FAQ Categories
Click the Membership Category to view its questions/articles.
Membership Options and Costs
Categories and costs of membership.
About the DGS-COP
Questions about the Data Governance & Stewardship Community of Practice, which is the membership arm of The Data Governance Institute.
Using and Contributing Materials
Questions about copyrights and usage of Case Studies, Program Artifacts, and other content from this site. How to contribute to our library.
Community and Events
Questions about tele-gatherings, Forums, and opportunities for meeting other members of the Data Governance & Stewardship Community of Practice.
Privacy and Sensitive Information
Questions about how you can disclose information about yourself, and about information we will/will not share.
FAQ - Membership Options and Costs
1. Who can become a member of DGS?
Practitioners, stakeholders, academics, consultants, thought leaders, and those who are just learning – anyone who has an interest in Data Governance & Stewardship.
Software vendors can join and participate, but must not “sell” their products or promote them except within tele-gatherings or other events/site areas that are clearly identified by DGS administrators.
Consultants can participate in all events, but are prohibited from selling or offering their services within our Forums or sponsored events.
(Of course, we acknowledge that we all join communities to meet each other, so we would expect interested members to reach out to experts and software providers to request one-on-one conversations.)
2. What does membership cost?
Individual Membership:
$150 per year, renewable on the anniversary of your sign-up date.
Group Membership Level 1 (up to 4 members):
$450.00 per year, renewable on the anniversary of the group sign-up date. Group Membership Level 1 allows you to have up to 4 members, providing you with a discount of $150.00. With this membership level, one primary person within the group owns the membership and manages adding and deleting other members within the group.
Group Membership Level 2 (up to 10 members):
$1200.00 per year, renewable on the anniversary of the group sign-up date. Group Membership Level 2 allows you to have up to 10 members, providing you with a discount of $300.00. With this membership level, one primary person within the group owns the membership and manages adding and deleting other members within the group.
Vendor Membership:
$750 per year, for up to 3 members. This level of membership entitles the vendor to one Vendor Briefing and one Vendor Q&A per year. Vendors who do not wish to avail themselves of these opportunities are free to join as individual members.
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FAQ - About the DGS-COP
1. What is the Data Governance & Stewardship Community of Practice (DGS-COP)?
The Data Governance & Stewardship (DGS-COP) Community of Practice is the membership arm of The Data Governance Institute.
2. Who leads the DGS-COP?
The Data Governance & Stewardship Community of Practice (DGS-COP) is the membership arm of the Data Governance Institute (DGI). Gwen Thomas is the Founder/President of DGI. She plays an active role in the community of practice.
3. Who can join the Data Governance & Stewardship Community of Practice?
Practitioners, stakeholders, academics, consultants, thought leaders, and those who are just learning – anyone who has an interest in Data Governance & Stewardship.
Software vendors can join and participate, but must not “sell” their products or promote them except within tele-gatherings or other events/site areas that are clearly identified by DGS administrators.
Consultants can participate in all events, but are prohibited from selling, promoting, or offering their services within our Forums or sponsored events.
(Of course, we acknowledge that we all join communities to meet each other, so we would expect interested members to reach out to experts and software providers to request one-on-one conversations.)
4. What is the Data Governance Institute?
The Data Governance & Stewardship Community of Practice (DGS-COP) is the membership arm of the Data Governance Institute, LLC (DGI). DGI also provides Consulting/Training, and its Information Services arm publishes the free DGI Data Governance Framework, whitepapers and reports, and many websites, including the DGI website, www.DataGovernance.com, Sox-Online.com, a Sarbanes-Oxley resource, and www.DataGovernanceSoftware.com, which includes the DGI Vendor Showcase and the Master Catalog of Data Governance Software.
Many artifacts and other materials from the Data Governance Institute will be contributed to this site, but DGI will NOT be "selling" its services within these pages. If you are interested in talking to the DGI about consulting, training, or other assistance, please reach out to DGI Founder and President Gwen Thomas at gwen.thomas@datagovernance.com or by phone at +1.321.438.0774.
