Modules 3.3 & 3.4 Activities
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These activities support Modules 3.3 and 3.4. We recommend completing both modules before the exercise.
Overview: Through this exercise, we will consider the importance of metadata for supporting the understandability and reuse of open civic datasets. Through this activity, we will build an understanding of the importance of metadata for understanding datasets and the need for quality metadata in open data portals.
This activity can be done individually or in pairs. This exercise should be completed after Modules 3.3 and 3.4.
Supplies: A computer or Internet-connected device
Time: 20-30 minutes
Set-up: If doing this activity in a group, divide into pairs. Each pair should have an Internet-connected device. The following files are two data files shared on an open data portal. Note that these files are available both as an Excel spreadsheet and a csv file (an open file format).
Select one of these datasets to explore in this activity:
2. Review the data: Spend 10 minutes examining the data file and capturing your observations:
What can you infer from the dataset file alone?
What are you unable to infer without metadata and data documentation?
What do you think this dataset file is capturing?
3. Access the dataset on the data portal. When you are ready, refer to the key, which includes links to the data on the data portal. There, you will find metadata and data dictionaries.
4. Reflect
Return to your observations about your selected dataset. Individually or with your partner, consider the following:
Do the metadata and data disciplinary address what you were unable to infer from the dataset file alone?
Are there aspects of the dataset that remain unclear?
How can the metadata and data dictionary be improved or made more clear?
What did this exercise reveal to you about the role and importance of metadata for open civic data?
5. Debrief [if completing this activity in a group]
Reconvene as a group, sharing your perspectives on: What did this exercise reveal to you about the role and importance of metadata for open civic data?
Activity Files:
Overview: Data guides are, as Catherine D’Ignazio and Lauren Klein explain, “simple, written documents that each contain a narrative portrait of a dataset. They describe, among other things, the purpose and application of the data; the history, format, and standards; the organizational context; other analyses and stories that have used the dataset; and the limitations and ethical implications of the dataset” (p. 169).
The creation of data guides by civic data intermediaries is an emergent practice. In this exercise, we will explore an example of a data guide developed by one data intermediary, the Western Pennsylvania Regional Data Center.
This activity can be done individually, with group reflection time.
Supplies: A computer or Internet-connected device
Time: 20-30 minutes
The following are examples by the Western Pennsylvania Regional Data Center:
Guide to Crime, Courts, and Corrections in the City of Pittsburgh
Supports several datasets outlined on the guide
A Guide for Data Related to Cardiovascular Disease Risk in Allegheny County
Supports several datasets outlined on the guide
Evaluate the guide and capture your observations in a quick write response:
How is the data guide organized? What components are included?
How does it support and augment the metadata available in the portal, including the data dictionary and the readme file?
Put yourself in the position of a data user. Would this data guide empower you to make use of the data, by providing you with additional context?
Put yourself in the position of a librarian providing data literacy or data reference support. How might you use data guides in your own work?
3. Debrief
If in a group, share with one another your observations from the quick write activity.
Works Cited
D’Ignazio, Catherine and Lauren F. Klein. Data Feminism. The MIT Press, 2020.