A note from the editor.

• Author: Rogers, Carol O.
• Position: Better information management - Editorial - Brief article

The garden metaphor is an apt one for this issue. One might suggest that good data are part of the soil mix we need in order to grow our economy and gauge our quality of life. Indiana has been working toward better data to better inform its most important decisions, first with the 2004 study commissioned by the Central Indiana Corporate Partnership, followed by the Lilly Endowment's support of the State Data Initiative (now called Information for Indiana).

A coalition of universities and the Governor's office have been moving forward on the recommendations of the 2004 study, and this initiative continues to receive support from a broad spectrum of data users. Our state's most important agencies are now aware of key data issues; more (and sometimes better) data have begun to flow more forcefully from these agencies; and we can now point to many significant...