5. Can consultants promote or sell their services on this site?
Sort of. Consultants may join and participate just like everyone else. They need not conceal that they are consultants, but they are not to use the Forums or tele-gathering events to promote their services. They may connect with members of SIGs to engage in knowledge exchange, but they must not propose their services to members. Of course, Community of Practice members are free to initiate conversations with consultants they meet here, and to solicit their services. Should this occur, consultants may respond offline. Any participant who feels they have been "sold" to should contact Amy Klutz at amy.klutz@datagovernance.com.
6. Can vendors promote or sell their products on this site?
Only in specially designated Vendor Briefings and Vendor Q&A sessions. Representatives of software providers may join and participate just like everyone else. They need not conceal that they are in the business of selling products, but they are not to use the site or tele-gathering events to directly promote their goods.
We would expect software providers to be highly engaged in events and discussions with members of the Technology SIGs. Vendors may connect with other members to engage in knowledge exchange, but they must not push their products or services to members. Of course, Community of Practice members are free to initiate conversations with vendors they meet here, and to solicit their services. Should this occur, vendors may respond offline.
Any community member who feels they have been "sold" to should contact Amy Klutz at amy.klutz@datagovernance.com.
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FAQ - Using and Contributing Materials
1. What “program artifacts” are available to members of The Data Governance & Stewardship Community of Practice?
We’ve done the research for you, and have found actual documents from actual Data Governance & Stewardship programs that are freely available for you to read and be inspired by. We’ve categorized them into:
- Case Studies
Case Studies, Strategy, and Best Practices
- Program Artifacts
o Policies, Principles, Standards, Guidelines
Program artifacts, articles, and other documents
o Organizational Structures, Decision Rights, Roles, and Responsibilities
Program diagrams, RACI charts, role descriptions, and other documents
o Mission, Charter, and Frameworks
Program artifacts, templates, articles, and other documents
o Metrics, Dashboards, and Maturity Models
Templates, charts, job aids, and guidance
2. Through the DGS library, I've found a document that I'd like to "borrow from" for my own program. Can I use these program artifacts in my own program?
The same rules apply to “using” materials from this site as apply to using any other copyrighted material.
As we’ve clearly indicated throughout the DGS site, the copyright to all artifacts rests with the copyright owner. These owners have made their documents available to be viewed by DGS members (and often, the general public), but that does not mean they’ve assigned copyright to DGS or any of its readers.
So for any usage beyond legally recognized “fair use,” you should contact the copyright holder.
3. Can I copy the artifact listings that appear on the main pages for Case Studies or the four categories of Program Artifacts? Can I copy the pages with detailed metadata about each article or artifact?
No. The listings of program artifacts are copyrighted by The Data Governance Institute, LLC, which is the sponsor of this site.
Collecting this information represents hundreds of hours of work, and each description/metadata set includes original text, written expressly for this site by employees of The Data Governance Institute.
So, no, you DO NOT have permission to reproduce these listings in whole or in part.
Sure, you can send someone an email suggesting they check out a link you found here, but you cannot cut and paste from this site into other documents, emails, websites, or other commercial or non-commercial venues, or in any other way appropriate our research.
4. How do I contribute content to the Program Artifacts or Case Studies?
If the materials you'd like to share are freely available on the Internet, just send us a URL. If not, send an email to Amy Klutz at amy.klutz@datagovernance.com. She'll send you a release to complete and permission to send her your document. Please don't just email documents to us; we won't open anything until we know what it is and know we have permission to see it and post it.
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FAQ - Community and Events
1. How can I find other members who are interested in what I'm interested in?
You have several options.
- Join a SIG (Special Interest Group). We'll have special events designed to bring members of SIGs together.
- Search for members. The membership directory contains information about those members who have elected to make their information available to others.
