2000115-Strengthening-Communities-with-Neighborhood-Data

Progress in Data and Technology 125
and they don’t achieve our goals. We need to deploy the tools within
the flow of our professional and personal lives. Tools can be deployed
in the service of the mission of community revitalization, contingent
on raw materials, tech expertise, and other resources. So the question
remains: Why can lovers of pasta primavera instantly discover the best
platter within walking distance, while community activists struggle
to find and deploy basic information resources in the service of their
cause?
Making Information Actionable
The previous two sections document the improvements in access to data
and technology that have enhanced the potential for community groups
to access “retail” information tailored to their needs. Although this information
can be a useful means to effective action, it is not in itself a useful
outcome. Too often information is viewed as a result, rather than as a
means to achieving a result. This misplaced focus on information for
its own sake sometimes generates data systems that lack applicability to
real-world problems. In fact, it’s fair to say that all information is worthless
to some people, and all information is valuable only within a given
set of circumstances. In the context of community revitalization, the following
factors determine whether information is useful and actionable:
• Intelligibility. Who can comprehend the information, and under
what circumstances?
• Accessibility. Who can access the information, and who cannot?
• Timeliness. Is the information acquired at a time when it can be
acted on?
• Resources. What is needed to convert information to effective
action?
As these questions imply, the limits of information’s effectiveness are
strongly situational, varying from individual to individual and moment
to moment. Given the situational, contingent nature of information and
its usefulness, can there be any doubt that some people find themselves
at a disadvantage in the game of leveraging information? A few examples
can illustrate this point.