Check out the latest GovEx Spotlight on the Baltimore Data Academy. Listen to our full podcast episode with Baltimore City Chief Data Officer Justin Elszasz here.
Blog
GovEx researcher collaborates on study that finds student mask mandates linked to politics, location, demographics
A team of Johns Hopkins University-affiliated education, public health, and data experts found that school mask mandates during the 2021-22 school year were most significantly related to political, demographic, and geographic characteristics, not the number of...
GovEx Chief of Staff Rudy de Leon Dinglas appointed to Maryland Transportation Commission, successfully defends doctoral dissertation
Bloomberg Center for Government Excellence (GovEx) Chief of Staff Rudy de Leon Dinglas was appointed to the Maryland Transportation Commission and successfully defended his doctoral dissertation — all in the same week! Dinglas has been with GovEx since 2019, when he...
New approaches to data collection, use could drive reductions in gun violence
When the Bloomberg Center for Government Excellence (GovEx) recently hosted colleagues from the Bloomberg School of Public Health’s Center for Gun Violence Solutions (CGVS), a crucial fact emerged from the discussion: to effectively curb alarming rates of gun...
Leaders of program training African mayors joins GovEx to share progress, best practices
Representatives from the African Mayoral Leadership Initiative (AMALI) Data Programme joined members of the Bloomberg Center for Government Excellence (GovEx) team on Wednesday morning to discuss their efforts to help leaders of African cities leverage a range of data...
From COVID-19 to Climate Disasters: Why Food Resilience Matters More Than Ever
Communities across the nation are finding creative ways to build more resilient food system, able to withstand disruptions and disasters and respond to community health needs. These communities are addressing issues like high rates of food insecurity, pollution,...
Data Workforce: We Want to Hear From You!
GovEx is conducting a series of virtual focus groups to gather input on the future of data work in local government, and we want to hear from you! Whether you are a leader, HR professional, or a dedicated data officer, we want to know about your experiences working...
Detroit officials discuss innovative street view program at GovEx
Last week, GovEx and our sister center, the Bloomberg Center for Government Innovation (BCPI), together with 21st Century Cities hosted a presentation from Detroit officials Tamara Fant and Ted Schultz, who discussed their innovative Street View program. In 2018, the...
Data storytelling – Maximizing one pager reports to tell your story
A crucial part of every successful performance management program, — really, of any program — is communicating outcomes. To engage local constituents, the ability to capture their attention and tell them a compelling story is vital.
Banish the thumb drive: a call for better internal data sharing
Some people’s pet peeve is loud chewing; others hate the Oxford comma. Here’s mine: thumb drives. First of all, can we choose one name for these things? They’re also referred to as “flash drives,” “jump drives,” and “USB drives,” plus a few other names. Let’s choose...
A Message from Our Executive Director, Beth Blauer
We stand with those fighting against racism and police murdering black people and unequivocally believe that Black Lives Matter.
4 Tips to a Clear and Friendly Dashboard
A city dashboard’s primary goal is to give citizens a clear, user-friendly tool to see how well their city is doing. When designing your dashboard, always keep in mind how easy it would be for the average citizen to use. If you include too many factors into your...
So you want to start a data academy…
Data can be powerful. But to really harness your data, you need people skilled in analysis, data management, and data-informed decision-making. Many cities are taking that lesson to heart and launching their own data academies to help employees learn to use data better.
Being ‘Sensitive’ about Data Sensitivity
Open data is great because it’s open. But not all data is meant to be open. A lot of it is “sensitive.” What could be “open data” is often classified as “sensitive data” to protect the personal information and identity of individuals. Sensitive data may be restricted...
Performance Measures – How Less Becomes More
One day last fall, I was talking with a colleague about a question that had come up from our partners in Baltimore’s performance management program, CitiStatSMART. Those folks were looking to identify key performance indicators (KPI) to use with certain city...