Our governance model is structured around three activities: 1) a semi-regular Assembly video call, open to all participants [see an archive of these videos here], 2) convenings of diverse stakeholders in Open Referral workshops [read the reportback here], and 3) … Continue reading
Archives
What is the format of the HSDS? Why CSV?
With the goal of broad accessibility in mind, the initial HSDS developer Sophia Parafina chose Comma-Separated Values (CSV) as the building blocks for HSDS. CSV serves as a ‘lowest common denominator’ that is simplest to use and most accessible to … Continue reading
What’s not in the HSDS?
HSDS does not attempt to describe every type of information that might be relevant to people working with resource directory data. We have attempted to maintain a strict focus on specifying only relevant factual attributes that are shared by most … Continue reading
What is in the HSDS?
First, HSDS identifies a vocabulary of terms that describe what a service is, the institution that provides it, where the service can be accessed, and how to access it. These terms are designated as ‘required,’ ‘recommended,’ and ‘optional.’ The spec … Continue reading
Who is the HSDS for?
The primary users of HSDS are data administrators (who are responsible for managing systems that strive to meet the needs of other users). [Read our user personas here.] We define ‘data administrator’ broadly: while some data admins will be sophisticated … Continue reading
How did we develop the HSDS?
The Open Referral initiative used multiple methods of research and development to establish this data specification. First, leaders of our pilot projects worked with stakeholders in their communities to develop a series of ‘user profiles’ that described the needs and … Continue reading
Why did we develop the Human Services Data Specification?
We believe that development of an open, standardized format is a necessary step in a process of reducing the costs of producing directory data, increasing the quality of such data, and promoting its re-use in valuable ways. We expect that … Continue reading
What is the Human Service Data Specification (HSDS)?
AKA ‘the Open Referral format,’ the HSDS is a data interchange format that enables resource directory data to be published in bulk for use by many systems. HSDS provides a common vocabulary for information about services, the organizations that provide … Continue reading