Followup from the Stats' User Forum

I mentioned that I hoped to get hold of an excellent infographic that James Mansell from the Ministry of Social Development had presented at the Statistics NZ User Forum last week, and he's kindly sent it through: here it is. The chart says it anyway, but just to be clear, 'Marc Smith' is not a real name.

James' point was not so much that frontline staff don't or can't see some of these connections: they often will. But there's still real value for people at all levels of social policy and delivery from being able to see the full picture. And they'll only see it by combining different databases in smart ways.

The infographic has also been included in the first discussion paper put out by the NZ Data Futures Forum - have a look. They're asking for responses to the high level ideas they've put out: "What do you think about New Zealand’s possible data futures? What kind of benefits and opportunities should we be aiming for? What risks and challenges need to be managed?". Your ideas will need to be with them by the end of May.