- Send an email to the Director of Communities, who would be happy to post a question on your behalf during a tele-gathering or in the Forums.
2. What are tele-gatherings?
These are online events or conference calls that focus on specific aspects of Data Governance and Stewardship. Some will be open to the general public, but many (such as Knowledge Exchanges) will be for DGS members only. Be sure to let us know if you want a specific type of gathering; here are the types we already have planned for you:
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Tele-gathering Event
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Description
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Knowledge Exchanges
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Special Interest Group (SIG) members come together on phone calls to discuss targeted topics.
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Case Studies
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Community of Practice members share their experiences.
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Meet the Expert Calls
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Gurus in various topic areas share their experiences and best practices. Members are invited to participate in the post-call Q&A session.
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Vendor Q & As
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Community of Practice members have an opportunity ask software vendors about their products and how to use them to solve Data Governance & Stewardship problems. Members may submit questions in advance or during the call.
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Vendor Briefings
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Community of Practice members and non-members have an opportunity hear special briefings presented by Vendors.
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Event Previews
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Community of Practice members and non-members have an opportunity to hear about upcoming conferences and other events.
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Trip Reports
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Community of Practice members who have attended conferences or other industry events share their experiences and take-aways.
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3. Will you notify me of activities that I’m especially interested in?
Yes. When you sign up, you'll have an opportunity to join Special Interest Groups (SIGs) We’ll send emails to SIG members reminding them of specific online and telephone-based knowledge exchange opportunities.
You can change your SIG affiliations (and therefore, your notifications) at any time. You can even turn them off for a while if you get really busy at work, then turn them back on when you have time to participate more fully.
4. Will tele-gathering events be scheduled so that members from non-U.S. time zones can attend?
Yes. Tele-gathering times will vary to make it easy for our non-U.S. time zone members to participate.
Check the Event Calendar for details.
Because of a software limitation, we can only list one time zone for each tele-gathering. The moderator lives in the Eastern Time Zone, in the U.S., so we've chosen that as the baseline for our tele-gatherings.
Below are charts showing times across the world for the most popular tele-gathering timeslots.
Session A Time Zone Chart
Session B Time Zone Chart
Session C Time Zone Chart
Session D Time Zone Chart
5. Are phone calls for tele-gathering events free?
There's no charge from DGS for members to participate in tele-gathering events; however, keep in mind that long distance charges may apply depending upon your phone service provider.
Keep in mind that US and Non-US participants can always Skype or similar technology to minimize costs.
6. Why doesn't DGS have an 800 number for tele-gatherings?
Because DGS strives to be a low-cost, but high-quality membership community. We don't want to pass on the cost of an 800 number when many of our members may already have free or low-cost long distance options.
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FAQ - Privacy and Sensitive Information
1. How secure is the DGS site and my financial information?
The Data Governance & Stewardship Community of Practice is hosted by ClubExpress.com. The Data Governance Institute does not store your financial information. We’re very confident in the ClubExpress approach to managing website information and personal, private, financial data. You should judge for yourself by visiting http://www.clubexpress.com/content.aspx?page_id=22&club_id=0&module_id=264.
2. What is the Privacy Policy?
The Data Governance & Stewardship Community of Practice is the membership arm of The Data Governance Institute.
Privacy Policy - Short Version
The Data Governance Institute, LLC is a champion of personal privacy and the protection of individuals' confidential, personal information. We certainly attempt to maintain the highest standards of privacy in our own dealings with website visitors and members. Here's our Privacy Policy in plain English: you provide personal information to us, and we collect some information from typical sources (conferences, purchases, etc.). We use it ourselves to correspond with you and to tell you about events, information, products, and services we think you want to know about. Information gathered as part of the sign-up process for The Data Governance & Stewardship Community of Practice will occasionally be shared it with other arms of The Data Governance Institute (consulting/training, information services) so you can learn about new opportunities, but not with outside entities. Ask us to not contact you, and we will comply! We have no intention of becoming a nuisance to you or anyone else. We want you to like us.
