tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3614581.post8324221198493725925..comments2024-03-28T03:11:22.839-07:00Comments on PHILANTHROPY 2173: Data deficits and surfeitsLucy Bernholzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09253941214286179394noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3614581.post-26948138704030354582010-05-06T10:25:52.529-07:002010-05-06T10:25:52.529-07:00Thanks for drawing people's attention to this!...Thanks for drawing people's attention to this! <br /><br />At IssueLab we have nearly 4000 reports, white papers, and case studies from almost 500 different nonprofits. But 98% of these are PDFs (and a much smaller percentage are openly licensed.) <br /><br />We are sitting on a (rapidly growing) mountain of analyses, with very little access to data. Why does this matter? Because the whole purpose behind publishing research about social change efforts, archiving it, and sharing it is so that it can actually help people to better understand and perhaps even improve their social interventions. <br /><br />Ideally, IssueLab is in a unique position to do cross-sector analyses and to identify where findings within particular fields match up and where they differ, but this is incredibly labor-intensive and not always possible without access to the underlying data. <br /><br />We meet a lot of resistance from non-profits when we ask them to share their data. Their reasons are often understandable. But the fact is that until we can show organizations what the value is of making their data more freely available we will just have to keep cracking open those PDFs and digging out the nuggets!<br /><br />Sounds like Monday's event may provide some examples that can persuade more nonprofits to share more.<br /><br />GabiGabriela Fitzhttp://www.issuelab.orgnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3614581.post-57439125746583976892010-05-05T13:43:45.183-07:002010-05-05T13:43:45.183-07:00Karl
Thanks for the link - great to know of your d...Karl<br />Thanks for the link - great to know of your data on UK giving. <br /><br />I'm thinking of calling my next blog post on this topic "From PDFs to RSS feeds." There are the little changes (formats) and the big changes (working differently to share the stuff)<br /><br />Thanks<br /><br />LucyLucy Bernholzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09253941214286179394noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3614581.post-55754947389846140822010-05-05T12:06:06.094-07:002010-05-05T12:06:06.094-07:00Lucy - I work in the UK for NCVO, an organisation ...Lucy - I work in the UK for NCVO, an organisation that produces data on charitable giving (we met at OII!). We don't make the data directly available, but I basically agree with your argument. We've been thinking about this for a bit: the biggest challenge is getting our head around what/how we do something. We also suffer from this conflicting analysis - maybe if we make our data available others might follow...<br /><br />Anyway, our giving stuff is at www.ncvo-vol.org.uk <br />Cheers<br />KarlKarlhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12849046687303623512noreply@blogger.com