Data dashboards as infrastructures for data literacy

Peer, Firaz Ahmed

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/103345 Copy

Description

Title

Data dashboards as infrastructures for data literacy

Author(s)

Peer, Firaz Ahmed

Issue Date

2019-03-15

Keyword(s)

• Data infrastructures
• Data literacy
• Digital civics
• Data dashboards
• Civic data

Abstract

Community indicator data dashboards are a class of free, publicly accessible websites, usually built by city administrations or non-profits to help a community monitor or keep track of issues that are of common concern. Such dashboards typically contain data about a community's demographics, education, health, public safety, workforce, transportation etc. and are designed to be as intuitive and straightforward as possible, so their insights are accessible to novice as well as expert users. For certain communities though, this vision of data availability, access and analysis is hindered by numerous barriers which have led to widening the gap between the data have's and the have nots. A lack of data literacy is one such barrier that prevents certain underserved communities from participating in this data revolution. My research is concerned with taking an infrastructural approach to operationalizing a data literacy program for leaders within such communities, in a way that will reveal the various socio-technical factors that are critical to the creation, conceptualization and use of data dash-boards. Knowledge of these socio-technical factors will, I hope, lead to more critically informed use of the dashboard's data for advocacy and other civic purposes.

Publisher

iSchools

Series/Report Name or Number

iConference 2019 Proceedings

Type of Resource

text

Language

eng

Permalink

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/103345

DOI

https://doi.org/10.21900/iconf.2019.103345

Copyright and License Information

Copyright 2019 Firaz Ahmed Peer

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