November 14, 2019

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Civic data: Using open source data to create socially impactful data-driven products

Civic data: Using open source data to create socially impactful data-driven products

A plethora of data has been made freely available on the Web. A large chunk of this data is civic data: on education, social welfare, demographics, and the like. Vida Williams explains how this data can be assembled into open source products that can help states, cities, municipalities, nonprofit organizations, and citizens make decisions that will positively impact their immediate neighborhoods.

Talk Title Civic data: Using open source data to create socially impactful data-driven products
Speakers Vida Williams (Axis Partners, Inc)
Conference O’Reilly Open Source Convention
Conf Tag
Location Austin, Texas
Date May 16-19, 2016
URL Talk Page
Slides Talk Slides
Video

A plethora of data has been made freely available on the Web. A large chunk of this data is civic data: on education, social welfare, demographics, and the like. Vida Williams explains how this data can be assembled into open source products that can help states, cities, municipalities, nonprofit organizations, and citizens make decisions that will positively impact their immediate neighborhoods. The dirty little secret about data analysis is that it rarely, in and of itself, yields facts. Data analysis almost always starts with a hypothesis that is proven or disproven with some degree of statistical math application, so it seems very factual, but outcomes are often affected by predetermined contexts and points of view. To combat this, Vida argues that civic data analysis, in particular, should involve teams of individuals with varied demographic experiences to provide context and point of view. This reimagined aspect of the data is the germinating seed for innovation. It is the point where practitioners and experiential subject matter experts can influence eventual systems and products that will make every day lives more efficient, more effective, and more directly impacted by technological innovation. Innovation starts with data becoming information. Great information initiates great innovation. Grabbing civic data and giving it a new context and point of view can highlight alternative correlations and determine new outcomes that were previously unidentified. Vida outlines a sample use case from the City of Petersburg, where she and her team ran data to correlate to workforce development. Traditionally, municipalities link workforce development directly to educational achievement. After segmenting the data into ZIP codes (an immutable, lowest denomination for geolocating civic demographics), they found that shelter security, health care, food security, and transportation from 0 to 21 had a direct impact on the development of a workforce from that ZIP code. The analysis demonstrates that open source civic data can revise seemingly factual conclusions to yield information that can positively impact local, socially important decision making. Topics include:

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