Why Doesn’t Data.Org Exist?
Ok, it exists, but here’s what I mean: Why doesn’t a nonprofit / NGO / cause-based equivalent to data.gov exist? It seems to me that the nonprofit / NGO universe would benefit immensely by sharing data and collaborating on difficult reporting, data mining, and research tasks. I realize that competition exists, quite fiercely, in the cause-based sector, and this may lead nonprofit leaders to hoard rather than share their hard-won bits.
I’ll try not to inject too much of my own assumptions, though. I really am curious to find out what folks in the trenches think:
- What are the barriers to sharing data at your nonprofit? Privacy concerns? Competition for donor dollars?
- Have you shared data publicly before? Was it worth it?
- Do you actually make use of the shared data and reports you do find?
- Would you participate in a nonprofit-focused “X-Prize” type model where teams compete to design better campaigns and messaging based on shared data? (Ok, this one’s a little loaded)
- What are your thoughts on sharing data within your organization? And outside?
Data.org won’t exist until there is a financial incentive for nonprofits to share data with non-funding organizations. It’s really that simple.
Sharing data requires effort, staff time, and some light technical know-how, and there’s no reason to use those precious resources unless there’s a clear financial return on the investment (solving the larger social problem often takes a back seat to org sustainability). Also, agreeing on a format on how that data should be shared is a non-trivial task. Check out http://www.iris-standards.org, for a great example of how this was done (it took a couple years, but at least the standard exists).
Awesome Marc, thanks for the link. I wasn’t aware of that effort. Do you think the financial incentive would need to be on par with the resource costs, or would it need to be far higher (in order to show up on the radar of decision makers)?
I agree with Marc the financials – and therefore the funders – are the only practical primary driver.
However, what about a financial incentive by reducing existing expenses? Could government drive a small piece like this by offering a way to do government reporting in a standard way – Form 990 electronic reporting methods perhaps?
Perhaps standards development could be funded/led by a trade organization of some sort? AICPA (Accounting trade organization) drove the creation of the reporting standard XBRL. NTEN? Trade groups for specific trade groups of nonprofits?