Selected Resources

On this page, we've selected and described some resources that we think are relevant to the "Understanding Your Ecosystem" section.

Donker, Frederika Well and Bastiaan van Loenen. "How to Assess the Success of the Open Data Ecosystem?" International Journal of Digital Earth 10, no. 3 (2017): 284-306. https://doi.org/10.1080/17538947.2016.1224938

Donker and van Loenen review existing frameworks for assessing the health and efficacy of open data initiatives and identify a need to capture greater data user feedback through assessment. They offer a "holistic open data assessment framework" that examines data supply ("the way in which data are provided as open data"), data governance ("the way in which government aspects are organised") and user characteristics ("the way in which the user characteristics enable the user to innovate with open data") (p. 288).

Malinsky, Eli and Chad Lubelsky. "Network Evaluation: Cultivating Healthy Networks for Social Change." Toronto: Centre for Social Innovation. http://socialinnovation.ca/sites/socialinnovation.ca/files/NetworkEvaluation_Pocket_english.pdf

Malinsky and Lubelsky define networks as "systems of relatively autonomous actors that are working in concern to achieve shared goals or pursuing individual goals within a shared system" (p. 8). Their text offers strategies for evaluating the performance and success of networks.

The Open Data Barometer. https://opendatabarometer.org

A project of the World Wide Web Foundation, the Open Data Barometer assesses the "prevalence and impact of open data initiatives around the world," ranking national governments on the implementation and effects of their programs.

Open Data Institute (UK). "Mapping Data Ecosystems." March 23, 2018. https://theodi.org/article/mapping-data-ecosystems/

This resource offers guidance on mapping an ecosystem in a workshop setting or by oneself or with a small number of colleagues. It identifies common players in a data ecosystems, provides prompts for creating a map, and highlights examples of data ecosystem maps.

Arena, Olivia and Crystal Li. Guide to Civic Tech & Data Ecosystem Mapping. June 2018. https://www.urban.org/sites/default/files/publication/98649/guide_to_civic_tech_and_data_ecosystem_mapping.pdf

This guide is the product of an initiative by the Civic Tech and Data Collaborative (CTDC) in which seven local communities used ecosystem mapping to identify their local existing data networks and roles. The resource "provides guidance and examples from these cities on the value of mapping, key questions when getting started, different methods to collect the data, and how to use and analyze ecosystem maps to strengthen community relationships."