2000115-Strengthening-Communities-with-Neighborhood-Data

The Potential and the Way Forward 403
unitary network structure. There is not enough information available
now to support a specific recommendation on how these supports can
be most effectively delivered at the broader scale we have proposed. The
coalition should consider the design for an effective peer network with
these capacities once it has reviewed and cataloged existing networks
and resources.
3. Expand access to data from governments and private firms.
This area entails efforts by the coalition to encourage all levels of government
and some private firms to release their existing nonconfidential
datasets to the public in usable formats. In all aspects of this effort, the
coalition should work in partnership with the open data movement discussed
in chapter 3 and earlier in this chapter (Pettit et al. 2014).
Without devoting many of its own resources to direct advocacy, the
coalition could make an important contribution in this area simply by
serving as a central scorekeeper, annually documenting and assessing
progress with data releases and suggesting priorities for advocacy by
others based on that assessment. The situation differs at different levels:
• Federal government. Chapter 3 notes that the number of national
datasets with useful information for local analysis has grown rapidly
in recent years. The federal government has taken explicit positions
favoring these directions [see Orzag (2009) and White House
(2009)], and considerable progress has been made under data.gov.
In addition to promoting new releases, however, there is a need
for advocacy to preserve current national data collection and dissemination
efforts that may be threatened by funding cuts. The
coalition’s national scorekeeping function could be helpful in suggesting
priorities for preservation as well as those for new releases.
• State governments. To date, reviews of open data at the state level
have focused on legislative or budget data; see OpenStates.org as
one example. More information is needed about other data, such
as education, health, housing, and public assistance data. Additional
research could document how the states are making progress opening
up a broad array of data, including data that can be disaggregated
for census tracts, cities, and counties.
• Local governments. One recommendation here is for the coalition
to incorporate education about, and advocacy for, open data as an
integral part of its information campaign to encourage broader