Whilst navigating the rugged landscape of ‘Big Data‘, we’ve crossed many barriers, traversed wide plains and battled through choppy weather. Along the journey we’ve picked up a lot of hitchhikers (almost 5,000) and laid down a lot of data tracks (over 75 million records in our data store).

We’ve also come across some interesting creatures along the way. Dinosaurs of the web age, colonies of data cleaners and civic hackers. We’ve even met some species in their early evolutionary stages.

Whilst travelling across The Atlantic we’ve observed a new species of data digger: the Data Scientist. They also have a vessel of their own, looking to ship data prospectors to the Big Data promised land. So without further ado, I give you Data Without Borders.

They are on a humanitarian mission and looking to spread their cause across the pond. Their mission is to “match non-profits in need of data analysis with freelance and pro bono data scientists who can work to help them with data collection, analysis, visualization, or decision support”. They are organizing data dives in order to bring exciting new problems to the data community and help solve social, environmental, and community problems alongside nonprofits and NGOs.

So if you’re interested in data, have skills or interests you want to share, hop on our digger. With the help of Jake Porway and the gang, we’ll smuggle you across the data border!

PS: There was a reconnaissance mission in New York recently (i.e. a data dive). To see what sort of data micro-financing institutions can get, you can pick up the trail on the mixmarket tag.