Community Data Infrastructure

Non-profits and publicly-funded institutions are increasingly expected to produce, communicate and engage with evidence. However, many have limited access to the infrastructure and human resource capacity they need to do this, leaving them at a disadvantage when it comes to communicating their impact, developing and improving their practices, or advocating for systemic change.

Furthermore, in many cases the move to embrace data-driven decision-making in large institutions privileges top-down monitoring and oversight practices rather than enabling everyday people and groups to hold their public institutions accountable.

When launched, the Data "Thing” will provide a publicly accessible data infrastructure and free-to-use suite of digital tools that enable communities to identify, analyze and draw conclusions from public data for their own purposes.

The portal will help to ensure that:

1. University research infrastructure (libraries, tools, computers and software) are accessible to non-profit organizations who want to generate and use evidence to inform their own learning and/or social change goals – that is, not simply for the reporting of their results to funders.

2. Ordinary people and groups are better positioned to understand, monitor and advocate for changes to the activities and practices of powerful institutions.

This project is funded by the Canadian Foundations for Innovation (CFI) John Evans Leaders Fund.