Now, here's the same message using the same set of legal mumbo-jumbo we all seem to need to publish these days. Deep breath… here goes…
Privacy Policy - Long Version
The Data Governance Institute, LLC (DGI) believes the privacy and confidentiality of an individual's personal information is important. We provide this document (the "Privacy Policy") so as to demonstrate our firm commitment to privacy. DGI may need to change this Privacy Policy from time to time in order to address new issues and to reflect changes on our Website. Please refer back to this Privacy Policy regularly; your use of our website signifies that you agree to be bound by the terms and conditions of this Privacy Policy, as amended from time to time.
Personally Identifiable Information (PII)
Definition. Personally identifiable information is any information that can be used to identify or contact a specific individual and any other information about that individual.
Collection of PII. DGI collects information from several sources. These include conferences, product subscription forms/registrations, reader service cards, website message postings, survey information and purchases via telephone, direct mail, email, and other electronic sources. From these sources we may collect postal addresses, e-mail addresses, telephone numbers, and/or demographic information for those individuals that volunteer such information. For each visitor to our websites, our web server automatically recognizes the visitor's domain name and IP address only, but no other identifiable information unless volunteered. In addition, we collect aggregate information on what web pages visitors access or visit.
Use of PII. The information we collect is used to improve the content of our website, used to notify consumers about updates to our website, and is used by us to contact consumers for marketing purposes. As part of a subscription and/or registration agreement, subscribers and registrants will be contacted by us via mail, e-mail, and/or phone to communicate with them about their subscription and/or registration. They will be contacted for renewal, re-qualification, surveys, updates concerning their account profile and special offers related to their subscription and/or registration. From time to time, we make our customer e-mail and postal address lists and demographic information and aggregate statistics about our members available to other reputable organizations and advertisers. You can, however, have your name put on our do-not-share list by emailing us at the address provided below. Certain information - such as your password and credit card number - is never disclosed in any form whatsoever to any outside party. We will, of course, share information as required by law, such as a court-ordered subpoena, search warrant, or other court order; or required by exigent circumstances). DGI also may use your profile information on an aggregate basis - without personal identifiers -- to provide our editors with information that is useful in developing new features and content for the Website, and to provide Sponsors and others with aggregate information about our users and the usage patterns of the Website. DGI reserves the right to perform statistical analyses of user behavior (on an aggregate basis) in order to measure interest in and use of the various areas of the Website and to inform Sponsors of such information. DGI may permit third parties to offer subscription and/or registration based services through the Website. In this event, DGI is not responsible for any actions or policies of such third parties and users should check the applicable privacy policy of such party before providing personally identifiable information.
Retention of Your Information. It is not possible for you to delete your profile from our database, nor is it feasible to delete all traces of your activity in the system. Messages posted to a Forum are examples of your activities that are not feasible to delete. However, if you send us an email to delete your email address from our database, we will do so.
Voluntary Disclosure of Personally Identifiable Information
If you voluntarily disclose personally identifiable information (for example, user name, e-mail address) in a Forum or any other interactive part of the website, that information, along with any substantive information disclosed in your communication, can be collected and correlated and used by third parties and may result in unsolicited messages from third parties. Such activities are beyond the control of DGI and DGI makes no warranties about the discoverability of your identity by methods beyond our control.
Security
Encryption Technology. When we transfer and receive certain types of sensitive information such as financial, we redirect visitors to a secure server.
Cookie Technology. DGI does not currently employ cookies. However, DGI cannot control the use of cookies by advertisers or third parties displaying data on the Website or on the websites you visit using links from the Website. Most browsers are set to accept cookies. You can set yours to refuse cookies, or to alert you when cookies are being sent.
Links to other Websites
Users will find advertising or other content on the Website that enable linking to the websites of our industry resources, advertisers, sponsors and other third parties. These third party websites may have their own privacy policies or no policy at all. Our Privacy Policy does not apply to such other websites. DGI has no control over the content displayed on such websites, nor over the measures, if any, that are taken by such websites to protect the privacy of your information.
