Drifting in the Data Divide

I’m feeling pinched in the data divide. Or maybe adrift. I’m not sure if the malady is too much data or too little data or not the right data. Mostly, I think the challenge is not having the time and skills to make the most of the data that is available. And what is available is very impressive. Workforce Alliance, our region’s lead entity to connect people with employment, has made available the data and analysis they receive from Monster on labor market trends in South Central CT. It’s a fifty-page report filled with amazingly current information collected through sophisticated web-based technologies. And Monster provides the value add of making recommendations on key actions and presents critical insights, which are supportive of and add depth to our current Economic Opportunity strategies. I wanted to compare the Monster data and match it with information available at the Department of Labor’s online database – a site I’ve used to gather data and help inform my work at United Way. Slowly, I begin to lose my way. I either find myself looking at granular datapoints that lead me to corners, or floating above it all in generalities. I decide it’s simply a lack of caffeine, and I freshen-up my beverage and think that the way to get things back in order is to check-on the new release of U.S. Census data. In no time, I’m pondering if I really want to register for a webinar on a planned vacation day to learn about the release of county business statistics data. Then, I revisit of the American Community Survey data that I’ve already stared at too often. No answers there. Finally, an email to DataHaven for some consult. I always learn new things as I stumble into unknown datapoints in pursuit of something that is often out of reach. I value being part of an organization and community efforts that take using data seriously. I work with people who share data, give it a critical eye, and use it to improve what we do. It’s what we hold ourselves to, and what we ask of our partners. And it works. With that conviction, I look forward to the day when I feel like a master of scaling the data divide.