A Brief Typology of Time: Temporal Structuring and Dissonance in Service Provision for People Experiencing Homelessness

Asso for Info Science & Tech

Lee

et al. 2022

Governmental and organizational policy increasingly claims to be data-driven, data-informed, or knowledge-driven. We explore the data practices of local governments and nonprofits a seeking to end homelessness in the City of Austin. Drawing on 31 interviews with stakeholders, alongside the reflections and experiences of our interdisciplinary, cross-sector collaborative team, we consider the role of data in guiding and informing interventions and policy regarding homelessness. Ending homelessness is a particularly challenging scenario for intervention, with increasing politicization, changing circumstances, and needing rapid intervention to reduce harm. In exploring some implications of data science "in the wild" as it is deployed, understood, and supported within the Travis County Continuum of Care (CoC), we analyze how data-intensive work connects and engages across disciplinary boundaries. Furthermore, we consider how data science and the iField can collaborate in addressing complex, social problems as advisors and partners with invested organizations.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A feeling for the data: How government and nonprofit stakeholders negotiate value conflicts in data science approaches to ending homelessness

Asso for Info Science & Tech

Lee

et al. 2022

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“…Previously published work from this study has explored how values guided systemic approaches to ending homelessness within the Continuum of Care (Zimmerman et al, 2021). Another published set of themes revolved around the impact of time and temporality on the viability, utility, and efficacy of data (Slota et al, 2022). A third set of themes was oriented towards a close evaluation of a consequential instrument that served as both a point of contact for data collection and a means of prioritizing services based on prior research regarding risks to health and safety, which we had briefly discussed in terms of infrastructural justice (Slota et al, 2021).…”

Section: Data Collection and Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

From Communities of Practice to Smart and Connected Communities: Information Sharing Practices Among Social Service Providers

Nigam

Proceedings of the Association for Information Science and Tech

et al. 2022

Self Cite

To be a smart and connected community is an aspiration and orientation. A goal of smart and connected communities is to make more effective and consistent use of data, information, and technology, and in many ways to operate at a critical junction between community members and an imagined future structured around a particular vision of the role of government, the role of participation, and often-conflicting visions of what these might become. This paper reports findings from 32 semi-structured interviews with stakeholders in the City of Austin Continuum of Care (CoC), a collaborative group of organizations working to end homelessness in the Austin/Travis County region, as well as critical analysis of their collaborative and siloed data resources. The key themes that emerged in this case study include the continual process of 'becoming' a smart and connected community, focusing on the development and 'accretion' of data and informational infrastructure, and its impact on the communities of practice related to providing services to people experiencing homelessness. The information behaviors of the stakeholders of the CoC demonstrates ongoing movement towards more collaborative resolutions of issues of data quality and interoperability, alongside a negotiation of the role of data-intensive structuring of collaborations and work.

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Caring for People, Caring for Their Data: Data Stewardship and Collaborative Care in Social Service Provision for People Experiencing Homelessness

Lecture Notes in Computer Science

Greenberg

2023