Governance and Finance Workgroup (658)
Members: PariSabety, KathyCovert, MaryMargaretShaw, JeffreyBlodgett, JacquelineByers, JamesWillis, JulieGefke, AllenLomax, MarshallDeBerry, PatriciaAtkins, SusanTurnbull, PaulBugg, TroyAnderson (677)
Observer– AndyReamer (659)
Summary of the Discussion: (6EM)
- The group was asked to address the following questions: (707)
- what formal and informal models in state government might NICS emulate as it constitutes itself as an enterprise? (6ZP)
- How are these models financed? All public, all private or a mix of the two? (6ZQ)
- How do we build in inventives for cooperation, participation and collaboration in a self-sustaining way? (6ZR)
- What functions must NICS fulfill to be an effective enterprise? (6ZS)
- How might NICS deal with state-level issues that could impede data-sharing, such as regulations on data sharing and privacy? (6ZT)
- By unanimous consent, the group decided to focus on the issue of NICS functions to start with, then elected to address issues of governance, and turned to incentives for cooperation, participation, and potential state-level issues on which NICS could be useful. (6ZU)
- Key NICS functions to provide (6YZ)
- Generally, NICS is most useful where it is facilitating inquiries and providing resources to users with an interest in cross-domain analyses and information resources, that require cross-agency, cross-jurisdictional and cross-functional collaboration (708)
- High Priority NICS functions: (6ZG)
- Metadata: articulation of metadata definitions and lineage (provenance) of data contributed (6EP)
- Statistical literacy: develop tools to help locals and nationals improve statistical literacy (6EQ)
- Quality guidelines: develop quality guidelines for community members to use in collecting data at the local level, so that it is well-described, interoperable and maintained at the appropriate level of privacy (6ER)
- Tools: develop tools such as (6Z0)
- Broker/Clearinghouse: serve as a clearinghouse and broker for data collection, analysis and use efforts on community statistics nationally. Provide a forum for resolution of common issues, and develop the information policy equivalent of standards in this area. (6Z5)
- Process for developing Governance and Finance Plan (6Z6)
- NICS will need to be an evolving, changing enterprise (6ZH)
- Understand that some functions may be started in Phase I, and others in Phase II (6Z7)
- Form should follow function; i.e., the form of the enterprise should be reflective of the current level and type of activities being completed in Phases I and II (6Z8)
- While a longterm goal may be to develop as a membership organization, this may not be the best way to proceed in Phase I (6Z9)
- Consider two phase approach to governance... (6ZA)
- Phase I: select a narrow group of issues to work on that are most important to getting NICS started; work through data intermediaries and selected pilot projects or "use cases" to clarify NICS role and lay groundwork (6ZB)
- Phase II: Develop longeterm governance structure in harmony with different functions and members needs (6ZC)
- Narrow focus early on to develop some successful experiments, but build scalability into the governance structure so that it can grow to meet added needs as required (6ZD)
- One way to select good "use cases" is to focus on what local data intermediaries need: (6EX)
- Clearinghouse function: want to know what everyone is doing (6EY)
- NACO immediate need is that the Department of Homeland Security asked states to provide a form on profile of their state, but 30 of the forms were rejected because of there were no data available. This would be a good NICS "use case" to provide the infrastructure to collect and display the information needed for DHS in an easy to use way that assembles needed data from multiple sources (6ZJ)
- Best Practices (6F1)
- Quality guidelines (6F2)
- Consider getting research directors of "big 6" trade associations together to help hammer out key needs of their constituencies and develop projects that help them to better serve members at the community level (6ZE)
- Longterm governance for NICS (6F3)
- Still don’t know the model but can go ahead and address Phase I priorities, and establish process by which to move to Phase II governance structure (6F4)
- Group noted need for NICS to select some "use cases" and get its hands dirty soon to start some activities that will prove its usefulness in Phase I. We're OK as a CoP for the next 6 mos. But need to develop a plan for future. (6ZI)
- Note: Several possible "use cases" were discussed in each session and in the closing session for the day; see below. (6F5)
- Process for developing Governance and Finance Plan (6Z6)
- Conclusion (6ZV)
- To answer the opening questions, here are some short notes: (6ZW)
- what formal and informal models in state government might NICS emulate as it constitutes itself as an enterprise? (6ZX)
- How are these models financed? All public, all private or a mix of the two? (6ZZ)
- Clearly, these models are financed through a mix of public and private funding. This will need to be the way in which NICS is funded. THere is a clear need for ongoing agency support, as much of NICS envisages incorporating a link to the enterprise as an ongoing part of agency functions. But the agency also reaps the benefit of access to data residing on NICS. SOme of the core functions will need to be supported by a mix of public and private funding support. (700)
- How do we build in incentives for cooperation, participation and collaboration in a self-sustaining way? (701)
- This is possible through selecting "use cases" with strong relevance to local and state participants, that solves a key problem they are wrestling with. It is enhanced by providing these participants with a role in governance and operations as appropriate, as the organization matures. (702)
- What functions must NICS fulfill to be an effective enterprise? (703)
- Five major functions were proposed, as described above. (704)
- How might NICS deal with state-level issues that could impede data-sharing, such as regulations on data sharing and privacy? (705)
- This may be one of the "sweet spots" for NICS, perhaps a "use case" on HIPAA, using NSF funding, or on homeland security data. Other examples were raised in other workgroups. (706)
- To answer the opening questions, here are some short notes: (6ZW)
