THE GROWTH IN DATA PRODUCTION COLLECTION: OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES Tracey Gyateng, NPC. Twitter: @tgyateng UK Data Service, October 2015 v
Data- Small/Big/open/admin A bit about me and NPC Why is it relevant to me? What are the challenges? How can we make more use of data? Questions?
NPC: TRANSFORMING THE SOCIAL SECTOR Nonprofit Increasing the impact of non-profits eg, impact-focused theories of change Funder NPC works at the nexus between non-profits and funders Consultancy Think tank Sector Increasing the impact of funders eg, framing issue & mapping needs Strengthening the partnership eg, collaboration towards shared goals NPC Paradigm Shift 3
DATA ZEITGEIST Big push from UK government to be seen as world leaders Open Data White Paper/ Shakespeare review Open Data Institute Open Government Partnership But concerns about recent Commission on FOI Data sharing initiative led by Cabinet Office & Involve- datasharing.org.uk International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) 360 degree giving (Indigo Trust, Nesta, Nominet Trust) Increased development of tools and interactive infographics e.g JRF Data, Shelter Housing Databank, HACT Community Insights ESRC Big Data network- creating research centres Administrative Data; Local Government; Business; Third Sector? Wales Institute of Social and Economic Research, Data & Methods (WISERD) = More academic interest in the third sector Data & voluntary sector 4
DATA, THE NEW OIL? Understand/predict needs/issues better e.g. needs mapping Campaigning Improve operational effectiveness in service delivery or support functions e.g. engaging supporters, fundraising, identifying areas for service provision Improve understanding of your outcomes and the difference you make Data & voluntary sector 5
WHY IS DATA RELEVANT TO CHARITIES? (1/3) To understand need & scenario planning e.g Diabetes Source: http://openhealthdata.cdehub.org/ 6
WHY IS DATA RELEVANT TO CHARITIES? (2/3) To improve operational effectiveness in service delivery or support functions Birmingham Library using data from social media to understand how people interact with the library National Biodiversity Network Gateway- an open data repository for wildlife data https://data.nbn.org.uk/ e.g Pond Conservation Trust 7
WHY IS DATA RELEVANT TO CHARITIES? (3/3) To improve understanding of outcomes and impact e.g. Justice Data Lab Provider organisation Individual level data Aggregated data return MoJ Matching and analysis Source: http://www.justice.gov.uk/justice-data-lab 8
SPECIFIC REPORT BLUE SKY Results taken from Ministry of Justice Justice Data Lab statistics: October 2013 Short term, full-time employment contracts. Aims to move them into full-time employment elsewhere. 72 offender records for which re-offending data was available could be matched to offenders with similar characteristics A reduction in re-offending between 1 and 23 percentage points. This reduction is statistically significant 45% 40% 35% 30% 25% 20% 15% 10% 5% 0% Blue Sky (72 records) Matched Control Group (212,131 offender records)
BARRIERS TO USING EXTERNAL DATA? Availability Access Supply Datasets are not open, or there is no process for requesting data (eg, for sensitive data). Cannot reliably get access to available data. Do not understand the datasets they access. Privacy & Ownership Releasing data safely. Ethics: Ensuring no harm Awareness Unaware that data is available. Capability Do not recognise the potential of data, or have a vision of what could be achieved with it. Do not have the skills to analyse data or understand the results. Desire Data can be disruptive: some may not want to risk negative results. Demand Capacity Do not have the time or money to invest in data. Incentives There are few incentives to overcome the barriers to accessing and using data. Data & voluntary sector 10
HOW DO WE MAKE MORE USE OF DATA? (1/2) Supply Engage with initiatives relating to opening data both within and outside the sector Explore & develop ethics of data ownership, access and use Government needs to extend beyond open data, to allowing access to sensitive data while complying with confidentiality requirements. Demand Create a culture that supports and even encourages attempts to use data to better understand how charities operate Funders and commissioners must take steps to incentivise use of data More case studies needed to raise awareness of the impact that data can have Data & voluntary sector 11
HOW DO WE MAKE MORE USE OF DATA? (2/2) Charity sector needs to develop and attract more analytical skills to enable charities to use the data available Use free resources to help increase data skills (Massive Open Online Courses- MOOCs), such as the Open Knowledge Foundation s School of Data and statistics and Khan Academy or data analysis courses taught by academics e.g. Coursera Charities can recruit volunteer data analysts or IT specialists e.g. DataKind, Pro Bono Economics, Pro Bono Operational Research, NCVO and Govt statisticians Active community of data and IT specialists who recognise the skills shortage esp within the non-profit sector and who are keen to build tools to make it easier e.g. Nominet Trust, Data Unity, Mastodon C Approach academic departments e.g. UK Data Service, Administrative Data Research Centre Data & voluntary sector 12
QUESTIONS FOR YOU DO YOU THINK YOU ARE MAKING THE MOST USE OF YOUR DATA? PLEASE SHARE HOW YOU ARE USING IT WHAT ARE THE BARRIERS FOR YOU IN USING DATA? HOW DO WE SUPPORT THE SECTOR TO BECOME MORE ENGAGED WITH USING DATA? HOW CAN YOU SHARE THE RESULTS OF YOUR DATA ANALYSIS? Data & voluntary sector 13
CLOSING THOUGHTS Data expansion is exciting (I would say that!) Data is incredibly powerful to: Understand need & scenario planning/prediction Campaigning Improve operations/service delivery Evaluate & measure impact More sharing of HOW data is being used is needed YOUR DATA/Small data IS KEY Tracey.Gyateng@thinknpc.org www.npcdatalabs.org Twitter: @tgyateng Data & voluntary sector 14
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