building community data resources
How does data work for your community?
Are you dreaming of a new future where data and technology work for us and not against us?
What if our community institutions had the tools to start building community data resources that would protect our data rights and enable community-based research?
Let’s build a future without extractive data centers, where we can rely on our community’s data to generate community knowledge.
Is your organization able to use data to strengthen communication and collaboration? Data is more than just a tool for reporting to funders or policymakers. It is an information resource that can help you and your teams and partners work better together. The more information you share, the stronger your collective power will be.
How do you know whether your organization is ready to start building community data resources? Data perspectives shape how we think about data, and which beliefs we’ve internalized about which data has “value” or which stories matter. While some data perspectives can keep us rooted in data that works for our communities, others might be leading us to unknowingly repeat harmful data practices.
Take our introductory quiz to learn more about the Data Perspectives that are shaping your work:
Communities that own their data get to ask their own questions.
We are living in an unprecedented time where communities more than ever are seeking participatory and community-based research practices to get answers to society’s toughest questions. When we use community data to answer the questions that matter to our communities, we build trust and power.
Community institutions provide the foundation for community data resources. But we still need layers of social governance that guide community participation in decision-making around how community data is stored and used. Learn more about participatory research and community-governable small-scale data infrastructure:
resources for participatory research / citizen science
[in progress]
resources for small scale data infrastructure
[in progress]
What does it take to build a community data resource?
assess
We are building a new paradigm for community data governance, and that means checking our biases and perspectives about how data can work for our communities.
Take our introductory Data Perspectives assessment to see if your organization is equipped to begin building a community data resource.
educate
Building data and technology systems for community contexts should start with relationships. Who are the players you need on your team? Start a new data project by getting stakeholders on the same page about what constitutes responsible data practices, aligned to data justice principles.
Work with the People’s Data Project to train key stakeholders in data justice principles or generate agreements around your community’s data values.
build
Identify the best platforms, tools, or design approaches to build community data resources that answer your community’s research questions, while staying in alignment to your community’s values.
Work with the People’s Data Project to evaluate data and technology systems on the market or prototype a solution with our team of data engineers and designers.
What kind of support works for you?
We design projects that meet the unique needs of every partner. We believe that building community data resources can help organizations meet their organizing and impact goals in any issue area.
Case Study: Partnering with Gulf Coast Environmental Justice Organizations
Since the start of the People’s Data Project, we’ve partnered with multiple grassroots environmental justice organizations to develop community data resources.
Our experiments have included everything from hosting youth data justice workshops to crafting community data values agreements for cross-sector partnerships involving sensitive data collection.
