About the Workshop
Reporting from the 2nd annual Data 4 Impact workshop held in Edmonton (AB) in the lead-up to the Canadian Open Data Summit 2017. The event brought together more than 80 regional and local not-for-profit organizations to raise awareness about the value of data sharing within the sector, provide frameworks and techniques to facilitate the use of data and share use cases of community data collaboratives. The workshop was co-organized and facilitated in collaboration with Data4Good and Powered by Data.
Data 4 Impact Workshop Objectives
- To raise awareness of the value of data sharing at the organizational and sector level
- To provide frameworks that would be helpful to organizations in the development of plans to enable the effective use of data
- To increase capacity by providing techniques and tools for participants to understand how to collect and use data in their organizations and the sector
- To introduce the concept of Community Data Collaboratives
Summary of Open Data Discussions
The following is a summary of the key discussions that took place during the workshop. Those discussions took place during the three following exercises:
- Situation Yourself on the Data Spectrum
- 5 Factors Discussion – Problem and Solution Identification
- Plenary Sector Discussion
Situating Yourself on the Data Spectrum
According to the definitions of Closed, Shared, and Open Data — participants situated examples of data sets with post-it notes on the data spectrum according to their own organization’s experience.
5 Factors Discussion – Problem and Solution Identification
For the second exercise, participants were asked to identify problems based on the 5 factors described in the presentation, and then share back to the whole group. Afterwards, participants joined groups focused on specific factors to identify potential solutions to some of those problems. The 5 factors consist of:
- Mindset
- Culture
- Infrastructure
- Social capital and sector dynamics
- Capacity
Plenary Sector Discussion
At the end of the presentation, the whole group discussed our current situation regarding data – specifically answering what needs to stop, what needs to be improved, and what new things need to be created.
Feedback on the Data 4 Impact Workshop
At the close of the workshop, participants were asked to complete a short survey to give their feedback on the session. About 55 participants responded to the survey. The survey consisted of the following questions:
- Do you feel that the structure of the workshop allowed you to contribute your perspectives?
- Was there an exercise or presentation that was particularly good at stimulating discussion and input from participants?
- Was there an exercise or presentation that was less effective in stimulating discussion or input from participants?
- How would you restructure the workshop to be more effective?
- What content would you like to be added?
To find out participant answers to the above questions and learn more about the open data workshop’s discussions, read the full report below.