Data Science for Social Good: Philanthropy and Social Impact in a Complex World

This book is a collection of reflections by thought leaders at first-mover organizations in the exploding field of "Data Science for Social Good", meant as the application of knowledge from computer science, complex systems and computational social science to challenges such as humanitarian response, public health, sustainable development. The book provides both an overview of scientific approaches to social impact - identifying a social need, targeting an intervention, measuring impact - and the complementary perspective of funders and philanthropies that are pushing forward this new sector.
The book shows the use of new types of big data and/or methods from the feilds to be more scientific about 1) how we identify communities who need help and map problems and needs, 2) how we design and execute interventions for solving those problems and 3) how we measure whether these actions achieved or not the desired positive outcomes.

This book will appeal to students and researchers in the rapidly growing field of data science for social impact, to data scientists at companies whose data could be used to generate more public value, and to decision makers at nonprofits, foundations, and agencies that are designing their own agenda around data.