OKFN.org and P2PU.org have joined forces to launch the School of Data with the aim of training today’s journalists, activists and digital citizens.

“Data (open or otherwise) needs to be used, and to use data effectively requires certain skills.1

The explosive growth in data, especially open data, in recent years has meant that the demand for data skills — for data “wranglers”2 or “scientists” — has been growing rapidly. Moreover, these skills aren’t just important for banks, supermarkets or the next silicon valley start-up, they are also going to be cruicial in reserach, in journalism, and in civil society organizations (CSOs).

However, there is currently a significant shortfall of data “wranglers” to satisfy this growing demand, especially in civil society organisations — McKinsey expects a skills shortage in data expertise to reach 50-60% by 2018 in the US alone.3″

View Link [blog.okfn.org]