Why I Started The Data Human
- Andrew Ko
- Jan 7
- 2 min read
Most of my career has been about making data more meaningful. Not just for marketers and businesses, but for the people behind the numbers.
From my PhD research on music and emotion, to the platforms I helped build that turned listening habits into shared emotional experiences, to later using social data to understand personality and motivation in real time, I have always believed that behaviour is the most honest signal we have. And that behind every signal is a person.
However, as tools have become more advanced and automated, it has become even more important to protect the human side of data. We are surrounded by systems that can optimize anything, but they often overlook the nuance that makes people unique.
The Data Human is my way of changing that.
It is about making data feel more human.
It is about asking better questions, such as:
What does respect look like in a data-driven world?
How do we balance insight with consent?
How can we design systems that still feel personal?
This work also connects closely to my teaching at Centennial. I want my students to see that data is not just a technical skill, but an ethical and creative one too. The Data Human gives me a way to bring real-world examples into the classroom and spark meaningful conversations about how data affects people, not just platforms.
One of the tools I have been developing in the background is something called The Data Human Index. It is a framework for assessing how relatable, respectful, and human a brand’s data practices really are. This includes the way they collect information, the language they use, and the choices they offer. It is still evolving, but the goal is to give teams a practical way to evaluate whether their data experiences actually feel human to the people they are meant to serve.
The Data Human is not about metrics for the sake of metrics. It is about remembering that behind every data point is a person.
And that should shape everything we do.
Comments