data & the voluntary sector
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Data & the voluntary sector. Tracey Gyateng, NPC. Twitter: @ tgyateng. London , September 2014. Data- Big/open/admin……. Definitions W hy is it relevant to me? What are the challenges? How can we make more use of data? Questions ?. What’s in a name?. OPEN. - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
vDATA & THE VOLUNTARY SECTORTracey Gyateng, NPC. Twitter: @tgyateng
London, September 2014
Data- Big/open/admin……
• Definitions• Why is it relevant to me?• What are the challenges?• How can we make more use of data?• Questions?
3
BIG(GOVT) ADMINISTRATIVE
MoJ
DWP
SHARED DATA
360 degree giving
GP prescription
Customer loyalty card information
DfE school performance tables
Police National Computer database
OPEN
Twitter feeds
WHAT’S IN A NAME?
Surveys e.g Health Survey for England
LINKED DATA
PRIVACY
4
BIG(GOVT) ADMINISTRATIVE
MoJ
DWP
SHARED DATA
360 degree giving
GP prescription
Customer loyalty card information
DfE school performance tables
Police National Computer database
OPEN
Twitter feeds
WHAT’S IN A NAME?
Surveys e.g Health Survey for England
LINKED DATA
PRIVACY
YOUR OWN DATA
5
WHAT'S NEW? WHY THE HYPE?
Data: The new oil?
6
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
• Data sharing initiative led by Cabinet Office & Involve- datasharing.org.uk
• International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI)
• Increased development of tools and interactive infographics e.g JRF Data, Shelter Housing Databank
• 360 degree giving (Indigo Trust, Nesta, Nominet Trust)
• Nesta Open Data Challenge Series
• ESRC Big Data network- creating research centres
– Administrative Data; Local Government; Business; Third Sector Research Centre
• ESRC/TSRC/NCVO/RSS- data use & needs of voluntary sector
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WHY IS DATA RELEVANT TO CHARITIES? (1/3)
Source: http://openhealthdata.cdehub.org/
To understand need/issues better e.g Diabetes
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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
9
WHY IS DATA RELEVANT TO CHARITIES? (3/3)
To improve understanding of results and impact e.g. Justice Data Lab
Source: http://www.justice.gov.uk/justice-data-lab
Individual level dataProvider organisation
MoJ
Matching and analysis
Aggregated data return
• 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
SPECIFIC REPORT – BLUE SKY
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
45%
Blue Sky (72 records) Matched Control Group(212,131 offender
records)
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BARRIERS TO USING EXTERNAL DATA?
Access
Cannot reliably get access to available data.
Do not understand the datasets they access.
Availability
Datasets are not open, or there is no process for requesting data (eg, for sensitive data).
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.
Incentives
There are few incentives to overcome the barriers to accessing and using data.
Desire
Data can be disruptive: some may not want to risk negative results.
Capacity
Do not have the time or money to invest in data.
Supply Demand
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HOW DO WE MAKE MORE USE OF DATA? (1/2)
Supply
• Engage with initiatives relating to opening data both within and outside the sector
• 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 how open data is useful
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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, Random Hacks of Kindness, 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.
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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 USE THE EXTERNAL DATASETS DESCRIBED TODAY?
• HOW CAN YOU SHARE THE RESULTS OF YOUR DATA ANALYSIS?
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CLOSING THOUGHTS
• Open/Big data is exciting (I would say that!)
• Data is incredibly powerful to:
– Understand need
– Improve operations/service delivery
– Evaluate & measure impact
• More sharing of HOW data is being used is needed
• But before we get carried away- YOUR DATA/Small data IS KEY
www.NPCDataLabs.org
Twitter: @tgyateng
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