Winton Web 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 - 10:36pm
  1. Main themes of site
    1. Issues (topics of interest to individual and society)
    2. Quantitative concepts (relevant aspects of theory and applications of probability)
    3. Qualitative concepts (ideas in the psychology, sociology, philosophy etc of uncertainty and risk)
    4. Each presented, where appropriate, in a standardised ‘template’ form
    5. These to be cleverly interlinked
  2. General site characteristics
    1. Attractive, professional appearance
    2. Extensive use of animations/games
    3. Fully referenced, extensive links
    4. ‘Novelty’ features?: eg poetry corner, links to Youtube, uncertainty in art and literature etc
    5. Monthly updates / RSS feed?
    6. Multiple levels for different audiences, eg
      1. Public/media = qualitative / numerical / animations
      2. Schools/ science correspondents= simulations / basic GCSE maths
      3. Technical = full maths
  3. Development platform and hosting
    1. Drupal content management system
    2. All team to be able to contribute basic content
    3. Handling maths?
    4. DPMMS or MMP?
  4. Interaction policy
    1. Moderated discussion list?
    2. Blog?
  5. Relationship to Wikipedia
    1. Contribute when ready, also get linked from there
  6. Issues (to be prioritised!!)
    1. Lifestyle
      1. Sex
      2. Drugs
      3. Smoking
      4. Alcohol
    2. Childhood
      1. Accidents
      2. Violence
      3. Obesity
    3. Healthcare
      1. NICE approvals
      2. Vaccines (MMR etc)
      3. League tables
      4. Drug Safety
      5. MRSA, C Diff etc
    4. Education
      1. league tables
    5. Recreation
      1. Online gambling
      2. Lottery
      3. ranking footballers / chess / online gaming /
    6. Transport:
      1. Railway safety
      2. speed cameras
      3. cycle helmets
    7. Crime:
      1. Iris recognition
      2. crime statistics
    8. Environment:
      1. nuclear power
      2. climate change
      3. EMR
      4. Food
      5. Food safety
    9. Epidemics
      1. Bird flu
      2. Foot and mouth
  7. Quantitative concepts (to be prioritised!!)
    1. Absolute and relative risks
    2. Individual and ‘average’ risks
    3. Bayes theorem
    4. Regression-to-the-mean
    5. Unexpected / rare events, coincidences
    6. Trends
    7. When to stop?
    8. Ranking
    9. Predictability
  8. Qualitative concepts (to be prioritised!!)
    1. Precautionary principle
    2. Evaluating Evidence
    3. Psychology of risk behaviour
    4. Neurophysiology of risk behaviour
    5. Sociology of risk / Risk in society
    6. Philosophy of risk
    7. What is ‘probability’/ risk etc?
    8. Risk communication
    9. Teaching resources on risk/uncertainty
    10. etc
AttachmentSize
Microsoft Office document icon Winton-webpolicy.doc66.5 KB