The goal of Democratized Data is to make public information accessible and comprehensible by all members of the community, so that they can understand community problems, the resources available to address them, plan effective strategies, and evaluate progress toward their goals. At its first meeting in May 1999, the Data Democratization committee agreed that Data Democracy means:

Without violating community members' right to confidentiality

Publicly held data are accessible on the Internet to all community members who have access to computers.

Public information is released in a way that helps people understand community issues and evaluate progress toward community goals.

Without violating government's obligation to the public interest

Community members have the ability to create and display their own information about their community
To meet these goals, the Data Democratization Committee has developed the website CACVoices.org.  This website includes a comprehensive community information and referral service known as In Touch; data on maternal and child health, causes of death, community surveys; customizable maps of such things as crimes, birth and death data, parcels, and community features like parks; and interactive features like forums and community calendars.

Data Democratization recognizes that for community members to be able to use information to improve their neighborhoods, they must have increased access to technology and increased confidence in their use of data.  That means changing how neighborhood organizations and their members get and use technology and information.  Therefore, Data Democratization is offering special web hosting to community organizations on CACVoices.org.  We want to enable community groups to communicate with and learn from the public and the populations they serve.  CACVoices uses a special technology called I2ools which allows people to create web pages with no special training and no special equipment of any kind.  You don't have to know HTML or Java, don't have to have an Internet Service Provider. Websites hosted on CACVoices include calendars, charts and community forums that enable people to share ideas and coordinate activities. To learn more about getting a website on CACVoices visit the Developers page.  To increase access to technology, the Data Democratization Committee has made dozens of computers available to community groups that provide Internet access to residents, and has trained hundreds of residents on how to get community information from the web.
 
 
The Story of Data Democratization
Democratized Data has been successful in creating powerful data tools for our community because the leaders of partner organizations were willing to risk their resources in truly collaborative ventures.

In 1998, the Ingham County Health Department, in cooperation with other community groups, won a Kellogg Community Voices grant, which included funding for on-line community data. The Health Department envisioned a web site consisting mostly of interactive mapping and health statistics.  At the same time, the City of Lansing, led by the Lansing Police Department, won a Technology Information and Infrastructure Assistance Program grant from the Department of Commerce to fund crime mapping, communication tools and a web-based guide to community services to be called In Touch.

As part of its agreement with the Kellogg Foundation, the Health Department created a Democratized Data Committee, made up of people from a variety of community organizations, to guide the development of its project.  The DD Committee met for the first time in May 1999 under the leadership of John Melcher, Associate Director of the Center for Urban Affairs. After studying the problem, the DD Committee called upon the County and City to join their projects. This would conserve resources and result in a wider array of services. As a result, in the Fall of 1999, the Ingham County Commissioners and Lansing City Council signed resolutions to cooperate. The County would be responsible for hosting the web-based services created under Democratized Data, and the City would pay the start-up costs of developing mapping and a community information and referral system.

The DD Committee also asked the partners to develop a complete community information and referral system that would include a standardized classification system and sophisticated search capabilities.  The Capital Area United Way offered to assume responsibility for staffing the I&R system, and the Eaton County Health Department and Clinton County collected and pooled human services data, so that a regional I&R system could be developed.

As the website started to come together, the DD Committee wondered how to make its services available to the broadest possible cross-section of the community. We decided to experiment with a model in which CACVoices serves as an "information hub" for the Community.  Local not for profit and public organizations can have their own websites on CACVoices.  Thus the website becames an important place for learning about the community, and community members working on their websites are exposed to the resources there.

The Committee learned about the Closing the Gap program, which trains low-income people in computer repair and use.  It also learned about the Health Navigators, volunteers who link community members with health and human services.  And it discovered that the Capital Area District Libraries are developing new resources to help people who don't have computers use the Internet.  The DD Committee embarked upon an effort to reach community members by: 1) Teaching Closing the Gap students about its web-based resources, 2) Funding a "Resource Navigator" training program so that Health navigators and other human services personnel can help their clients use DD tools, and 3) using the Capital Area District Libraries computer facilities for training.