Data: What Use Is It?

Posted by Jeffrey Alexander.

Public Categorized as Economic Development, Education, Partnerships, Talent Development and Tools and Products.

Tagged with assessments, asset mapping, community collaboration, data, jeff alexander, reporting, sharing, success stories, web 2.0 and workforce innovations.

As an exhibitor and as an attendee, I'm struck by the vast thirst people are expressing for more DATA. I'm in the OnTheMap presentation by the Census Bureau and it's almost standing-room-only. It seems like any session with data in the title gets a good turnout.

The fact is, there is a lot of data out there, and a growing number of tools and products for accessing data, slicing and dicing, and organizing it. I believe that Web 2.0 tool like this site is a perfect environment for sharing how the data is USED. The amount of raw information that anyone can find, through government and private sector sources, is staggering, and it's becoming a source of confusion (dueling data, as in "my data source is better than yours"). It would be really valuable, as a data analyst and a data provider, to know HOW people in the workforce arena actually UTILIZE the data that they have and what they need. What is on YOUR "wish list" for data that will make it easier for you to achieve your organization's mission?