Data collection, data opennes, advocacy and improving services

I was recently talking to a friend about a project she was doing. She was trying to figure out how much of government assistance is accessed via community organizations vs direct application to the government. Unfortunately, we couldn't think of any good source for this kind of information.

If you were faced with the possibility that a program you work with was going to be changed would you know exactly what the choke points are? Would you be able to prove it with data, whether yours or that of other organizations? Do you know how long it really takes to get an application through the process? Does anyone know what percentage of applications go through community organizations vs direct applications? Could anyone find out how what percentage of applications are incorrectly denied, much less figure out if there is a difference between applications filed directly vs through a community organization?

This is where data collection and openness becomes important. If you collect data on your assistance, you know how long it takes for your clients. If organizations doing something similar collect the same kind of data, then you have a basis of comparison. Equally important, when you aggregate all this data, you get a good idea of the broader picture. But, there are some things you can't do by yourself or even with other agencies. For instance, you can't compare organization outcomes vs direct interaction with the government agencies. Which also means that you can't really get a full picture.

That's where data openness comes in. Even if government agencies collect the data, if they don't open it to the public, then it may as well not exist. Of course, if the data is not flattering it's no surprise that an agency might not want the data made public. That's not what they are going to say, of course, but that's a reality. And, it's really important reason, in my opinion, to push for open data. As long as there is no light on this information, agencies can hide the data and pretend that all is well. But, when the data is out in the open, then agencies can't pretend so easily. They have only one choice to deal with embarrassing data: Improve the process!

The bottom line is that data collection is a great advocacy tool. And open data is a good way to keep public organizations honest and operating at their best.