# Troubleshooting & FAQs

### Common “what do I pick?” scenarios

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<summary><strong>“I’m trying to understand what’s happening in my neighborhood”</strong></summary>

Start with a **map** or a **dashboard**. Those usually let you filter by area without downloading anything.

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<summary><strong>“I need numbers for a grant or report”</strong></summary>

Look for a **dataset** with clear definitions and a recent last modification date.&#x20;

Use download if you need to cite exact figures. See [downloads-and-formats](https://help.datamidsouth.org/data-midsouth-portal/features/downloads-and-formats "mention")for more guidance.

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<summary><strong>“I’m not sure which dataset is the ‘right’ one”</strong></summary>

Review the asset page's Metadata section:

* time period covered
* geography (city, county, census tract, ZIP, etc.)
* definitions&#x20;
* limitations and constraints

If it’s still unclear, reach out to <datamidsouth@innovatememphis.com> — we can help you pick the right source.

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### FAQs

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<summary><strong>What's the difference between Data Midsouth and the Memphis Property Hub?</strong></summary>

The [Memphis Property Hub](https://mph.datamidsouth.org/) (MPH) is a specialized mapping tool for property-level data — ownership, evictions, occupancy, and vacant land across Shelby County. It has its own interface and [user guide](https://help.datamidsouth.org/memphis-property-hub).

Data Midsouth is the broader catalog that MPH sits within. If the MPH answers 'what's happening with this specific property or neighborhood?', Data Midsouth answers 'what data does Memphis have access to, across all topics?'

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<summary><strong>What's the difference between Data Midsouth and the City of Memphis Data Hub?</strong></summary>

The [Memphis Data Hub](https://data.memphistn.gov/) is the City of Memphis’ open data portal, and it’s a great resource. In fact, we highly recommend you check it out! Data Midsouth includes many datasets pulled directly from the Memphis Data Hub.

One limitation is that the Memphis Data Hub mostly hosts data that the City government collects and reports, so it doesn’t include data for Shelby County Government, local school districts, the Health Department or other major local agencies.

The Data Midsouth platform is designed to centralize access to all publicly available data across agencies and sources so it’s easier to navigate and provides a more comprehensive picture of local community trends.

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<summary><strong>How are Data Midsouth and Innovate Memphis related?</strong></summary>

Data Midsouth encompasses this online civic data hub. Innovate Memphis is the local nonprofit and data intermediary organization that manages all things Data Midsouth as part of its portfolio of innovation projects. Learn more about Innovate Memphis [here](https://innovatememphis.com/).

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<summary><strong>How does the Data Midsouth team decide what data sources to promote or create?</strong></summary>

Early on, we are prioritizing data sources that are:

1. already publicly available or that we have data sharing agreements to share publicly;
2. reasonably complete, accurate and high-quality; and
3. relate to civic issues and indicators of community wellbeing.

We also work with community partners and public agency data leads serving on our Community Data Stewardship Committee.&#x20;

The committee launched in 2025 and includes representatives from local government, nonprofits, grassroots community organizations, research institutions, and technical sectors. One of their roles will be to help us decide on new features and topics to build on the Data Midsouth platform.

We also rely on users like you to help us advocate for access to more sources and data sets. If you have ideas for a new report or feature, you can [“Create a New Post” on any of our feedback boards on Featurebase](https://datamidsouth.featurebase.app/). For more guidance, see [request-or-suggest](https://help.datamidsouth.org/data-midsouth-portal/contribute-and-participate/request-or-suggest "mention").

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<summary><strong>How does Data Midsouth keep data trustworthy?</strong></summary>

Good tools are not enough. People need data they can trust and explain.

We try to publish every item with:

* A plain-language description.
* A source and owner.
* A refresh schedule, when available.
* Notes about known limits and edge cases.

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<summary><strong>How does Data Midsouth protect sensitive data?</strong></summary>

Data Midsouth adheres to all applicable local, state and federal policies related to data confidentiality and privacy and uses industry-standard platform technology to keep underlying data secure. Most of the data sources we receive are already de-identified or are already considered public records. Our goal is to make data related to local civic issues easier to aggregate at the trend level.

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