What data does the voluntary sector actually want..? #vitalstatsyh

Vital statistics : what the numbers say about Yorkshire & Humber

Tomorrow is the InvolveYH annual lecture, and there's a lot of open data questions around at the moment which i won't try and duplicate..

• NCVO datastore.. http://data.ncvo-vol.org.uk/category/datastore
• using statistical approaches to green space planning http://vsb.li/JNBe0q 
• Manchester open data strategy audioboo.fm/boos/1064400 
• Nonprofits Collect Lots of Data, But Most Don’t Use It.. http://shar.es/GOV1w 
•  'The gains of open data are to found in the critical engagement of participants' http://vsb.li/AAma6y
• New Research: The State of Nonprofit Data from @NTENorg: http://vsb.li/2TJ8WQ  

But on my way home I thought about a wishlist for the UK's head statistician (who we're having lunch with tomorrow), and this is what i came up with:

• census data is good big picture stuff, but we need consensus on a way of using flawed data
• 'scraped' data (ie data that exists but we dont currently know about) on real time social outcomes based on people's individual routes out of poverty
• random controlled tests on social outcomes - hard evidence to support the anecdotal 
• causal or relational links between policy areas we're not aware of
• consensus removing politics from poverty based data sets (eg closing of the Citizens Survey & IDS's changing data on Child Poverty)
• off the shelf tools to interpret data in visual ways

If you do nothing else before the event tomorrow, watch @karlwilding's video on "Charities should be the gold standard of transparency.."
www.guardian.co.uk/voluntary-sector-network/video/2012/jul/04/karl-wilding-ncvo-using-big-data

Data driven social change from Karl Wilding