{"id":6859,"date":"2017-09-12T10:34:59","date_gmt":"2017-09-12T14:34:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.zephoria.org\/thoughts\/?p=6859"},"modified":"2017-09-12T10:34:59","modified_gmt":"2017-09-12T14:34:59","slug":"data-societys-next-stage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.zephoria.org\/thoughts\/archives\/2017\/09\/12\/data-societys-next-stage.html","title":{"rendered":"Data & Society’s Next Stage"},"content":{"rendered":"

In March 2013, in a flurry of days, I decided to start a research institute. I\u2019d always dreamed of doing so, but it was really my amazing mentor and boss – Jennifer Chayes – who put the fire under my toosh. I\u2019d been driving her crazy about the need to have more people deeply interrogating how data-driven technologies were intersecting with society. Microsoft Research didn\u2019t have the structure to allow me to move fast (and break things). University infrastructure was even slower. There were a few amazing research centers and think tanks, but I wanted to see the efforts scale faster. And I wanted to build the structures to connect research and practices, convene conversations across sectors, and bring together a band of what I loved to call \u201cmisfit toys.\u201d\u00a0 <\/span>So, with the support of Jennifer and Microsoft, I put pen to paper. And to my surprise, I got the green light to help start a wholly independent research institute.<\/p>\n

I knew nothing about building an organization. I had never managed anyone, didn\u2019t know squat about how to put together a budget, and couldn\u2019t even create a check list of to-dos. So I called up people smarter than I to help learn how other organizations worked and figure out what I should learn to turn a crazy idea into reality. At first, I thought that I should just go and find someone to run the organization, but I was consistently told that I needed to do it myself, to prove that it could work. So I did. It was a crazy adventure. Not only did I learn a lot about fundraising, management, and budgeting, but I also learned all sorts of things about topics I didn\u2019t even know I would learn to understand – architecture, human resources, audits, non-profit law. I screwed up plenty of things along the way, but most people were patient with me and helped me learn from my mistakes. I am forever grateful to all of the funders, organizations, practitioners, and researchers who took a chance on me.<\/p>\n

Still, over the next four years, I never lost that nagging feeling that someone smarter and more capable than me should be running Data & Society. I felt like I was doing the organization a disservice by not focusing on research strategy and public engagement. So when I turned to the board and said, it\u2019s time for an executive director to take over, everyone agreed. We sat down and mapped out what we needed – a strategic and capable leader who\u2019s passionate about building a healthy and sustainable research organization to be impactful in the world. Luckily, we had hired exactly that person to drive program and strategy a year before when I was concerned that I was flailing at managing the fieldbuilding and outreach part of the organization.<\/p>\n

I am overwhelmingly OMG ecstatically bouncing for joy to announce that Janet Haven has agreed to become Data & Society\u2019s first executive director. You can read more about Janet through the formal organizational announcement here<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>But since this is my blog and I\u2019m telling my story, what I want to say is more personal. I was truly breaking when we hired Janet. I had taken off more than I could chew. I was hitting rock bottom and trying desperately to put on a strong face to support everyone else. As I see it, Janet came in, took one look at the duct tape upon which I\u2019d built the organization and got to work with steel, concrete, and wood in her hands. She helped me see what could happen if we fixed this and that. And then she started helping me see new pathways for moving forward. Over the last 18 months, I\u2019ve grown increasingly confident that what we\u2019re doing makes sense and that we can build an organization that can last. I\u2019ve also been in awe watching her enable others to shine.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not leaving Data & Society. To the contrary, I\u2019m actually taking on the role that my title – founder and president – signals. And I\u2019m ecstatic. Over the last 4.5 years, I\u2019ve learned what I\u2019m good at and what I\u2019m not, what excites me and what makes me want to stay in bed. I built Data & Society because I believe that it needs to exist in this world. But I also realize that I\u2019m the classic founder – the crazy visionary that can kickstart insanity but who isn\u2019t necessarily the right person to take an organization to the next stage. Lucky for me, Janet is. And together, I can\u2019t wait to take Data & Society to the next level!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In March 2013, in a flurry of days, I decided to start a research institute. I\u2019d always dreamed of doing so, but it was really my amazing mentor and boss – Jennifer Chayes – who put the fire under my toosh. I\u2019d been driving her crazy about the need to have more people deeply interrogating […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"yes","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6859","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zephoria.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6859","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zephoria.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zephoria.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zephoria.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zephoria.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6859"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.zephoria.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6859\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6860,"href":"https:\/\/www.zephoria.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6859\/revisions\/6860"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zephoria.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zephoria.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6859"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zephoria.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}