Data matters to public servants for three reasons: 1 - To understand the world (behavioural)
2- To make decisions using the data (instrumental)
3 -To inform the political process (political)
These are all political, contested and problematic.
There are some really key challenges to using data well:
a - The data is voluminous and bad quality
b - The data isn't easy to access
c - The data is not being collected at all, or is problematically selective
d - People try to use data for unreasonable purposes
e - Interpreting data sensitively & with political nouse is a skill
f - Governments don't understand what external users want/need from data
g - Vendor lock-in leaves you a hostage
h - You can really hurt people if you're careless
i - You need the rights skills (or you can't really do anything)
So key innovations & practices you need to understand are: