Summary of Play Two

Mapping a data ecosystem and identifying gaps and opportunities can help focus the initiative on how to define an action plan, and start thinking of the activities and inputs that might contribute to addressing the sector-specific challenges.

Your map will help you understand key data flows underpinning value in the data ecosystem. Ensuring the sustainability and trustworthiness of these data flows will be crucial to achieving impact.

Now that your initiative has a better understanding of the stakeholders and value exchanges in the data ecosystem, you can review the problem definition and assess its relevance. You might also define other use cases that relate to the problem and see if there is any other actor missing in the ecosystem.

Additional resources: IDB/NYU GovLab, ‘Toward an open data demand assessment methodology’ NNIP/Urban Institute/Living Cities, ‘Guide to civic tech and data ecosystem mapping’ Data 2X/Open Data Watch (2020), ‘Bridging the Gap: Mapping Gender Data Availability in Africa and in Latin America and the Caribbean (Methodology) and ‘Mapping Gender Data Gaps: An SDG Era Update Institute for Museum and Library Services (2020), ‘Civic Switchboard Guide’ Mozilla,‘Gather Insights – Open Innovation Toolkit’