I imagine most orgs have a long tail of data science projects which aren’t important enough to go through the hassle of hiring a consultant, but that would still add some value. Meanwhile, students are in constant search of important real world problems to work on for their research or clubs (I was in Cornell Data Science) but generally don’t have a good idea of what would actually be useful. Having a place where orgs can just write down such problems and students/academics can find them seems like it would potentially unlock a lot of value.
I definitely agree. Optimally SEADS will provide this list of impactful projects.
Based on feedback of pitching a similar idea at EAG, most of the value isn’t actually in the object level work, but in identifying altruistic technical talent and getting them more engaged in high impact cause areas (and eventually into the hiring pipeline). Having lots of undergrads and PhD students working on EA style data problems seems like a good way of doing this.
Hiring for EA is also on our list of “Possible directions for the future”. Working hand-in-hand with talented and motivated volunteers seems like a good way to gauge someone’s suitability for a long-term position.
More professional services:
SEADS offers Data Science services to EA organizations
User-Friendly is an EA-aligned marketing agency
Anti Entropy offers services related operations for EA organizations
Together with Altruistic Agency these Agencies are working together to form an umbrella organisation but more info on this will soon be announced