Blog
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Open Referral’s Year in Review for 2025 is out now. You can read through it here (and you can browse every Annual Report since 2014 here). This was a really difficult year, and I think it’s important for us to…
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The Resource Record-Matcher: an open source AI-powered directory data collaboration tool
[Welcome Skyler Young of Connect211 back to the blog!] When it comes to human services, comparing apples to apples is harder than you might think. At Connect211, we work with human service referral providers in more than twenty states to “orchestrate”…
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Introducing Open Referral’s Data Collaboration Toolkit
Open Referral’s data exchange standards enable different organizations to share resource directory data among different information systems. This makes it possible for communities to ensure that knowledge about the resources available to people in need can be efficiently managed and…
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Video: an introduction to the Human Service Data Specifications
Open Referral’s Technical Committee has several new members who have recently come onboard, so we organized an introduction to the Human Service Data Specifications – and recorded it, so that this conversation might be helpful to anyone looking to learn about…
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HSDS version 3.2, and documentation upgrade
First off, some official business about HSDS: Upgrade to Human Service Data Specifications: version 3.2 Our Technical Committee has put forth a set of proposed changes that our Technical Steward has bundled into a minor specification upgrade – as announced in…
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Airtable upgrade for Resource Directory Data Management
Since 2018, members of Open Referral’s community of practice have been using Airtable to develop user-friendly, HSDS-compatible resource directory databases. I oversee management of the Whatcom Resource Information Collaborative’s resource data system in Airtable, and we’ve continued to build new capacities…
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Our 2024 Year in Review
In this report, we summarize all of the significant steps forward in the past year, from a new version of our standards, upgrades to our governance model, and breakthroughs in business strategy across the human service informatics sector. Read more…
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Envisioning cooperative resource directory information infrastructure in Minnesota
Minnesota residents can look for information about a range of human services on MinnesotaHelp.Info®, a resource navigation program supported through partnership among several public entities (including the state’s Department of Human Services and Board on Aging). Minnesotans can also look…
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Sustaining 211 in Western New York (and beyond)
211 plays several critical roles not just for the people who call our helpline, but to the entire health, human, and service sector domain – starting with our painstaking work to collect and maintain directory data about the services across this…