Winton Policy

As of the 23rd May 2022 this website is archived and will receive no further updates.

understandinguncertainty.org was produced by the Winton programme for the public understanding of risk based in the Statistical Laboratory in the University of Cambridge. The aim was to help improve the way that uncertainty and risk are discussed in society, and show how probability and statistics can be both useful and entertaining.

Many of the animations were produced using Flash and will no longer work.

Submitted by horace on Tue, 02/10/2007 - 10:16pm

This is a tentative starting point for a document that will summarise agreed decisions about how the programme works.

  1. Overall objective (needs work!)

    To improve the understanding of uncertainty and risk among individuals, media and society, and in particular to communicate the benefits, limitations and appropriate use of the theory of probability.

  2. Primary activities
    1. Web site
    2. Presentations
    3. Engagement with individuals, media and organisations
    4. Research collaborations
  3. Measures of success
    1. Web hits
    2. Audiences
    3. Contacts and media coverage
    4. Research publications
  4. Coordinating activity
    1. Weekly team meetings (Tuesday 11 by default)
    2. Review and decide activities
    3. Record decisions in shared archive
  5. Sharing resources
    1. Paper resources (cuttings, articles etc): need shared filing system
    2. Electronic resources (links etc): need shared filing system
  6. Web-site
    1. Aim to launch spring 2008?
    2. See separate document
  7. Presentations
    1. Multiple audiences: schools, public etc
    2. Electronic content (text, illustrations, animations)
    3. ‘Show’ material: games, dice etc
  8. Engagement
    1. Develop media contacts
    2. Make clear that not expert on what risks are, but could do some of this
    3. Use University Press office for announcements
    4. MMP: Column in PLUS, teaching materials, speaking
    5. Balanced, scholarly, clear, entertaining
    6. Avoid committees
  9. Collaborative research
    1. Develop local and other contacts
    2. Caution about starting things
  10. Appropriate governance and quality assurance
    1. External Advisory Board: Adrian, Steffen, Peter G ??
    2. Local governance group: Phil, Richard, Geoffrey, Frank – rapid advice.
    3. Consumer panel: children, non-scientific adults, teachers, statisticians: Ages 13-85
  11. Responsibility / authorship / ‘signing off’ material etc
    1. ???
  12. Legal aspects
    1. ???
AttachmentSize
Microsoft Office document icon Winton-policy.doc59 KB