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Sean Thornton

Data-Smart City Solutions
Sean Thornton is a Program Advisor for the Civic Analytics Network at Harvard's Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, and writer for Ash Center publication Data-Smart City Solutions.  Based in Chicago, Sean holds joint Masters’ degrees from the University of Chicago in Public Policy and Social Service Administration. His work has spanned the city's public, philanthropic, and nonprofit sectors.
The term 'big data' may imply that data collection and analysis is a simple process, but time and cost have told local governments otherwise.
Cities around the country are pushing their data into the public space. But shaping that data to solve real-world problems is what really counts.