As part of its Data Assembly initiative, The GovLab at the NYU Tandon School of Engineering has published a new report on the responsible re-use of data. Informed by a series of dialogues with diverse stakeholders in New York City—representing the government, private sector, civic rights and advocacy organizations, and the general public—the report outlines a series of recommendations for how policymakers can balance the costs and benefits of re-using data for crises like COVID-19. It also provides a framework detailing how organizations can realize these findings in their own data work.
“There is not enough public conversation about data use and reuse,” said Dr. Mariko Silver, President and CEO of the Luce Foundation, about the value of the report and deliberations. “The kind of trust building that’s required to make data really useful requires us to be engaged in conversations with communities and across communities.”
The Governance Lab (The GovLab) at the NYU Tandon School of Engineering, with support from the Henry Luce Foundation, today released guidance to inform decision-making in the responsible re-use of data — re-purposing data for a use other than that for which it was originally intended — to address COVID-19. The findings, recommendations, and a new Responsible Data Re-Use framework stem from The Data Assembly initiative in New York City. An effort to solicit diverse, actionable public input on data re-use for crisis response in the United States, the Data Assembly brought together New York City-based stakeholders from government, the private sector, civic rights and advocacy organizations, and the general public to deliberate on innovative, though potentially risky, uses of data to inform crisis response in New York City. The findings and guidance from the initiative will inform policymaking and practice regarding data re-use in New York City, as well as free data literacy training offerings.
