The Boston Data Portal is a public-facing resource developed by the Boston Area Research Initiative (BARI) to make data products from BARI projects available for research and policy collaboration. It has two parts: the Boston Area Research Map and the Boston Data Library. The portal lets users browse, map, analyze and download information about Boston’s people, places and neighborhoods.1
The portal grew out of BARI’s broader effort to connect university research with city policy and local needs. BARI was launched in 2012 by Harvard’s Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study in collaboration with the Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston and Harvard’s Institute for Quantitative Social Science; its origins followed a 2011 conference on city-university partnerships. In 2016, BARI moved its administrative home to Northeastern University and became a joint Northeastern–Harvard venture.2 Its founding directors were Harvard sociologists Robert J. Sampson and Christopher Winship, and its current director is Dan O’Brien of Northeastern University.24
The portal’s data can include material such as census information, social-media data, city building records and 311 calls. Its interactive map supports neighborhood-level comparisons; an earlier example included Boston Neighborhood Survey results alongside information about schools and community centers.9 BARI also provides tutorial videos and runs trainings for community organizations and residents, aimed at helping participants find and analyze local data for informed advocacy.1
To extend that support beyond introductory training, BARI describes a Data Consultant service funded through the Herman & Frieda L. Miller Foundation. The service offers guidance on locating data, measuring indicators, using analytical software such as R, and reviewing analyses; it is intended as advice and assistance rather than taking on full projects.1 BARI’s wider work includes research-policy partnerships and efforts to make digital data accessible to people with different levels of data experience.711