Discussion of Presentations and Implications for NICS 9/27/04 (3C9)
Facilitated by Andy Reamer Panelists - Patrick McGuigan, The Providence Plan, Providence, RI - Michael Barndt, The Nonprofit Center of Milwaukee, Milwaukee, WI - Junious Williams, Urban Strategies Council, Oakland, CA. (3PD)
Q: Given what youve read about NICS, What value do you see NICS providing in your applications? (3PN)
M.Barndt, Milwaukee {nid 3Q8} (3R0)
- Adding to and building an infrastructure that works across the country is a enormaouus task. I admire what you are doing (3BG)
- Nurturing is important for a national system to have much impact (3BH)
- I feel very information poor as to what would come from national and regional. If NICS could get smart enough to figure out what data adds value best to local data. (3QA)
- NNIP has done some cross site work and it credentials the work done back home [Providence]. By participating in a national organization's work it credentials local work and we learn from each other. (3QB)
- Figuring out how to connect local capacity to national capacity could be powerful but it is uncharted water. (3BI)
J.Williams, Oakland (3QC)
- NICS gives momentum; it tells gov't parties that investment in data infrastructure is an issue that isn't going away. (3QD)
- The other piece I see, are tools. Looking at some pretty intensive tool development, and starting to figure out which are the most effective tools. (3QE)
- Again, i see addressing the duplication of efforts as a valuable effect. (3BJ)
Q: To what extent to do you rely on federal and state datasets and to what extent are you frustrated by that dependency? (3QF)
Providence (3QG)
- We heavily utilize Census data. We haven't done a good job with trend data. We're increasingly being asked to look at geography beyond Providence to develop data systems for the state of Rhode Island. Census data, block level data, gives us a nice starting point. We've been using it for demographics. When it comes to economics, I think we underutilize those sets. (3CG)
Oakland (3QH)
- Echoing what Pat McGuigan stated, we underutilize national databases. We simply don't time and resources to mine then. They are very useful, very rich. We march on with the issues that are pressing in the community, and haven't stepped back to do the thorough analysis that includes using national datasets to look at regional data. (3BM)
Audience Q: R. Harrison, Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies clarifies panel responses: It seems that it should not be data, it should be contextualized information that helps you place your issues regionally. It sounds that what you really could use are tools, to help understand and manipulate the data; tools to also handle the confidentiality issues that arise in working with the level of geography community groups as yourself are working. (3R1)
Providence (3QI)
- I was thinking of this system as cheat sheet, a how-to, to help us figure out how to use data. We've had a hard time to use the employment piece. We'd had a frustrating time with ES202. We'd love to see people pushing that in an important way; it would help us. (3BP)
Milwaukee (3QJ)
- I've been waiting to work with LEHD. LEHD is a case of state's data being extremely rich after being taken from the local level. I'd love to see more work to utilize and access this data. (3QK)
- With respect to local data, doing some work to see what is available, and what the barriers are to the data, would give a good sense of the terrain. (3BQ)
Oakland (3QL)
- Growing with NNIP has been helpful for the support from the NNIP CoP. This would be a resource to local participants as NICS moves ahead. Tool/Confidentiality realm is something that NICS could help us. For example, how to use more dynamic gentrification data--data that better informs us about the change that is happening in our neighborhoods and who that is affecting--while protecting confidentiality is an specific issue we on which could use help. (3BR)
> Moderator asks J. Marks from the Local Employment Dynamics Program at the Census, to give a short explanation of the LEHD program at US Census Bureau. > J. Marks explains the LEDH program. (3BS)
Audience Q: J. Ferreira - Highlights system architecture questions relevant for the Panel. (Metadata, standards framework) (3R2)
Milwaukee (3QM)
- Use of metadata has some value. But there are some disadvantages. If you consider the ways that metadata definitions can drive how data is collected at the local level, or about metadata standards affect the ways in which people think about how data should be used. There is a capacity to tap data systems. But not to create, too rapidly, a set of stable indicators or metadata. We are creating, not a static data form to follow, but a statistical system that is dynamic. (3QN)
RI (3QO)
- The strategy should be pick a couple of places to go deep, and work through the issues there to inform how to proceed. (3QP)
Oakland (3QQ)
- I have a special situation because of working with UC Berkeley, in regards to ESRI costs--we use a software license we couldn't afford without the educational discount. GIS, especially ESRI is expensive; Using NICS to cut operational costs would be a strong point. (3BT)
Audience Q: P. Sabety, Brookings Institute. What I hear is that 'We're doing much more real time data collection, closer to neighborhoods, closer to what is happening in our cities. How are you balancing your need to support parcel level data, and your organizational need to have greater coverage to continue to exist, grow and meet needs of your growing constituents? (3QR)
RI (3QS)
- For us, politics have been local, but funding hasn't been. In terms of extending our geographic bounds from Providence, we've been helping others build their capacity. In order for us to responsive to our needs, for crime response, we're crossing bounds, working regionally (RI state). (3QT)
Milwaukee (3QU)
- It's important to develop that larger picture. It's important that enough data be developed to even enable the conversation about the larger picture. In some situations, your work is so stressed that groups aren't thinking beyond their neighborhood bounds and immediate concerns. This is a problem for longer-term planning. (3BU)
Oakland (3QV)
- Regional analysis is important, and something would do more of, if we had the resources. If we don't wage a successful battle in terms of economic development, there will not be many people of color in the city of Oakland. (3QW)
Ed Spar, COPAFS. The area I think NICS will play a fantastic role, will be in the area of standards. In your documentation, do you have a process of defining how often you update, what you're definitions are, confidentiality protections? (3QX)
Oakland (3QY)
- Yes, that is part of our process. We're partnered with UC Berkeley’s GIS center. What we're working on is people who can upload data, and use it on our system, but not actually including that dataset in our system. It's about building community capacity--documentation on how to survey, how to collect data so that it is generalizable. For many organizations, it's not a priority--to say they've sampled so-many people, with a response rate of this amount. We're moving towards more standards, and replicability of our methods. (3C6)