It is clear from the first few comments that have been added to the previous 2 posts to this blog that there are really two general options worth considering.
One is to see if it might be possible to have the HOMES database continue in some form in a user managed format. This would provide the opportunity to gather detailed user feedback about the positives and negatives of the system and a chance to work towards a new, user managed beginning. I have several calls in to people with additional information about previous CORI funding support and will pass along what I am able to uncover. This would be an interesting direction if there is sufficient interest and support. My view is that where CORI got a bit lost was in not being program/agency focussed enough (but what do I know!).
The second option is to look elsewhere and consider alternatives. The main challenges there are cost and time as well as uncertainly about support and usability. Again, however, I suspect we have a HUGE repository of practical wisdom out there among the many agencies and programs using or aware of CORI. So again, I suggest that we need to get the word out as broadly as possible and ask that all those who might be even remotely interested at least find the blog site and lurk a bit as there will likely be much of potential use and interest here over the coming weeks.
So, with a promise of many new beginnings in the New Year, have a great holiday break and get the www.lifeaftercori.blogspt.com word out!! There may be new ideas and new solutions under the tree!
Mike Boyes
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Welcome to the Pending Post-CORI Universe: How to Get Started
While not wanting to presume to know how this process should begin it seems to me that there are a LOT of programs having to look for an alternative to CORI. We cannot assume that just because they are all using CORI that their needs are all the same. In fact, (in my opinion) the greatest strength and the greatest weakness of CORI was that it was many things to many people. So while it can do a great many things, many programs did not need most of those things and as a consequence the goals of gathering and managing appropriate amounts of program data and deciding how best to monitor and evaluate program activities and outcomes often felt like a much bigger deal than it needed to be when using CORI.
It is also the case that there has been, over the past decade or so, a major shift in demands, expectations, and hardware with regards to program information management. We are not that far removed from paper files and yet most funders are increasingly expecting electronic client counts and outcome tracking. This raises two issues. The first is that programs must develop the capacity to train and supervise staff in the tasks of creating and maintaining data sets and the second is that to pay for the use of a relational database program (stand alone like Micro Soft Access or on-line like CORI) is no small ticket.
CORI positioned itself well at the start of this electrification process (my opinion) by working intensively to contact funders and to indicate that they (with their healthy subsidy) could provide what would cost LOTS more to provide if every program were to develop their own system or buy into an existing system or service contract. This also meant that the CORI model was tipped towards funders and away from grass roots program development in the area of electrification of program records (again, my opinion).
So now where are programs now that the CORI rug has been yanked?? Well what is out there in the private database consulting sector is most certainly more costly than CORI and many of the available services offer high degrees of “customization” it all comes at a cost.
It seems to me that the fact that so many programs (large AND small) are in the same place with the CORI vanishing act offers a significant opportunity for programs to take greater charge of their data management needs and to work together to find or to develop not only an immediate solution but to begin to investigate a broad range of ways to manage their program data and to engage effectively in the monitoring, evaluation, and forward planning of their programs from 2010 forward.
So what are the options? Well I think this blog can provide a forum for presenting and discussing data management options and to look for options that may well turn this challenge into a major positive opportunity for many agencies and programs.
What do we need to know? We need to know what, if any options there might be for keeping the CORI database running. What is happening to the base funding? Would there be sufficient support for going forward in a collective manner with a version of the CORI database if the necessary resources could be found? I will be looking into this question but any thoughts or comments folks have would be appreciated.
What other alternatives are there out there?
I am asking all participants in this blog-forum to let me know what they are looking at in the way of alternatives and what they think about the system(s) they are considering. Likewise I would like all programs to at least let us all know what they are looking for, what they would like to see (in the way of a data management system ... what features it could or should have ... and what might be gained by more information sharing across programs and agencies. I will start reviews of the options I find or am sent and then people who have looked at them or used them can add comments to expand the information. I will move substantive comments up into the posts so that substantive reviews are created.
As well, if folks have any new thoughts as to possible directions I invite them to add comments or to e-mail me directly (mike-boyes@shaw.ca, 403 560 9171) and I can create posts based on their ideas (fully credited of course).
I also invite finders and other (academics etc) to add their voices to this forum. I really believe this is a HUGE opportunity to establish some big new ideas in agency and program data management and to look at options that can emerge from a solid grass-roots approach to this important question.
So tell EVERYONE about the LifeAfterCORI blog (www.lifeaftercori.blogspot.com) and have them pass it along. Sign up to be notified when new blog entries appear and GET INVOLVED. I think we will be amazed with the results.
Mike Boyes
Mike-Boyes@shaw.ca
403 560 9171
Click on comments (below) to add a note.
It is also the case that there has been, over the past decade or so, a major shift in demands, expectations, and hardware with regards to program information management. We are not that far removed from paper files and yet most funders are increasingly expecting electronic client counts and outcome tracking. This raises two issues. The first is that programs must develop the capacity to train and supervise staff in the tasks of creating and maintaining data sets and the second is that to pay for the use of a relational database program (stand alone like Micro Soft Access or on-line like CORI) is no small ticket.
