NICS2004 09 27 Workshop/ParticipantNeedsAndApplications 2004 09 27

Break out Session: Participant Needs and Applications    (3W9)

The following questions were used to guide this discussion:    (3VN)

1. What is the range of uses of local CSS systems and who are the users?    (3VO)

2. What are the users data needs and what kind of data and data presentation/manipulation tools must NICS provide in order to meet the needs of these users and applications?    (3VP)

3. Which applications have had the highest payoffs to data and what does this mean for the likely direction of future development?    (3VQ)

4. How is the pattern of user needs and opportunities expected to shift over time?    (3VR)

5. How can NICS be designed to on one hand anticipate and on the other hand foster this growth and development?    (3VS)

6. What are the current and potential uses of federal and state data at the local level, and of local data at the federal and state levels?    (3VT)

7. What are the implications for NICS as an effort to enable data, information, and knowledge integration across these levels? What are the implications of the answers for NICS applications, systems architecture, governance, and finance?    (3VU)

8. How might NICS be designed to meet the needs of community level organization?    (3VV)

Discussion    (3WA)

* What role(s) or service(s) should NICs Provide?    (3Y4)

• • Role(s):    (3XX)
    • NICS should address the needs of data intermediaries and data users (i.e. community groups, researchers, etc.)    (3XY)
    • NICS should sustain and empower the role of data intermediaries b/c    (3XZ)
      1. There is a lot of massaging before there is information, therefore, it is important that business plan does not undercut the business plan of data intermediaries.    (3Y0)
      2. A lot of new ideas about where the breaking issues are come from the data intermediaries who are using resources to do development work, which is critical for data development.    (3Y1)
      3. Intermediaries help bring underserved communities along.    (3Y2)
      4. Technology made an enormous difference in terms of making data more accessible, but a more powerful lesson is about intermediaries. There is potential for expanding intermediary capacities where they do not currently exist. NNIP tries to expand this capacity to other cities. Many of NNIP cities are reaching out to regional level (e.g. Providence Plan).    (3WC)
      5. Community groups cannot learn how to do everything intermediaries do. They do need help.    (3WD)

• • • NICS should empower data users.    (3WE)
      1. People waste a lot of time trying to find data.    (3WF)
      2. Educate users    (3WG)

• • • NICS should push the envelope a little bit in terms of what data are made available. For example,    (3WH)
      1. A lot of what you acquire with HMDA is not as simplified as it could be. Some data are readily available others are not.    (3WI)
      2. Wealth data: Income isn't so much the factor as wealth differences. This is an area that would be helpful to have data on wealth at local level.    (3VX)

• • • NICS should help Census and other principle statistical agencies push data initiatives such as ACS, etc.    (3WJ)
    • Intercommunity communication - NICS could be useful here. How do you reach goals - answering this question is where NICS can come in.    (3WK)

• • Service(s): Tools    (3WL)

• • • Local and National Data:    (3WM)

• • • • The need to tell local stories with local data is important, but there is an enormous need for data at the national level at a broader scope (e.g. CDC spending). Also, it is important to think nationally. If intermediaries could be established to collect data that can be aggregated up as well as broken down to the local level would be very powerful for broader analysis, national implications.    (3VY)

• • • Variables: A group of variables that are consistently collected would be very useful.    (3WN)

• • • Data Tools: Need to respond to notion that we should be enabling grassroots organizations to use data and think about what data is most useful (e.g. maps that show code violations).    (3WO)

1. 1. 1. 1. Educational resources: provide information, such that provided by Julius Williams to his users about how to use and understand data. Are there kinds of data that should be user friendly to deliver to end users? NICS can be most valuable if developed as a tool.    (3WP)
         2. Mapping tools that bridge b/w census geography and neighborhood/community geography    (3WQ)
         3. Allocation methods: Assistance/information regarding methods for allocating data to lower levels of geography.    (3WR)
         4. Confidentiality: Tools to help aggregate data to a geo level that does not violate confidentiality. Could we acquire credit scores that are aggregated so ensures confidentiality? This would be powerful.    (3WS)

• • Services: Data Needs - What data is most useful for intermediaries and users?    (3WT)

