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Cassia Artanegara\
September 2022
Getting Curious on Solano Ave

Good Research recently moved to Solano Avenue in Albany, CA. This is a particularly vibrant area, with thriving local businesses, artists, and community organizations. Since 1974, the cities of Albany and Berkeley have co-hosted the Solano Avenue Stroll, the area’s largest street festival. On Sunday September 11, 2022, one mile of Solano was closed to traffic and open for art, food, music, demonstrations, and more. Good Research sponsored a Data Curious booth so we could meet our neighbors and help get people curious about their data.

Data Curious is an online resource supported by Good Research in collaboration with the Center for Digital Civil Society at University of San Diego. Our mission is to energize people to get curious about their data. We help people ask the right questions, understand the answers, and be empowered to do something about it.

During the Solano Stroll, we shared advice and offered a handout to help people understand what’s going on with their data and what they can do to protect themselves. We had a coloring activity that prompted people to draw their online and offline selves.

Two kids with their faces blurred out sit across from each other at a yellow table while they fill in a coloring page.
A black and white coloring page asks, “Who am I in Real Life?” on the left side of the page with an outdoor scene of a house, trees, clouds, and flowers. On the right side, “Who am I Online?” is written above a blank computer screen and a hand holding a phone that emanates hearts from the phone screen.
Two parents and several preschool-aged children relax in the booth. Behind them is a board covered with coloring pages made by other participants, and hanging from the sun shade at the top of the image is a sign that reads, “Are you Data Curious?”

Good Research’s founder, Nathan Good, was on hand to answer questions in depth. We encouraged visitors to ask anything and everything about their phone’s data, privacy online, and most anything else about data.

Nathan Good, aka Dr. Data helps someone understand their privacy settings on their phone.

Nathan Good, aka Dr. Data helps someone understand their privacy settings on their phone.

A lot of kids and parents stopped by and we received so many interesting questions. Our booth was packed all day! This is very encouraging because it means people are curious about what happens with their data. They care about what’s going on when they’re online. Next year, we will design activities that are better suited for different ages and will offer materials for non-English speakers.

Until then, we will use the many excellent questions we got to continue to build Data Curious into a resource not just for our local community, but for everyone. Please visit our website, and let us know what you’re curious about!

Data Curious team members Cassia, Will, and Nathan pose at the Data Curious booth before the day begins.

Data Curious team members Cassia, Will, and Nathan pose at the Data Curious booth before the day begins.

Thanks to Nathan Good and Jessica Traynor.