----------------Details of Discussion-------------------------------------------- (6F6)
- Pari – Overview of Meeting Goals (from worksheet) (65A)
- Troy Anderson suggests the first question to be addressed should be NICS functions determining its form (65B)
- Pari Sabety - Let’s Enumrate the 3 Major Functions of NICS (65C)
- Troy Anderson – Standards (65D)
- Kathy Covert – Advocacy (65E)
- Troy Anderson – Maybe Certification? Meaning standards that make data comparable across various systems. That would help make data well described and interoperable. Standards on how to collect and compare data? (65F)
- Jacqueline Byers – I have a big problem with certification. Counties aren’t going ot comply with standards because they don’t have the staff or money to commit to implementing them. (65G)
- Troy Anderson – The standards aren’t about enforcement but a standard way of inputting data. (65H)
- Pari Sabety – You mean metadata? (65I)
- Kathy Covert – the standards would drive metadata collection. (65J)
- Pari Sabety – So it would be set up so that it would be clear to members that they would get more if they had more certifiable data sets? (65K)
- Marshall DeBerry – Maybe that should be Quality Guidelines rather than “certification” (65L)
- James Willis – Certification implies rules (65M)
- Patricia Atkins – It should be a way to ensure that quality is essential (65N)
- Kathy Covert – Standards have more of an implication of compulsion than guidelines. It is politically more acceptable. It is important that people not feel like something is being done to them which standards imply. (65O)
- Jacqueline Byers – Without standards is there comparability across regions? (65P)
- Pari Sabety – So we want data quality guidelines? (65Q)
- Kathy Covert – A few mandatory guidelines? (65R)
- Pari Sabety – Something geographic? (65S)
- Susan Turnbull – Source of Data. (65T)
- Kathy Covert – We need something that instills confidence in the data (65U)
- Pari Sabety – Okay, what does Advocacy mean? (65V)
- Allen Lomax – I think its meaning here is more lobbying and promoting. But I mean more education and outreach (65W)
- Marshall DeBerry – As Paul Bugg says, Statistical Literacy (65X)
- Kathy Covert – NICS could function as a forum for the resolution of common issues (65Y)
- Pari Sabety – Federal information Policy at large? (65Z)
- Kathy Covert – It would be a venue for expression of differing views (660)
- James Willis – The federal government gives mandates but no funding. Local people won’t listen. They won’t feel that there is a difference between the Federal Government and a non profit institution. Maybe there is an opportunity for funding from foundations. (661)
- Pari Sabety – UMI and many other local efforts have been getting substantial funding and interest from large foundations. The interest comes with strong financial support it isn’t just rhetorical. (662)
- Troy Anderson – I just came from a big foundation meeting where we discusses trying to get more cogent information to facilitate funding grantees. (663)
- Pari Sabety – Foundations are funding community users utilizing parcel level data but are funding three different projects. One selling point for communities is that you could access NICS and learn about existing projects. (664)
- Jacquline Byers – Because of lack of knowledge, the work is often not usable across multiple locations (665)
- Troy Anderson – Who is NICS serving? (666)
- Pari Sabety – Eventually the public but now investors (667)
- Marshall DeBerry – Federal officials and State Officials (668)
- Patricia Atkins – Data Intermediaries (669)
- Troy Anderson – The customer is more than the end user. We need to discover the “marketing channel” for NICS. (66A)
- Susan Turnbull – I can think of numerous Federal agencies that could turn to NICS for advice and ideas (66B)
- James Willis – Private entities could pay for repackaged data (66C)
- Jacqueline Byers – Maybe Claritas could be approached as a corporate sponsor? (66D)
- Troy Anderson – But private entities are also competitors (66E)
- Pari Sabety – NICS will have the ability to update data in communities if ACS goes through (66F)
- Troy Anderson – It would make data more of an open source community. Could take ACS and put it in open source environment but with standards, different people could work on it. (66G)
- Susan Turnbull – Obviously we would need set up for sharing the data and tools, we would need to push for open source and open standards (66H)
- Allen Lomax –OK, no more standards talk (66I)
- Kathy Covert – Standards can’t be something that happens to you. People have to be apart of the creation of the standards. (66J)
- Allen Lomax – Guidelines feels softer. There are two camps. Providers and users. Ideas of quality don’t always match. Some things are not articulated well. And leave out bringing in private entities because we have too much on the table already. We need two be brokers in the process. There are already many data sharing issues with public data. (66K)
- Pari Sabety – Okay here are five things I have gleaned from the discussion (66L)
- Marshall DeBerry – How do you bootstrap this thing to a discussion of metadata? (66S)
- Pari Sabety – Do we break these objectives into three phases? (66T)
- Susan Turnbull – It isn’t phases, it is a process we need to build on our reputation. It is more of a pyramid approach. (66U)
- Troy Anderson – We need to determine our users in order to drive what NICS wants (66V)
- Paul Bugg – What is the implementation process? National thing that happens in a lot of places or small laboratory effort? (66W)
- Pari Sabety – We should focus NICS on long term tougher national issue. (66X)
- Paul Bugg – We need to refine our approach, start small and see what works. (66Y)
- Julie Gefke – If we want to see what works we will need assessment tools that work across the board. (66Z)
- Troy Anderson – To JacquelineByers, JulieGefke and AllenLomax, what is most useful to customers? (670)
- Pari Sabety – We need to clarify the funding and broker/clearinghouse and quality guidelines components. (672)
- Todays customers are strong with statistical community systems but need better, less fragmented data from federal data sets and comparable data from other cities/regions. But will also share their own data. (673)
- Jacqueline Byers – Can be used by smaller counties but don’t forget those have limited access. (674)