SCC-PG: Just Connect Us: A Community-Oriented Civil Justice Data Commons

在美国，通过将服务与居民生活相结合的数字基础设施，城市之间的联系越来越紧密。这些系统通过产生实时数据来有效地管理服务并增进居民的福祉，从而使城市变得“智能”。该项目将这一模式扩展到构成社区民事司法系统的法院、法律服务提供者和行政机构。这些机构帮助有法律问题的居民，如住房、债务、子女监护权和公共福利。但是，尽管他们在人们的生活中处于中心地位，但他们既不“聪明”，也不“联网”。目前，来自法院、法律服务提供者和行政机构的数据以多种格式收集，并存放在多个机构中。此外，对这些数据的访问受到法规、法规和规则的大杂烩的约束。因此，研究人员和政策制定者不知道司法系统是否会进一步增进人民的福祉。这个项目调查什么规则和数据标准将促进民事司法机构在数据共享中共享数据，以产生关于这些机构为人民服务的程度及其对人民生活的长期影响的知识。它将与几个社区的民事司法利益攸关方接触，以了解他们的利益和关切。共享数据有哪些激励措施？出现了哪些隐私问题？第二个方面涉及与学术数据科学家接触，了解在民事司法领域建立可行的数据共享空间的技术要求和最佳做法，学习其他领域的数据共享空间的发展(例如，生物医学数据科学；社会调查研究)。通过开发社区民事司法机构之间的数据管理和共享的最佳实践，这项规划研究将鼓励州和县法院、法律服务提供商、政府实验室和政策研究所采取措施，在其社区建立民事司法数据共享中心。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

In the United States, cities are increasingly connected through a digital infrastructure that integrates services with the lives of their residents. These systems make cities “smart” by producing real-time data to manage services efficiently and promote the well-being of residents. This project extends this model to the courts, legal service providers, and administrative agencies that make up a community’s civil justice system. These institutions assist residents with legal problems like housing, debt, child custody, and public benefits. But, despite their centrality in people’s lives, they are neither “smart” nor “connected.” Currently, data from courts, legal service providers, and administrative agencies are collected in multiple formats and housed among multiple institutions. Access to these data, moreover, is governed by a hodgepodge of statutes, regulations, and rules. As a consequence, researchers and policymakers do not know whether the justice system furthers people’s well-being. This project investigates what rules and data standards will facilitate the sharing of data by civil justice institutions in a data commons to produce knowledge about how well these institutions serve people and what their long-term effects are on people’s lives.This project adopts a two-pronged approach to design a civil justice data commons. It will engage with civil justice stakeholders in several communities to understand their interests and concerns. What incentives exist to share data? What privacy concerns arise? The second prong involves engaging with academic data scientists about the technical requirements and best practices for the creation of a viable data commons in the civil justice field, learning from the development of data commons in other areas (e.g., biomedical data science; social survey research). By developing best practices for data management and sharing among community civil justice institutions, this planning study will encourage state and county courts, legal service providers, government labs, and policy institutes to take steps towards building a civil justice data commons in their communities.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.