MS Data Management Working Group: Final Report

You have it in front of you. It's not a PEER report; what is it?

• Mandated by HB 649
• Product of a multi-agency task force
• Charged with reporting on Mississippi data
  • quality
  • utility
  • accessibility

Data quality

• Highly variable controls at the agency level
• Implementing standard controls might improve the state's ability to ensure data quality

Data accessibility

• Most state data are not publicly accessible
• Closed data practices prevent easy data interoperability

Data utility

• Limited by
  • format diversity
  • outsourcing
  • documentation
  • expertise

Managing data as a strategic asset involves relating multiple datasets.

The report contains (pp. 120-121) open data principles designed to facilitate this relation, and advice on enterprise data management.

It also contains original recommendations:

• More study
• Develop a data strategy
• Cost-benefit analysis on any novel data strategy

Not everything that can be known from the data made it into the report.

In particular:

• Data quality issues affect interpretation and raise further questions
• Uneven distribution of all quantities affects both analysis and strategy
• Diversity of data handling methods suggests a number of specific courses of action.