Tom French

Sheffield Data for Good

Tom has over a decade of experience working with and for charities, voluntary groups and social enterprises, both as an ‘on-the-ground’ worker but also as a researcher, data analyst and evaluator. Based in Sheffield, Tom now works for himself supporting not for profit and public sector organisations to take simple, practical steps towards using data, research and evaluation better so that they can tell their story clearly with evidence of impact. He also founded and coordinates Sheffield Data for Good, a group of volunteers working together to understand some of the city's challenges.

15:20 - 16:15

Wednesday 12 May

Collecting better data about a place so that it feels more relevant to people that live there

Data collection about place is led by administrative organisations. But that often means it's collected for a named geography that people don't necessarily identify with. The data collected may not truly represent that area, and so create data-informed decisions that don’t feel relevant to people. This session will start a (structured) conversation to see if people have experiences or ideas for how data about places can be made more relevant to local people. For example, you might begin thinking about co-producing non-administrative, geographical boundaries that are meaningful for the people that live there, and considering what data sets could be best used for that place.

10:35 - 11:30

Monday 10 May

Setting up a place-based data group: lessons learned and how you can try your own

How do I set up a local data for good use group? This session begins with three short presentations from local data for good groups across the UK (West Midlands Open Data Forum, Sheffield Data for Good, and current plans for the North East) to show how they went about setting up, the challenges they faced, and what has gone well. There will then be a structured, practical workshop for attendees to plan how they might set up something in their own area, who they might want to approach, and what they're going to do next to make it happen.