The Life Of A Non-Profit Data Professional

00:00:00
/
00:44:36

March 30th, 2020

44 mins 36 secs

Your Host

About this Episode

Summary

Building and maintaining a system that integrates and analyzes all of the data for your organization is a complex endeavor. Operating on a shoe-string budget makes it even more challenging. In this episode Tyler Colby shares his experiences working as a data professional in the non-profit sector. From managing Salesforce data models to wrangling a multitude of data sources and compliance challenges, he describes the biggest challenges that he is facing.

Announcements

  • Hello and welcome to the Data Engineering Podcast, the show about modern data management
  • When you’re ready to build your next pipeline, or want to test out the projects you hear about on the show, you’ll need somewhere to deploy it, so check out our friends at Linode. With 200Gbit private networking, scalable shared block storage, a 40Gbit public network, fast object storage, and a brand new managed Kubernetes platform, you’ve got everything you need to run a fast, reliable, and bullet-proof data platform. And for your machine learning workloads, they’ve got dedicated CPU and GPU instances. Go to dataengineeringpodcast.com/linode today to get a $20 credit and launch a new server in under a minute. And don’t forget to thank them for their continued support of this show!
  • You listen to this show to learn and stay up to date with what’s happening in databases, streaming platforms, big data, and everything else you need to know about modern data management. For even more opportunities to meet, listen, and learn from your peers you don’t want to miss out on great conferences. We have partnered with organizations such as ODSC, and Data Council. Upcoming events include the Observe 20/20 virtual conference and ODSC East which has also gone virtual. Go to dataengineeringpodcast.com/conferences to learn more about these and other events, and take advantage of our partner discounts to save money when you register today.
  • Your host is Tobias Macey and today I’m interviewing Tyler Colby about his experiences working as a data professional in the non-profit arena, most recently at the Natural Resources Defense Council

Interview

  • Introduction
  • How did you get involved in the area of data management?
  • Can you start by describing your responsibilities as the director of data infrastructure at the NRDC?
  • What specific challenges are you facing at the NRDC?
  • Can you describe some of the types of data that you are working with at the NRDC?
    • What types of systems are you relying on for the source of your data?
  • What kinds of systems have you put in place to manage the data needs of the NRDC?
    • What are your biggest influences in the build vs. buy decisions that you make?
    • What heuristics or guidelines do you rely on for aligning your work with the business value that it will produce and the broader mission of the organization?
  • Have you found there to be any extra scrutiny of your work as a member of a non-profit in terms of regulations or compliance questions?
  • Your career has involved a significant focus on the Salesforce platform. For anyone not familiar with it, what benefits does it provide in managing information flows and analysis capabilities?
    • What are some of the most challenging or complex aspects of working with Saleseforce?
  • In light of the current global crisis posed by COVID-19 you have established a new non-profit entity to organize the efforts of various technical professionals. Can you describe the nature of that mission?
    • What are some of the unique data challenges that you anticipate or have already encountered?
    • How do the data challenges of this new organization compare to your past experiences?
  • What have you found to be most useful or beneficial in the current landscape of data management systems and practices in your career with non-profit organizations?
    • What are the areas that need to be addressed or improved for workers in the non-profit sector?

Contact Info

Parting Question

  • From your perspective, what is the biggest gap in the tooling or technology for data management today?

Closing Announcements

  • Thank you for listening! Don’t forget to check out our other show, Podcast.__init__ to learn about the Python language, its community, and the innovative ways it is being used.
  • Visit the site to subscribe to the show, sign up for the mailing list, and read the show notes.
  • If you’ve learned something or tried out a project from the show then tell us about it! Email hosts@dataengineeringpodcast.com) with your story.
  • To help other people find the show please leave a review on iTunes and tell your friends and co-workers
  • Join the community in the new Zulip chat workspace at dataengineeringpodcast.com/chat

Links

The intro and outro music is from The Hug by The Freak Fandango Orchestra / CC BY-SA

Support Data Engineering Podcast