2000115-Strengthening-Communities-with-Neighborhood-Data

116 Strengthening Communities with Neighborhood Data
and analysis efforts bogged down and came to a halt. Data couldn’t be
found at the necessary detail or at all. Some resources remained in a
paper format; others were available only at a prohibitive cost. Most of
the data needed to be entered into a desktop database before it would
be usable. Expectations for success sank lower and lower.
Does it need to be this way? Will software providers always prefer
marketing products for foodies and social media addicts, while
mission-driven devotees of social progress languish in a technology
desert?
After describing the need for and traditional barriers to information
in community efforts, this essay shares some reasons for optimism. The
first bit of good news is that the raw data needed to create community
revitalization tools are more available today than at any time in our
nation’s history. The second bit of good news is that several technologies
behind the recent explosion of data-driven apps are nonproprietary
and can be leveraged by anyone with the know-how to use them. The
combination of abundant raw materials and low-cost tools could greatly
benefit community revitalization practitioners. So what will it take to
bring forth a new set of data-driven community revitalization tools? The
final sections suggest some answers to that question.
The Need for Information in Community
Revitalization Efforts
If community revitalization is about improving quality of life, information
technology is about improving the quality of action. Action based
on good information should be more effective, more efficient, more
targeted with fewer unintended consequences. Well-informed actions
should yield better quality-of-life improvements than poorly informed
ones.
Data systems add value to community revitalization efforts for two
distinct groups: individual users and institutional users. For community
revitalization to succeed, individuals need access to information that
extends opportunities to them. But community success also depends
on institutional intermediaries, whose opportunities focus on land use,
public safety, economic development, and transportation. This premise
of organized community revitalization work is that information does