Solving Public Problems with Data

Discovering and Collecting Data: Practical Advice for Government Managers

YOU WILL LEARN:

How to discover and collect relevant data from inside and outside of your organization
The key questions you need ask yourself to assess the value of the data you want to use
The skills you need to use data to achieve your public mission

Taught by

Carter Hewgley

12 mins

DESCRIPTION

This session will focus on strategies for identifying, finding and getting data: where to locate information; when and how you can collect your own data internally and externally (e.g. through FOIA requests or crowdsourcing) as well as techniques to verify and validate your data sources. We also discuss questions of data quality and how to identify what skills you need to have access to in order to make use of the data you need.

RESOURCES

READ

Data for Development: The Case for Information, Not Just Data by Daniela Ligiero - an article that explores the importance of not only having more and better data, but also the need to make better use of the data we already have, transforming it into useful information to guide action for the betterment of people and planet.

Innovations in Federal Statistics: Combining Data Sources While Protecting Privacy by the National Academies of Sciences’s Panel on Improving Federal Statistics for Policy and Social Science - a report that examines the opportunities and risks of using government administrative and private sector data sources to foster a paradigm shift in federal statistical programs that would combine diverse data sources in a secure manner to enhance federal statistics.