CORI positioned itself well at the start of this electrification process (my opinion) by working intensively to contact funders and to indicate that they (with their healthy subsidy) could provide what would cost LOTS more to provide if every program were to develop their own system or buy into an existing system or service contract. This also meant that the CORI model was tipped towards funders and away from grass roots program development in the area of electrification of program records (again, my opinion).
So now where are programs now that the CORI rug has been yanked?? Well what is out there in the private database consulting sector is most certainly more costly than CORI and many of the available services offer high degrees of “customization” it all comes at a cost.
It seems to me that the fact that so many programs (large AND small) are in the same place with the CORI vanishing act offers a significant opportunity for programs to take greater charge of their data management needs and to work together to find or to develop not only an immediate solution but to begin to investigate a broad range of ways to manage their program data and to engage effectively in the monitoring, evaluation, and forward planning of their programs from 2010 forward.
So what are the options? Well I think this blog can provide a forum for presenting and discussing data management options and to look for options that may well turn this challenge into a major positive opportunity for many agencies and programs.
What do we need to know? We need to know what, if any options there might be for keeping the CORI database running. What is happening to the base funding? Would there be sufficient support for going forward in a collective manner with a version of the CORI database if the necessary resources could be found? I will be looking into this question but any thoughts or comments folks have would be appreciated.
What other alternatives are there out there?
I am asking all participants in this blog-forum to let me know what they are looking at in the way of alternatives and what they think about the system(s) they are considering. Likewise I would like all programs to at least let us all know what they are looking for, what they would like to see (in the way of a data management system ... what features it could or should have ... and what might be gained by more information sharing across programs and agencies. I will start reviews of the options I find or am sent and then people who have looked at them or used them can add comments to expand the information. I will move substantive comments up into the posts so that substantive reviews are created.
As well, if folks have any new thoughts as to possible directions I invite them to add comments or to e-mail me directly (mike-boyes@shaw.ca, 403 560 9171) and I can create posts based on their ideas (fully credited of course).
I also invite finders and other (academics etc) to add their voices to this forum. I really believe this is a HUGE opportunity to establish some big new ideas in agency and program data management and to look at options that can emerge from a solid grass-roots approach to this important question.
So tell EVERYONE about the LifeAfterCORI blog (www.lifeaftercori.blogspot.com) and have them pass it along. Sign up to be notified when new blog entries appear and GET INVOLVED. I think we will be amazed with the results.
Mike Boyes
Mike-Boyes@shaw.ca
403 560 9171
Click on comments (below) to add a note.
Monday, December 21, 2009
Life After CORI
Hello Everyone,
My name is Mike Boyes and I am a psychologist. I have worked with a number of community programs in Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba as a program development consultant and evaluator for the past 12 years. I am currently working with the programs I have been doing evaluation work for, helping them to consider their options following the announcement that CORI is winding up.
It occurs to me that as many of you are engaged in the same task I am following up on the suggestion made by Rob Grant of Salt Spring Community Services and trying to set up a mechanism for sharing information about databases and systems you have tried, are using, or are considering. To provide a means for people to tell others what they like and do not like about what they are considering. To that end I have created this blog site (www.lifeaftercori.blogspot.com) and am offering to moderate a discussion there about options for program and agency management systems and databases.
I will post comments and reviews based on my own efforts to gather information about possible program information management options and invite you all to use the comment feature of the blog site to do the same OR send me a more detailed review of a system you are using or are considering and I will post it on the blog as well. We all need to make a move one way or the other to be ready by the end of March so I am hoping this will provide an opportunity for easy sharing of information and asking of questions and generating solutions.
I will try to be a fair and as even handed as possible but I wil also pass along any opinions I am offered regarding impressions of and experiences with community program information management systems.
And if this sort of thing is already being done then ignore this and send me the link to it please!
Sincerely
Mike Boyes, Ph.D.
Mike-Boyes@shaw.ca
403-560-9171 (cell)
403-206-7016 (fax)
Calgary, Alberta
PS Happy Holidays!!
My name is Mike Boyes and I am a psychologist. I have worked with a number of community programs in Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba as a program development consultant and evaluator for the past 12 years. I am currently working with the programs I have been doing evaluation work for, helping them to consider their options following the announcement that CORI is winding up.
It occurs to me that as many of you are engaged in the same task I am following up on the suggestion made by Rob Grant of Salt Spring Community Services and trying to set up a mechanism for sharing information about databases and systems you have tried, are using, or are considering. To provide a means for people to tell others what they like and do not like about what they are considering. To that end I have created this blog site (www.lifeaftercori.blogspot.com) and am offering to moderate a discussion there about options for program and agency management systems and databases.
I will post comments and reviews based on my own efforts to gather information about possible program information management options and invite you all to use the comment feature of the blog site to do the same OR send me a more detailed review of a system you are using or are considering and I will post it on the blog as well. We all need to make a move one way or the other to be ready by the end of March so I am hoping this will provide an opportunity for easy sharing of information and asking of questions and generating solutions.
I will try to be a fair and as even handed as possible but I wil also pass along any opinions I am offered regarding impressions of and experiences with community program information management systems.
And if this sort of thing is already being done then ignore this and send me the link to it please!
Sincerely
Mike Boyes, Ph.D.
Mike-Boyes@shaw.ca
403-560-9171 (cell)
403-206-7016 (fax)
Calgary, Alberta
PS Happy Holidays!!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
.jpg)