ABIDA (Assessing Big Data) is a BMBF-funded interdisciplinary cluster for accompanying social science research in the field of big data, which is managed by the ITM and the Karlsruhe Institute for Technology Assessment and Systems Analysis (ITAS). Other partners are the WZB Berlin, TU Dortmund University, LMU Munich and the University of Hanover.
The object of the project is the continuous observation and assessment of current developments and trends in connection with big data applications, the identification of citizens’ views and the consolidation and networking of the state of knowledge of the individual specialist disciplines. In addition to ongoing monitoring, interdisciplinary in-depth studies on the topics of economics, ethics, sociology, political science and law are being carried out in several working groups, expert workshops and a nationwide symposium are being organized, and extensive public participation is being ensured through three citizens’ conferences and a representative population survey. On this basis, all relevant developments will be analyzed and evaluated in order to develop differentiated options for action for politics, research and business and to identify possible alternatives.
The project, which began in March 2015, will run for 48 months.
Publications/Dissemination
- Under the series “ABIDA Dossiers”, the project publishes short essays at regular intervals as an introduction to big data topics: To the dossiers
- The open source volume “Big Data in Context Legal, Social and Technological Insights” was published by Springer in November 2017.
- In October 2016, the anthology “Big Data zwischen Kausalität und Korrelation – Wirtschaftliche und rechtliche Fragen der Digitalisierung 4.0” was published in the publication series Arbeitsberichte zum Informations-, Telekommunikations- und Medienrecht.
- An overview of current publications can be found on the ABIDA website.
Further links
- To the project website (www.abida.de)
- Press releases from the BMBF, WWU and ITM on the start of the project
- WWU press releases and ITM report on the “Landmark in the Land of Ideas” award
Awards
- The ABIDA project was awarded the title “Landmark in the Land of Ideas” in 2016:
- Land of ideas
- University press release
- Report on the award ceremony
- Awards section of the ABIDA website
