A need for Data Stewardship
Our data-driven world is demanding responsible frameworks to govern the AI-enabled digital transformation. Recent years have shown the benefits of accessing large amounts of data. However, the data ecosystem remains hampered by inequalities and asymmetries, many of which exacerbate existing socioeconomic divisions.
In response, there is a growing demand for data responsibility, including the responsibility to use data to further the common good. Therefore, there is a need to re-define the roles and responsibilities beyond technical data management and towards collaborations for data re-use. Data stewardship encompasses a broader set of functions and responsibilities directed at leveraging data assets toward addressing societal challenges and improving people’s lives.
Re-defining data stewardship
We re-define data stewardship as the systematic, sustainable, and responsible re-use of data for public benefit. Data Stewards are leaders or teams empowered to create public value by re-using their organization’s data; identifying opportunities for cross-sector collaboration for sharing and re-using data; responding proactively to external requests for access to data, insights, or expertise; and implementing responsible data practices that ensure ethical and legal compliance in data management. Data stewards are active in both the public and private sectors, promoting, and building trust within and outside their organizations.
Currently, the role of a “data steward” is still largely limited to data governance and management. The role is mainly associated to technical tasks and usually focused on internal data flows. For instance, Data Protection Officers police unauthorized access to data, and Chief Data Officers usually focus on the internal use of data, making it meet set standards.
The Data Tank (TDT) is working on changing that narrative towards one that acknowledges data as an asset for social impact. To achieve that transformation, there is an existing need to train the future data stewards and build skills that challenge the status quo.
Therefore, continuing on the work pioneered by the Governance Lab (Open Data Policy Lab) on training data stewards as part of the Data Stewards Academy, the Data Tank is implementing Data Stewards Bootcamps. These bootcamps are an immersive learning programme combined with external data domain field visits & expert talks. They are one of the core activities of the Data Tank’s Data Stewardship programme. The bootcamps train the current & future data stewards with the knowledge and skills that are needed to implement and develop responsible data re-use practices. Such practices ensure ethical and legal compliance, all while identifying and fostering data collaboration opportunities that increase the impact of data.
During these bootcamps, participants go over the Data Stewards Canvas to build a roadmap for a data re-use strategy for organisations. This strategy helps organisations and individuals think strategically about data and how to harness it to generate a higher public value. Even though the core of the content remains the same, each bootcamp is unique as it covers a specific thematic area i.e. Data Re-use in Cities, Open Data, Migration, SDG’s, or AI & Data Stewardship. The content is then adapted based on the thematic area covered as well as the context of the organisation and where it works, providing relevant & updated material to align with the ever-growing field of data & AI.
Data Stewards Intensive Course in Berlin
On June 10-14, the Data Tank facilitated a data stewardship bootcamp with 14 participants from the social and civil society sector in Germany and beyond. Central to it was a peer-to-peer knowledge sharing and work approach. It was organised in collaboration with the Governance Lab and supported by The Bertelsmann Foundation. The main sessions were covered by the course lead, Stefaan Verhulst, TDT’s Co-founder & Principal Scientific Advisor. The course material was then diversified by a pool of excellent data domain experts such as: Prof. Ingmar Weber (Saarland University), Martin Waehlisch 🌐🕊️ (UN), Maximilian Von Grafenstein (Law & Innovation), Catherine Vogel (GIZ Data Lab), Alex Hutchison (Data for Children Collaborative), Ramy H'cini & Wassim Kallel (Think-it), Gunda Ehmke & Hans-Christian Mangelsdorf (Federal Foreign Office in Germany & Data Innovation Lab), Christina Willems & Dénes Jäger (Open Knowledge Foundation Germany). During the bootcamp, together with Possible Germany, we also organised a quick fire-side chat on data innovation in the public sector in Germany with Khrystyna Shlyakhtovska , Sabine Gerdon (AWS Germany) and Mathias Keller (Possible Germany). Alongside these discussions, the participants also paid a field visit to the Global Migration Data Analysis Center (IOM) and Wikimedia Germany. The visits were accompanied by keynotes and opportunities for the participants to ask questions and create meaningful connections. The overarching thematic focus for this pilot edition was open data, and all conversations revolved around a meaningful re-use of open data and (locked) data towards a more responsive, faster, and responsible social & civil society sector in Germany (and beyond).
Beyond learning: incubating ideas
A diverse cohort of 14 data enthusiasts provided useful insights and steered the conversation towards the future of data stewardship in the social and civil society sectors. The cohort also worked on developing a data re-use strategy which will then be incorporated into their organisations. This assignment is another element contributing to extend the takeaways of the course beyond the Bootcamp and within the organisations. Via this component the implementing partners ensure that the real work starts at the end of the workshop. All participants presented their re-use strategies in a ‘pitching’ format. After, they provided their re-use assignments where they received individual feedback and support. The key topics covered by these assignments can be grouped in these thematic clusters: restoring political integrity, increasing trust and strengthening governance; improving access to health services and increasing mental health support; and improving humanitarian response. While different, these clusters all had in common the need to identify the challenges that data would help answer in each. Data use and re-use was further applied to i) shape solutions responding to the unique challenges, and ii) measure impact for sustainable and scalable interventions.
Some of the guiding questions used during the pitches were:
How to enable civil society to efficiently monitor politics?
What is the quality of data of statistical offices?
How to centralise information about the relationship between political actors & lobbyists?
How to develop impact evaluation frameworks/practices to measure the digital policy in Germany?
How to govern the interactions across systems and datasets to ensure proper reporting of critical use cases?
How to effectively build preventive responses to humanitarian crises instead of focusing on reactive responses only?
Another critical component of the ideas that were incubated by this cohort is the partnership potential among the participants. The aforementioned clusters also paved the way for exchanges between participants, peer-to-peer knowledge sharing and support, and collaborative brainstorming. Working with a group of enthusiastic and ambitious leaders eager for change, created the necessary baseline for trust. This then enabled participants to share all their challenges, fears, and future expectations. This laid the foundation for scaling potential partnerships after this course. What Next? After the completion of the course, the participants join an existing 100+ data stewards alumni network - an active network of data stewards - run by The Governance Lab across different industries with a shared mission of re-using data for the common good. If you are interested in co-designing a programme like this one and would like to adapt it to your contextual needs, we are open and happy to support. Our engagement varies from us developing the full programme for you, or us co-designing the programme with you. Reach out!
