This lab-based seminar and class explores terms and methods to critically examine the claims about data-driven technologies that have been projected as “solutions” to community problems. We’ll engage new methods and models of community data to diversify and historicize the conditions in which such forms of technological solutionism arise. These tools will enhance students’ ability to interrogate data and discern how data are used to inform civic decision making, public policy, community engagement, and the design of infrastructures for public participation. Key to the course will be engagement with distinct civic sectors involved in designing local programs to build skills in collecting, assessing, evaluating and communicating insights drawn from diverse forms of data.