Join GovLoop and our partner IBM to learn how to use analytics to boost efficiency and cut costs in our next GovLoop training on 9/8 at 2pm – RSVP
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I remember the first time I got excited about statistics. I was in an introductory to statistics class and was taught how to use SPSS to find basic information with Census data.
I became hooked and from that point on I’ve always been a stats nerd.
In my master’s degree in Sociology, I analyzed social security data on disabled children to find interesting trends on how disabilities affected parental employment and how that affect varied across income levels and demographic behaviors. As GovLoop began to grow, it was awesome to peer into the web statistics as I could track a host of statistics over time and watch changes day-to-day.
I don’t know what happened but it must have been around 3 years ago when stats began to go mainstream.
-The book Freakonomics told compelling stories of using data to dispel myths and find correlations and causation.
-The use of stats began to show up in TV shows like “The Wire” where cops would debate statistics in the renown CitiStat program.
-The President fell in love w/ behavioral economics and hired a bunch of top leaders in the field and use the statistics and lessons as part of creating effective programs
-The NY Times began to write about the explosion of jobs for data scientists and even launched their own data visualization studio
It’s cool to see the trend start reaching government as there is so much potential to use data to make government more efficient.
-Analytics can tell trends in large benefits data like Medicare or unemployment benefits or Recovery funds to find trends of unusual and potentially fraudelent behavior.
-It would be great to analyze demographic data of citizens mapped to current utilization patterns of city services to model new ways to deliver services and in different formats.
Basically it’s a lot easier to accumulate data and make sense of it. So instead of making decisions based on hypothesis and gut, we can use analytical decision making process.
We are going to begin this discussion on statistics and analytics on 9/8 with a fun free 1-hour training with our partner IBM on how to use analytics to boost efficiency and cut costs.
Have any cool stories of how you use data analytics in your agency? Share below. Got questions you want us to address – let me know.