Overview

<aside> ➡️ As part of the the Participatory and Inclusive Data Stewardship Project, this group brings together a community of practitioners, researchers, and advocates to share best practice, discuss challenges, and build projects around participatory and inclusive data stewardship. Run by the Liverpool City Region Civic Data Cooperative, the ESRC Digital Good Network, and the Ada Lovelace Institute. For more information contact: [email protected].

Last updated: October 10, 2024

• Table of Contents </aside>

📝 Meetings

A list view of all meetings held as part of the Community of Practice.

Meeting notes

👥 Hosts

📘 Links

Links to key documents and pages relevant to the Community of Practice.

https://www.adalovelaceinstitute.org/report/participatory-data-stewardship/

https://digitalgood.net/dg-research/participatory-and-inclusive-data-stewardship/

Participatory Data Stewardship Community of Practice TOR_Final.pdf

🧭 Mission and Objectives

Rationale

Participatory data stewardship, as well as public participation and engagement on data more broadly, is an interdisciplinary field cutting across academia, government, tech, and healthcare. People working in data stewardship and participation range from community activists to researchers to healthcare professionals to public engagement practitioners. Put simply, a lot of different people coming from a lot of different backgrounds are working on the problem of meaningful inclusion of publics in data systems in a lot of different ways. The different fields and roles listed above also communicate their work in a variety of disparate, often siloed venues. We want to bring these groups together. The Community of Practice (CoP) is intended to be an open, collaborative, and iterative forum creating shared benefit through regular meetings, active communication, and shared problem-solving.

Mission

To bring together a community of practitioners, researchers, and advocates to share best practice, discuss challenges, and build projects around participatory and inclusive data stewardship. We will ensure inclusive and participatory data practices are done as and not for community. We will centre equity, inclusion, and justice in everything we do as a community of practice by thinking critically about ourselves and about who is represented.

Objectives

1. To provide a forum for discussion, communication, and problem solving for organisations and individuals convening and researching participatory and inclusive data stewardship activities
2. To identify, gather, seek agreement, and advocate on best practice evidence on impactful participatory and inclusive data stewardship both within and outside of the community of practice
3. To report on progress and provide updates of projects and programmes that have participatory and inclusive data stewardship components
4. To identify linkages and opportunities for collaborative projects that include participatory and inclusive data stewardship activities

Ways of Working

<aside> 💡 10 Ways of Working

The group commits to following collective ways of working. Members will participate in meetings with these principles in mind.

• Commitment: Agree to a common purpose in promoting participatory data practices and be committed to taking part in events.
• Inclusivity: Prioritise openness and inclusivity to the public groups and data subjects/beneficiaries impacted by data systems and technologies.
• Equity: Put equity at the heart of our discussion and participatory practice.
• Power: Challenge power both externally in our participatory data practice and internally in our own positionality.
• Space: Make good spaces and comfortable environments we want to take part in.
• Dialogical: Create a dialogic space open to discussion from multiple perspectives, creating a safe space for critique.
• Good will: Be supportive of each other and listen first, come with good intentions and good will.
• Creativity: Centre creativity and imagination in our participatory methods and discussions.
• Share: Share our own data, progress, and stories to foster openness and collaboration.
• Create value: Name tensions and be honest if what we’re doing is adding value to the goal of inclusive and participatory data practices. </aside>

Joining the Community of Practice

The CoP is open to all practitioners, researchers, and community members actively involved in convening, organising, or studying participatory data stewardship. Founding organisational members of the CoP include the Ada Lovelace Institute, the ESRC Digital Good Network, and the Civic Data Cooperative. The CoP is based in the UK and will be most relevant to individuals residing or working in the UK data and AI context but international participants are encouraged. Members will be inducted through an initial 1:1 meeting with a CoP facilitator or founding member. Any member of the CoP can invite and recommend new members.

For further information please contact Dr Emily Rempel at [email protected], [email protected] or [email protected].