Informal Sector data? The informal sector provides a valuable service to the South African recycling economy, saving municipalities up to R750m per year. Integrating them into the formal economy is an imperative in the upcoming Industry Waste Management Plans that the Paper & Packaging, Lighting and e-Waste sectors will be …
Lies, Damned Lies & Beautiful Statistics There’s a bit of a worrying trend developing around the world, and that is for people to dismiss data and statistics unless the information is “100% accurate”. Data and the resulting statistics are too easily cast aside when we don’t trust the source or its …
