Breakout Session – Participants Needs and Applications (68N)
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Summary of Discussion: (68O)
- Participant Needs Group (federal, state, and organizational) (6AS)
LEHD – Might be a good priority for NICS because it is an application that combines data sources from the feds, states, and private sector; it’s an example of using state administrative records; combining demographic with economic data; and it is local. 34 states involved (6ZM)
- State level: (6B0)
------------------Details of Discussion----------------------------------------------------------------- (6ZN)
Role of NICS for Local Users and State Users (6BO)
- What role might NICS need to play in trying to convey the data needs of local users to the census bureau and states? (68T)
- Mediator: Role for NICS could be a mediator for working with states and local groups (68U)
- Demonstrate Data Needs: Local groups need to replicate census work because they need more detailed local geographies. NICS could be a place for accessing data as well as for making statistical agencies aware of the various data needs of local areas. (68V)
- Best Practices: (68W)
- Is NICS working with local groups to encourage data sharing? (68X)
- Provide baseline data: By collecting local data, administrative records, etc., may provide baseline data for policy decisions that is not easily accessible to state and local governments. For example, one participant needed data on how much people pay for water, but there are no data available on that. (68Y)
- Standards for mapping, data, etc so data are shareable (68Z)
- Statistical Memory: Staff turnover in agencies NICS could provide institutional memory for data collection methods, problems, etc. that get lost when a staff person leaves. (690)
- What role might NICS need to play in trying to convey the data needs of local users to the census bureau and states? (68T)
Local Data and Quality and Confidentiality Issues: (691)
- Local governments often have very rich data, in principal, and we want the ability of local groups to import data, but this raise important questions about: (692)
- Confidentiality: Is there a concern about putting all these datasets together that there may be a possibility of disclosure? Will this provide an “in” for figuring out census confidentiality. Problem of people not sharing data because of fear that other sets would break confidentiality. Raw data or indicators? The bureau is concerned about the perception that confidentiality could be violated. This issue needs to be front and center. (693)
- Data quality: (694)
- Local governments often have very rich data, in principal, and we want the ability of local groups to import data, but this raise important questions about: (692)
Do people in the group have any sense which end of the data quality assessment pole should NICS be trying to aim for? (697)
- Both, for example: (698)
Federal Data Sets that state and local areas would like to see more of (69B)
Potential Applications of NICS (69G)
- Data Checking: Provide access to more administrative records to check estimates produced by Claritas, etc. that is used as the denominator for all our estimates. (69H)
Potential Incentives for States (69I)
(Geo spatial one stop has no incentive for counties other than the good of the order, not enough) (69J)
- Providing data and tools to check program eligibility of states, counties, and people for federal funds. (69K)
- Hook into gubernatorial agenda (69L)
- Program service areas do not follow census block, tracts, etc. the only way to get a precise def of service area is with parcel data. (69M)
- Need to be aware that data is a revenue generator for some states: (69N)
- Cook county spent $17 million on data- revenue generator because real estate and developers are paying for it: Possible solutions may be sell NICS as decision support tool; improving government efficiency. Or Maybe have the county government aggregate up to block or something so that they are not losing their revenue source (don’t give away name of owner, address, etc which are still valuable for real estate) (69O)
Prioritization is critical issue for NICS: (69P)
- Eligibility issue: may be a way for prioritizing issues that are of most important for states. Helps states and could help nonprofits prioritize in similar way to states (69Q)
- Crosscutting Issues: There are also probably crosscutting issues for states, such as the general programmatic uselessness of collecting data on Asians or Asian-Americans. It is of interest for the 10 states where 90% of Asian Americans live to collect the Asian subpopoulation. The other 30-40 states are not going to be interested in collecting subpopulation data but those 10 are. So, through NICS it may be possible to share these best practices with other states for issues of interest to them, e.g. rural communities. (69R)
- Participation: Who are the question makers? Participation means you get to dictate want the questions are. If NICS is not a government run resource, it allows other groups to get their questions answered (e.g. subpopulation, minority data) (69S)
- LEHD: Could NICS intervene and make LEHD a priority. So many of these great projects languish, but if NICS could get it out there and let people use it. (69T)
- Infrastructure Data: Census no longer collects data on sewers, infrastructure which is important for smart growth. (69U)
- Regional competitiveness: regions need to know what there assets are in order to promote them. (69V)
- Confidentiality: Is there a concern about putting all these datasets together that there may be a possibility of disclosure? Will this provide an “in” for figuring out census confidentiality. Problem of people not sharing data b/c of fear that other sets would break confidentiality. Raw data or indicators? The bureau is concerned about the perception that confidentiality could be violated. This issue needs to be front and center. (69W)
Important State Contacts (69X)
- State data centers (6BI)
- Someone from the governor’s office (6BJ)
- National states geo spatial group (Bill Shinar is part of this group). These people are good resources for talking about standards. (6BK)
- Noticing states frustration with high volume of requests for surveys, etc. Suggest working with state and regional entities and they can pass down request. (69Y)