English

Data for the common good – FROM civil society, FOR civil society. This is the idea and vision of the joint consortium of Gesellschaft für Informatik, CorrelAid and Deutscher Caritasverband. Since July 2023 they have been working on establishing the Civic Data Lab (CDL). On behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth (BMFSFJ) its aim is to support civil society actors in better achieving public welfare-oriented goals through data collection, analysis and transfer.

Whom we support

CDL supports organised and unorganised actors in civil society to work effectively with data and to collect, analyse, link, use and share data of their own and external sources. Through practical case studies

CDL breaks down barriers to data-driven social innovation and helps civil society work more collaboratively particularly with regard to data.

How we support

CDL provides competent advice on legal, technical, and data-related issues. It connects actors in civil society, academia, stakeholders, and communities with each other. It facilitates knowledge, transfers, and supports the implementation of their own data projects. Furthermore, CDL focuses on consolidating and developing educational programs in the field of Civic Data for civil society and on implementing welfare oriented and data based initiatives.

What we do specifically 

  • Civic Data Community: CDL connects, supports, and activates those working on data in civil society. It creates a community of practice to gather and exchange knowledge and experience and develop new ideas together in the lab. It also identifies civil society training needs and feeds them to the Academy.
  • Civic Data Academy: Data literacy is a basic requirement for the competent handling of data deriving from one’s own field of engagement being used for the common good.  Civic Data Lab supports these data skills by making existing learning and training opportunities on data easily accessible to civil society and categorising them according to community criteria. Where offerings and formats are lacking CDL will develop them according to individual needs. CDL will make them available free of charge – for all levels, online and face-to-face, synchronous, and asynchronous.
  • Civic Data – support and consulting: CDL will create new public welfare oriented and data based proposals and implement them together with the respective civil society actors. Only through concrete implementations challenges and practical issues can be overcome. Therefore, Civic Data Lab will focus in particular on issues related to interoperability of data applications and standardisation within civil society. The results and lessons learned will then be transparently presented to the community and civil society at large and made available for further use.

If you need any help, have a question or want to become part of the community contact us or join the community on HumHub.

For consultations on your data issues please come to our Data Hour, available in English. No matter whether your question is realted to conceptual, technical, organisational, ethical, legal or any other topic in the field of using data for the common good in civil society – we’re looking forward to discussing it with you!

CDL KV