Play 19 - Facilitate conversations on defining data governance for your project
Relational play for data stewards: Facilitate conversations on defining data governance frameworks or models for your project.
A facilitated conversation with pertinent members of a data-generating community can elevate the specific priorities that matter most. Getting a sense of each participant’s understanding of data governance, as well as priorities for data use, can align your organization and support choices about technical infrastructure or governing structures within a framework or an existing governance model.
For example, an organization may prioritize public participation and wider community use of collected data in their governance framework. This would lead them to explore data governance models that value #findability and #usability, like a data commons or data collaborative. Another organization may value data protection and participant data co-ownership, which may be more suited for a data trust. Another organization might have particular processes in place for data sharing and #documentation within a framework, but it doesn’t align with other more established models.
Below are some prompts to help parse out which elements are priorities for your framework or model:
- What are your current workflows or processes related to data #collection?
- Which of your datasets or #dataproducts are open? Which are conditionally shared or closed to the public?
- What are your goals in sharing or using your collected data?
- What agreements do you have in place for co-ownership of data?
- How are decisions about data currently being made?
🌱 Each play stems from a takeaway from an case study, workshop, or other learning source.
Takeaway: Because data governance can be understood and employed in many different ways, it is essential to define what data governance looks like within your project team.
Data governance encompasses the decision making rules, processes, workflows, and tools that determine who owns, manages, shares, and uses the data and how, as well as where the data is stored and shared. Different aspects of data governance may be prioritized differently depending on data stewards’ varying needs. For example, metadata and findability may be paramount to one organization, whereas protection of sensitive data may be the highest priority for another.
Source: Community Data Playbook (Full report)