• • • Unfiltered data: Want the original data (analysis) not dumbed down version.    (3WU)
    • Quality controls: (P. Sabety's cell of first slide) need to maintain quality controls. Flavor of the month is a system where local organizations can input data into a national system - need to be careful with this because of differences in standards.    (3VZ)
    • HMDA Data:    (3WV)
      1. HMDA good example of good place to start and stop. Good prototype format for other datasets. We have end users that use this data set as well as intermediaries. Intermediaries will map out HMDA data on tract by tract base loan information/lending activity. HMDA is one of the best tracking data resources.    (3W0)

• • • Ability to analyze trends: HMDA data is good for longitudinal analysis.    (3WW)
    • Data available by Theme (e.g. Housing, poverty, etc.)    (3W1)

* Business Case for NICS    (3Y5)

• • Application: Need to show how to things are done rather than say how things "might" be done.    (3WY)
    • Live in a world of application. NICS needs to make some choices so is not going to be able come out with a comprehensive range of issues to address. NICS needs to be very clear about what the criteria.    (3WZ)
    • Use an example like HMDA or IRS data to provide an example to potential funders.    (3X0)
    • How do you get this off the ground? People do not like to pay for data generically, but will pay for analysis (value added).    (3X1)

• • Issue areas to focus on to demonstrate to funders:    (3X2)
    • Need examples of how data can change/impact neighborhoods. There may be a need to bring data together around an issue/theme (e.g. housing) to show the potential.    (3X3)
      1. Stay away from urban education data because it is best to do something think we can win rather than thinking about the greatest need. Also education filed is saturated.    (3X4)
      2. Housing data is low hanging fruit because there is a lot out there but has not been brought together.    (3X5)
      3. Try to incorporate agenda items of organization (e.g. urban league). Need to touch on areas such as healthcare, employment, education, safety.    (3X6)
      4. Maybe necessary to do more than one item incase that one area is not appealing - maybe do five and hope at least two catch.    (3X7)
      5. Health: Neighborhood effects on health could be a good issue area and is popular.    (3X8)
      6. Community infrastructure    (3W2)

• • Funders: The notion is to build a biz case and take it to the Ford Foundation. A number of federal agencies are making decisions now about how to spend $. The hope is to give them guidance/suggestions about how they might spend it? Can we work with them? What do we need to make up diff (ford, feds)? Need to sell this to someone who has $.    (3X9)
    • Realtors might be a source for funding - give them something they don't have already.    (3XA)
    • Insurance companies: Insurance companies got lots of money to update flood maps b/c maps were out of data and companies were wasting $ b/c of bad data. Good example of local areas sharing data.    (3XB)
    • Will NICS Charge for services?    (3XC)
      1. There is a biz model for intermediaries that charges those that can pay and provides free services to those who cannot. Govt pays to have intermediaries (e.g. HAC) but there is an income cut off. This biz model developed from a similar situation that is occurring today    (3XD)
      2. No, it is meant to be an open source community. Focus is to reduce the cost and improve accessibility of data.    (3W3)
    • Census working on a mapping project. Now, with 12 more states getting involved may be able to overlapp other data such as transportation, childcare, etc.    (3W4)

* What are the most important Issues    (3W5)

• Applications - a guide as to how NICS decides what to do.    (3XE)

• Incorporate private actors (e.g. realtors, insurance) who base decisions (or who could) if information is made available    (3XF)

• Theme or Issue Based - Put together data like HMDA combined with other data sets. Candidate issue areas:    (3XG)

1. 1. Housing,    (3Y6)
   2. Wealth,    (3Y7)
   3. Economic and Business Development,    (3Y8)
   4. Employment,    (3Y9)
   5. Health,    (3YA)
   6. Education,    (3YB)
   7. Safety,    (3YC)
   8. Environment,    (3YD)
   9. Community Infrastructure    (3W6)

• NICS has to be able to devote ways of treating the variety of different geographies at the national and local levels.    (3XH)

• A way of aggregating data to levels that do not violate confidentiality but provides meaningful data for local analysis.    (3XI)

• NICS should facilitate trend comparisons and geographic comparisons.    (3XJ)

• Data standards - possible role for NICS in developing standards for local data collection    (3XK)

• Need data definitions that are meaningful for various groups.    (3XL)

• Need better metadata.    (3XM)

• Answer/address what communities are asking us for. What are they having trouble getting (e.g. health and business data)?    (3XN)
• NICS can help with economies of scale.    (3W7)

End -------------------    (3W8)

10/7/04    (404)

data needs:    (405)

• Data about the regional context    (406)