This report, commissioned as part of the Linked Digital Future Initiative, is a culmination of exploratory activities to develop a governance framework for open and shared data in the performing arts sector.
We thank the Canada Council for the Arts and the Government of Canada for their continued support of this foundational work.
Data Governance Report Contents
This report explores the following topics:
- Opportunities for Data Sharing and Collaboration for the Performing Arts
- Challenges for Data Sharing & Collaboration for the Performing Arts
- Promising Ways Forward: Use Cases, Charters, Principles
Report Findings: Emerging Questions
Throughout our research, four key questions emerged that warrant further exploration to ensure successful collaboration and governance of data throughout the sector:
- What is a higher priority: operational principles, or values-based principles?
- Is the expressed need for principles that are specific to the performing arts reflective of a true need or a reflection of limited knowledge of existing principles? If survey respondents don’t have a clear understanding of what principles are, how should we interpret their stated need for “new” principles?
- We found there was general agreement on the following assertion: performing arts organizations have a low capacity to participate and contribute to data initiatives. How do we make it easy enough, so that even low- capacity people and organizations can participate? How can principles such as inclusion, ownership, control, and sovereignty be reconciled with organizations’ low capacity to participate in data initiatives?
- How do we continue this conversation during a global pandemic that has particularly impacted the performing arts sector? Overall, our research has shown that there is interest in creating principles to help guide the sector’s data governance as well as various projects and programs.