Toward a 21st Century National Data Infrastructure: Mobilizing Information for the Common Good (2023) / Chapter Skim
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Pages 89-108
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From page 89... ...
In this section, a set of criteria is proffered that the panel considers potentially useful for choosing which data to include in a new data infrastructure. Fitness-for-Use to Produce Key Information for the Country The priority might be data assets measuring social and economic attributes of widespread research and policymaking relevance.
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From page 90... ...
established a Working Group on Transparent Quality Reporting in the Integration of Multiple Data Sources, to identify best practices associated with data-quality measurement and reporting for blended data products. This work was motivated by the in creasing use of alternative and blended data by statistical agencies and by the Committee on National Statistics' Panel on Improving Federal Statistics for Policy and Social Science Research Using Multiple Data Sources and State-of-the Art Estimation, described in Chapter 2.
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From page 91... ...
. A statistical purpose requiring the linking of statistical-agency data assets with data holders' microdata will be more consequential than a statistical purpose that can be satisfied with aggregated data, such as the production of monthly retail sales.
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From page 92... ...
Reliability, a related concept, characterizes the consistency of results when the same phenomenon is measured or estimated more than once under similar conditions. Coherence Coherence is the ability of the data products to maintain common definitions, classifications, and methodological processes, to align with external statistical standards, and to maintain consistency and comparability with other relevant data.
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From page 93... ...
A new data infrastructure should actively engage data holders to develop a range of possible approaches that could help ensure responsible data exchange. Prioritize Easily Acquired Data That Provide Tangible Benefits While the most important criteria for inclusion of data in a new data infrastructure involve utility to the country's informational needs, some data access may require unusually complicated logistical challenges.
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For potentially valuable data assets lacking usable metadata, the metadata need to be developed and available to possible data users. A data infrastructure entity may collaborate with the data holder to develop the necessary documentation.
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• Access and use respect data holders' and data subjects' interests and privacy. • Uses should prioritize easily acquired data assets that provide tangible benefits.
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. The report discusses 28 An important consideration for a new data infrastructure is the attitudes of data subjects regarding linkage of their data, as presented in Fobia et al.
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; and • Encourage federal agencies to develop partnerships with academia and encourage external research organizations to develop methods needed for design and analysis using multiple data sources. BLENDED DATA REQUIRE NEW STATISTICAL DESIGNS As a new data infrastructure evolves, in the panel's view no single data-sourcing strategy will be optimal for all informational needs.
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From page 98... ...
Box 4-4 lists work by the United Nations' Economic Commission on Europe's High-Level Data Group for Modernization of Statistical Production and Services related to a Common Statistical Data Architecture (CSDA) , an initiative aimed at consistently describing the data aspects of statistical production.29 The group identified high-level capabilities required by a new data infrastructure to realize the promise of blending multiple data sources.
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From page 99... ...
For example, full engagement of the academic sector can provide critical capacities like analytical expertise, upskilling existing organizational skills, and educating the future workforce, so that agencies can operate nimbly and dynamically in a new data infrastructure. BLENDED DATA POSE NEW PRIVACY AND ETHICAL CHALLENGES A 21st century national data infrastructure cannot succeed without ensuring ethical exchange of data; trust in institutions involved in data
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Most importantly, the limitations of privacy laws infuriate data subjects, data holders, and data users for wholly distinct reasons. Advances in computing have increased privacy-related risks while also enabling the development of privacy-enhancing technologies.
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From page 101... ...
. However, prior attempts to centralize federal data assets have repeatedly been thwarted by pushback under the label of "privacy." The Privacy Act of 1974, for example, was created in direct response to a 1965 effort to create a National Data Center.31 In response to this history, the Evidence Act put privacy front and center.
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From page 102... ...
In the panel's opinion, CEP's recommendations are consistent with the necessary attributes of a new data infrastructure but are insufficient to form the foundation of this infrastructure. CEP recommended broader access to federal administrative data for statistical purposes and sharing of statistical data resources among the federal statistical agencies, and also recommended that the National Secure Data Service (NSDS)
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From page 103... ...
CEP and ACDEB have focused on using federal, state, and local data for evidence building, proposing the establishment of NSDS to bring these data assets together. In the panel's opinion, a comprehensive vision of a new data infrastructure is incomplete without addressing how the blending of private sector data with other data assets might improve the country's understanding of its current situation and prospects.
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From page 104... ...
But a new data infrastructure also requires a sustainable organizational model for access ing relevant private sector data for common-good statistics, which raises additional challenges. There are several alternative organizational options for a facility within a new data infrastructure that will produce blended statistics using federal, state, tribal, territory, local, private sector, nonprofit, and academic institu tion held data as well as crowdsourced data assets.
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From page 105... ...
Option 1: NSDS Coordinates Access to All Data Sources In this vision, NSDS (a combined, comprehensive new entity within the data infrastructure, established with the guidance of ACDEB, with rule making mandated by the Evidence Act) would have authority over data access from all sectors.
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From page 106... ...
Other locations are possible if the FFRDC has a federal sponsor and is delegated the authority to provide all NSDS-like services to federal, state, tribal, territory, and local government data holders, as well as to private sector and other data h olders. In the panel's view, if this approach is pursued, the FFRDC should have all the rights and responsibilities of a federal statistical agency, coverage under CIPSEA, and access to all data holdings.
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From page 107... ...
. SUMMARY This chapter discussed the data assets of a 21st century national data infrastructure, including how those assets are sourced and evaluated.
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How? • Statistical agencies now have the authority to retain data assets used for sta tistical purposes -- will establishment of the entity change statistical agencies' ability to retain newly acquired data?
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