Raw Data does not have to be viewed as just lots of unnecessary noise.  It needs loving care to stroke out and nurture meaningful messages.  Regardless of how complex the information being conveyed, the convergence to a language understandable to users is the best way to bring benefits to all involved. 

I have been asked monthly about why government entities request information and never seem to use it. 

There are those that collect data and use it.  There are those that collect data but do not use it.  There are those that collect data and share it.  There are those who collect data and will not share it. With all these entities collecting data you would think that government would be much more knowledgeable in many areas to make policy decisions.

It must be expected that government entities will collect data is a given but is it useful?  The simple weights to whether data should be collected is that it must be used to measure whether the current distribution of resources is generating the desired results, where to prioritize the redistribute of resources,  and identifying trends. 

Law Enforcement is the one area where the sharing of information and geo coding of data has shown to be very successful at being a useful tool to solving and proactively reducing crimes. 

Some Police Departments are using data tracking software to track crime and the results have been the ability to pinpoint trends and target resources.  The outcome has been a decrease in crimes when resources are targeted in these identified geographic areas of crime . 

Data collection and sharing of data among law enforcement goes further towards identifying those individuals whom are more prone to violent crimes.  This area has been especially helpful in dealing with Street Gangs by describing their associations, criminal history, and tattoos signs. Studies have consistently shown that most individuals are law abiding and just a few among a population commit the majority of the crimes.  Therefore, profiling is the best way to target resources towards those individuals. 

The one area where data collection is high but the sharing of information is low is in any Health and Human Service system.  Eligibility for government benefits is mostly driven by income and a majority of these individuals get services from more than one agency.  However, each agency spends money separately determining the income eligibility and doing intake.   The nature of a case can create numerous layers of duplication of efforts. 

For example,  a family whom has an open case with a care and protection agency, an open case for early intervention service, an open case for welfare benefits and an open case receiving health benefits.   None of these agencies are working together as team working with the family or having one case record.  This is where I would advocate one case record and one case manager whom has access to the whole record and manages the case.  

Yes, I would agree it is not easy to create one data base when you look at all of the components that families and individuals need. 

However, failure has occurred only when it is all or nothing.  Therefore, start merger the systems step by step.  The Internet has created the ability to link different legacy systems together.  The web base systems are the entry points but not the data crunching systems.  The web system draws from the systems it is directed to.  The systematic convergence of two systems is the best way to make changes and ensure usability to all parties.  Upon a level of satisfaction being achieve the work-group for convergence can then move onto merging another group into the system.  Each convergence will have its own issues but it allows functionality of the system on a workable level and narrows the focus of the problems that may arise.   

Let’s start somewhere and do better service management.

 (pics by makelessnoise and P373)