National Environmental and Public Policy Case Database (2004)

CONCUR Principal Scott McCreary served on a Steering Committee for a project funded by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation that examined the feasibility of creating a national data base of environmental and public policy mediated cases. This project had several intended products. They were: (1) to characterize and assess ways to overcome the barriers to building such a data base; (2) to prepare a pilot version of a data base; (3) to develop recommendations about the pros and cons of different data collection methods, and (4) to recommend “terms of reference” for the use of such a data base.

CONCUR submitted 25 of its own cases to a pilot Database, along with an evaluation of our experience in populating this Database. Our results, together with those of five other pilot partners, will be used to create:

1. A revised version of the case database software and the guide to its use based on wider discussions in the field and with potential users,

2. Recommendations about the pros and cons of different data collection methods based on actual data entry pilots with practitioners (including those with and without their own electronic case data systems) and

3. Protocols or “terms of reference” for access to the software, management of the data base, etc.