Questions regarding this Privacy Policy should be directed to our Customer Support by email at privacy@datagovernance.com
You can request to be removed from our email lists by sending an email to donotcontact@datagovernance.com
If you feel that this site is not following its stated information policy, please contact us at President@datagovernance.com.
Disclaimers And Other Information
Information supplied on this website by the Data Governance Institute and its writers is provided "as is" and neither DGI nor any of its agents, employees or representatives make any representation or warranty with respect to the contents of the website or information furnished by them or our agents, employees or representatives and specifically disclaim to the fullest extent permitted by law any and all warranties, express or implied, including, but not limited to, implied warranties of merchantability, completeness, timeliness, correctness, noninfringement, or fitness for any particular use, application or purpose.
By entering the website you hereby expressly agree that The Data Governance Institute and its officers, directors, agents and employees, shall not be liable to you for any damages, claims, demands or causes of action, direct or indirect, special, incidental, consequential or punitive, as a result of your use of the website or any information you obtain on it or any other interaction with website owner. In doing so, you agree that you are waiving voluntarily and unequivocally any liability of website owner.
DGI does not make any representation or warranty concerning errors, omissions, delays or other defects in the information supplied to users, or that its files are free of viruses, worms, Trojan horses or other codes that include or manifest contaminating or destructive characteristics.
With respect to communications, DGI does not guarantee that it will respond to all inquiries.
If any clause or provision set forth above is determined to be illegal, invalid or unenforceable under present or future law, then, in that event the clause or provision so determined to be illegal, invalid or unenforceable shall be severable without affecting the enforceability of all remaining clauses or provisions.
Any notice to DGI shall be given in writing and sent by certified and registered mail to The Data Governance Institute, Attn: President, 3208 E Colonial Dr #135, Orlando, FL 32803, USA
DGI MAKES NO REPRESENTATIONS, PROMISES, WARRANTIES OR UNDERTAKINGS CONTRARY TO THOSE SET FORTH ABOVE.
3. Will the DGS Community of Practice disclose my personal information?
Absolutely not. The DGS Community of Practice is the membership arm of The Data Governance Institute (DGI). DGI will never share membership information (except in aggregate) with anyone except when required by law to do so.
Here's a short version of our Privacy Policy. The long, drawn-out legal version is available in our Privacy Policy.
Privacy Policy - Short Version
The Data Governance Institute, LLC is a champion of personal privacy and the protection of individuals' confidential, personal information. We certainly attempt to maintain the highest standards of privacy in our own dealings with website visitors and members. Here's our Privacy Policy in plain English: you provide personal information to us, and we collect some information from typical sources (conferences, purchases, etc.). We use it ourselves to correspond with you and to tell you about events, information, products, and services we think you want to know about. Information gathered as part of the sign-up process for The Data Governance & Stewardship Community of Practice will occasionally be shared it with other arms of The Data Governance Institute (consulting/training, information services) so you can learn about new opportunities, but not with outside entities. Ask us to not contact you, and we will comply! We have no intention of becoming a nuisance to you or anyone else. We want you to like us.
4. Will you notify me of activities that I’m especially interested in?
Yes. When you sign up, you'll have an opportunity to join Special Interest Groups (SIGs) We’ll send emails to SIG members reminding them of specific online and telephone-based knowledge exchange opportunities.
You can change your SIG affiliations (and therefore, your notifications) at any time.
You can even turn them off for a while if you get really busy at work, then turn them back on when you have time to participate more fully.
5. Are other members of the community allowed to “sell” to me?
No. This is against our guidelines. While the Community administrators can’t prevent vendors or consultants from using information you provide via the membership directory or forum to contact you, we will definitely respond to any reports of improper behavior. Those who misuse the community will be asked to leave it.
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