All city councils work with data, although they don't always call it that. The population register, records, taxes, licenses, subsidies, contracts, activities, facilities, incidents on public roads or social services are examples of municipal data.
This data allows us to process, inform, plan, justify, resolve and provide services. But for it to be useful, it must be reliable, up-to-date, findable when needed, well protected and reusable with guarantees.
This is, in essence, governing data: decide how they should be organized, cared for, used, shared and protected so that they help provide better public services. It's not about creating more bureaucracy. It's about working better with the information that the city council already has.
“Governing data means placing order, criteria and responsibility on municipal information”
Beyond an IT issue
When talking about data governance, it is easy to think that it is an exclusively technological issue, but this is not the case. Computer systems are important, but data is not only the responsibility of the ICT area or the provider of the municipal management program. Data is created and used in services: secretariat, intervention, urban planning, census, social services, local police, human resources, environment, economic promotion, culture or citizen care.
Therefore, governing data means answering questions that are very practical:
- Who knows this data best?
- Who should update it?
- What system is it stored in?
- What criteria should be used to enter?
- What if it is incorrect?
- Who can consult it?
- Can it be shared with another administration?
- How long should it be kept?
- Is it necessary or can it be shared? transparència and open data?
- Can it be used to make an indicator or a dashboard?
These questions are simple, but they often don't have a clear answer. And when there is no clear answer, problems arise: duplicate data, contradictory information, difficulties finding documents, errors in notifications, unreliable reports, or excessive dependence on a specific person or provider.
Governing the DSDS is knowing who does what
In a small city council, it is not necessary to create a large data governance structure. But it is necessary to have clear minimum responsibilities.
For example, it may be useful to identify which area is responsible for the census data, who knows the urban planning data best, who can validate the economic data, who knows how the files are classified, or who should decide if a piece of data can be reused in a report or on a portal. transparència.
This doesn't mean that one person should do everything. It means that every important piece of data should have someone who knows its meaning, use, and potential problems.
In small municipalities, this responsibility may fall on people who already have other functions. That is why it is important that the model is simple, proportional and adapted to the reality of each municipality.
The goal is not to give complicated names to new jobs, but to better recognize responsibilities that often already exist informally.
...is to set common criteria
Another important aspect is to establish common criteria. Many data problems arise because each service or application works differently.
A very simple example is the address of a person or a property. If the same address is written three times,eres different, it can be difficult to cross-reference information between census, taxes, urban planning or social services. The same can happen with names of people, file codes, facilities, streets, activities or documentary classifications.
Governing data means agreeing on basic criteria so that the information is consistent:
- How do we write and validate addresses?
- How do we identify a person?
- How do we classify a case?
- Which fields are required?
- What data should be updated periodically?
- What data is sensitive and requires more protection?
- What data can be used to create indicators?
These criteria don't have to be complex. But if they don't exist, each change of person, each new program or each new project can generate more disorder.
… is to better protect citizens
Municipal data is not neutral. Much of it refers to people, families, homes, social situations, economic activity or relationships with the administration. That is why it must be managed carefully.
Governing data also means ensuring that only those who need it have access to it, that it is used for legitimate purposes, that it is retained for the appropriate time, and that it is adequately protected.
This is especially important in small municipalities, where there is often a lot of proximity to citizens. Trust is also built by ensuring that personal information is handled responsibly.
Good data governance helps to better comply with data protection obligations, transparència, security, interoperability and digital administration. But, above all, it helps protect people's rights.
… is making better decisions
When data is well organized, it can help the city council make better decisions.
They can help to know which procedures generate the most administrative burden, which services are in greatest demand, which facilities are most used, which areas of the municipality accumulate the most incidents, which groups need the most support or which actions have the most impact.
But for this to be possible, the data must be understandable, reliable and comparable. If each service collects the information in a different way, if we do not know where a piece of data comes from or if we cannot trust its quality, the indicators can lead to wrong conclusions.
Therefore, before talking about dashboards, advanced analytics or artificial intelligence, we need to talk about data governance.
Public intelligence begins with well-governed data.
Where can a small town hall start?
A small city council can start with very concrete and achievable steps.
- Identify a few important data. You don't have to start with everything. You can start with the register, files, equipment, incidents, grants or basic economic data.
- Ask yourself who knows them best and who updates them.
- detect common problems: duplicates, errors, lack of updating, empty fields, different criteria or difficulties in extracting information.
- agree on small internal rules: how certain data should be entered, who can modify it, when it should be reviewed and what it can be used for.
- Document in a simple way. A shared sheet, a basic sheet or a small internal guide can be enough to get started.
The most important thing is not to wait to have a great tool or a great project. Data governance starts with a more orderly and conscious way of working.
The Smart Local Government Network: turning the challenge into a common and shared task
Small municipalities do not have to face this challenge alone. The reality of the local world is very diverse, and many municipalities do not have technical profiles specialized in governance and data management. This is precisely why it is necessary to build shared responses.
The Smart Local Government Network aims to provide value through working groups focused on specific local needs. These groups are helping to define common governance and data management models, shared criteria, reusable technological solutions, reference professional profiles and use cases that can be leveraged by local governments.
This means that a municipality will not have to start from scratch to know how to inventory its data, how to define responsibilities, how to prioritize critical data, how to improve its quality, or how to prepare a data-based use case.
The network aims to facilitate practical knowledge, a common language and shared tools. It should also allow the experiences of some city councils to serve others, and for provincial councils, county councils, Localret, Consorci AOC and other support actors to better coordinate their services.
Governing data should not be an added burden for small municipalities. It should be a way to help them work better, with more support, more criteria and a greater capacity for cooperation.
The AOC and the Local World Data Space
In this context, the Local World Data Space wants to contribute to making common models, services and infrastructures available to local entities that facilitate the responsible and efficient use of data.
The role of the AOC, in collaboration with other agents and other actors in the local world, is key to avoiding duplication, promoting standards, promoting shared solutions and enabling all local entities, including the smallest ones, to benefit from the culture of data.
The value is not just in having technology, but in having a shared model that helps transform data into better public services.
The path should not be individual or improvised. With the Smart Local Government Network, we want to build a shared way forward so that all municipalities can make smarter, safer and more useful use of their data. Because governing data, in the end, is another way to govern the municipality better.
