You say you want “Big Data” for Community Economic Development, but are you ready for it?

<p>When you make a decision to go forward with a Community Economic Development (CED) project or policy, have you thought through the ramifications for your staff or budget? This year, a course paper on body worn cameras written by a graduate student in the MPA program at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is gaining attention — but not because it touches on sensitive political or racial issues. It’s focus appears much more mundane – how a simple retention policy decision can have major implications for the entire IT department and local government budget. For CED professionals, it is a cautionary tale on understanding your capacity to adequately implement a policy or program before you adopt it.</p> <p>Justin Kreft, a joint degree student in the School of Government and School of Library and Information Science, used a nation-wide survey of body worn cameras to gain a general understanding of how many camera files were generated and stored. The result was… a lot.   The more sophisticated the camera, the larger the related files, and the more storage space was needed. Add in questions of how long to maintain files, whether to make the files publically accessible, and the staff and expertise necessary to find something on a particular file if needed, and one can see how the mundane issue can explode.   The paper is featured on the front page of the newest UNC Chapel Hill research magazine, Endeavors. Other reports have featured this same issue, such as a report on implementing a body [...]</p>