Building a strong sense of community is fundamental to nurturing and sustaining successful organizations. IPUMS and the MPC pursue three avenues—educational, social, and historical—for building community for its faculty, research associates, staff, and affiliates.
“Good IT is invisible,” says MPC IT Core director Fran Fabrizio. “You want the users to have the idea that it’s a magic black box.” Though the intent is for the technology behind IPUMS and the other MPC data tools to seem effortless, Fabrizio understands the extent of the human work goes that goes into producing good technology. Getting 2.6 terabytes of data out to users each week requires no small amount of technology behind it.