“There’s so much information out there, and if you can connect it to issues you can really help people understand it—but with language and cultural barriers it can be hard to make sure everyone is granted equal access.”

Background

The daughter of immigrants from northern Mexico, Alana has always felt strongly about protecting immigrants rights in the city. Growing up in Borough Park, Brooklyn, she remembers translating street signs and paperwork for her parents.

After graduating from college, Alana worked as a paralegal at an immigration law firm. There, she learned how to use open information databases to collect newspaper articles, court rulings, and other materials that could be used as evidence in court.

Alana is deeply connected to her community. Outside of work, she is dedicated to creating fairer policies for the city’s immigrants. Through these activities, she has built a strong network of friends and advocates who collaborate on different community mobilization efforts. She frequently scans the websites of city agencies and city council representatives to learn about town halls she can attend and new legislation that affects her community.

Experience Using Open Data

Alana has minimal experience with open data but doesn’t find the concept relevant to her work. Though she has experience doing research and finding relevant data sets through work, she is not convinced that so-called open data is a fair or useful resource. Her close relationships with immigrants have allowed her to witness first-hand the many barriers that prevent vulnerable communities from accessing information.

For example, she recently organized a campaign on fair pay that took place in local public schools, because she knows that many families in her community don’t own computers or have internet connections at home, so the likeliest place for them to learn about city resources is through their children’s’ schools. That is why Alana and her team focus their energy on producing one-pagers that can be easily distributed in classrooms and taken home, rather than online resources. To pull together and visualise the information she needs, she coordinates with advocates who have design skills. She doesn’t have time to learn these skills herself, and draws energy from the close collaboration with her network.

Alana is also concerned about data privacy and security issues. Recently, her organization hired a group of volunteers to develop a coding system for their internal database, to protect sensitive information about undocumented immigrants who are members of her organization.