It’s great to be starting to get questions about data, so we thought we’d try to answer them.
First up, ‘where is the data?’
That’s a question we get asked often at the Bega Valley Data Collective, while we are building our community owned Data Space. For now, we have created a data resources page on our website begavalleydata.com.au. We have compiled an extensive list of links and downloads to some of the vast amount of data and information that’s currently available.
In the meantime, we have provided links and downloads to data freely available from external sources. The links and downloads can be sorted and searched and have been categorised under our seven data pillars – People and Place, Health and Wellbeing, Education and Employment, Industry and Commerce, Environment and Climate, Our Circular Economy, Our Future. When the information falls across multiple categories it is categorised as general.
Some examples of the data sources listed on the resources page:
- Environment and Climate Change – Bega Valley 2020/21 municipal emissions snapshot
- Health and Wellbeing – Population health profile Southeast NSW – November 2022
- Industry and Commerce – Australian Small Business Index
There are currently over forty entries that link to online data sources some of which have been filtered to the Bega Valley and the resources page will be updated regularly. We believe this is a valuable resource for anyone who is looking for relevant up to data and information across a wide variety of data assets to support local business or organisational projects or initiatives.
When our own Data Space is developed, it will provide much more refined data that measures what matters for our community, but for that, we need to source some additional funding! It will include a comprehensive library of interactive data insights, resources of a data analyst, along with access to an advanced data technology platform. The Data Space will help build our capacity to tell compelling stories backed by refined evidence-based data.
We welcome comments and suggestions on sources of open data that we can add to the resource page. You can also support us by registering your interest and following our progress in building Australia’s first community owned and run Data Space.