News & Updates
“The New Data Culture for Hawaiʻi” Discussed at the 2022 Hawaiʻi Book and Music Festival
Nick Redding, Executive Director of the Hawai‘i Data Collaborative, joined the Innovation Panel at the 2022 Annual Hawai‘i Book and Music Festival to discuss “The New Data Culture for Hawaiʻi,” highlighting the need for quality, timely data, our over-reliance on lagging national data sources, and how the Ko‘olau Housing Hui demonstrates investing in data capacities serves all stakeholders working to address housing security on the Windward side.
Hawai‘i Data Collaborative at the 16th Hawai‘i Book & Music Festival
Nick Redding, Executive Director of the Hawai‘i Data Collaborative (HDC), was invited to join two panels at the 16th Annual Hawai‘i Book and Music Festival.
The first panel took place on October 5th, and included experts in healthcare, public health, and data to discuss Lessons for Future Pandemics. The second panel took place on October 28th, and included data experts to discuss Big Data Visualization.
Why We Are Working to Track Hawaii's COVID-19 Federal Funds Spending
Recently, our work to track the State’s progress in spending down federal funds awarded to the State in response to COVID-19 have been highlighted by the House Select Committee on COVID-19 Economic and Financial Preparedness and recent news accounts. The Hawaii Data Collaborative strives to promote a culture of data-informed decision making in Hawaii, by making data that is relevant to our most pressing challenges accessible, relevant, and meaningful.
Given the urgency of need as we continue to navigate post-COVID stresses on our families and communities, and the looming end-of-year timeline for spending down $1.25B in Coronavirus Relief Funds (CRF), we felt the need to work quickly to make sure information about our spending is available on a timely and insightful platform. Equally important are the partnerships that make this possible.
Where Does Hawaii Stand in Terms of Publicly Available COVID-19 Data?
Earlier this week, a New York-based nonprofit, Resolve to Save Lives (RSL), headed by the former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), released a report outlining “15 essential indictors” that should be reflected in every State COVID-19 dashboard, including in what format the data should be reported and how the data should be stratified by age, sex, ethnicity and geography. Based on this framework, RSL inventoried each State in terms of the data that is currently publicly available. The results for Hawaii are not flattering. Out a possible 100%, Hawaii currently scores at 13%, making available (to RSL’s satisfaction) four out of the 15 recommended indicators: