Flattery gets you everywhere. I received this nice note from Marcus Estes over at www.opensourcery.com:
The Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta just launched a new community indicators project serving the citizens of great Atlanta. It's called Neighborhood Nexus:
http://neighborhoodnexus.org/
I work with OpenSourcery, the web company that developed the technology for them. It involves a few innovations, including a custom spreadsheet
upload tool that allows them to change the indicators they're tracking merely by changing their spreadsheet, without having to rely upon a tech company for more development work.
We've open sourced it, and we're seeking additional partners to help us improve upon the software for use in other areas. Please give Neighborhood Nexus a little much-deserved attention on your (wonderful and informative) blog, and let me know if you see opportunities for us to use this software to help other organizations.
Naturally, I went to the site to explore Neighborhood Nexus. I saw quite a bit I liked.
1. Getting to the data is quick, easy, and intuitive. Select an indicator, then a level of geography, and bam! the table is there for you. Minor quibble: using a tiny yellow font in the headers against a graduated blue background mad them really hard to read, though the result looked pretty. The options on the left to change measures, years, and filter out geographies were simple to use.
2. Learning more about the data involved clicking on a Data Sources button, which had some information, and following that up by clicking on the Glossary button. Even then, I was left with some unanswered questions about just what some of the indicators were measuring, and to get that information I needed to follow the links to the data source providers. I liked that I could find the information. I did, however, remind myself once again that at some point those of us who work with indicators need to get together to devise a core set of metadata standards. Maybe we can have that conversation at the CIC conference in Seattle.
3. Full, interactive maps are coming soon, according to the site. In the meantime, they have some nice maps they've created using some of the indicators on the site. I liked the concept (and execution) of the map of "where Gen-Xers live."
4. They also provide a neighborhood factbook that compiles the indicators by neighborhood into a set of PDF documents.
There's a survey for site users to describe what indicators are missing and how the site might be improved.
Overall, a good site, with more in development. What makes this site something to really pay attention to is that it was built as open source software, and is one of the early efforts to bring open source solutions to the community indicators community. There are other open source efforts underway. We should be paying close attention to this trend to see how it plays out.
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Introducing Neighborhood Nexus
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Report Release: Roanoke, Virginia
The Council of Community Services, in partnership with the United Way of Roanoke Valley, just released their second annual Roanoke Regional Community Indicators Report (PDF).
From their website:
The report updates key household economic indicators, presentations of valuable data that show change over time, for eight jurisdictions in the Roanoke/Alleghany Region. The report tracks the original 39 indicators and adds two key education indicators for a total of 41 indicators. Job related, education, income and asset related, housing, public assistance, low income and other categories of indicators are included in this updated, data rich, 2009 Edition.
The Council of Community Services is now tracking a limited number of economic indicators on a monthly basis for the Roanoke/Alleghany Region. This report, 2009 Economic Indicators: Monthly Trends (PDF) provides valuable indicator data for the eight jurisdictions in the Roanoke Region. The data covers the period from January to June 2009.
They've done a nice job of selecting indicators on a regional level and reporting them for the region and for each of the eight jurisdictions the region covers. For policy-makers and planners, this is an important tool for their region. They also do a nice job of taking advantage of the new ACS 3-year estimates for smaller-population jurisdictions. If you're not using this tool, you may want to check out how Roanoke can capture important information that was simply not available before outside of the decennial census.
Take a look!
(Read more about the report at The Roanoke Times.)
Monday, June 15, 2009
Greater Louisville Project
The Greater Louisville Project has released their 2009 Competitive City Report (PDF), and I commend it to you for several reasons.
First, I want you to look at the amount of information the report conveys in 7 pages. They have historical, current, and projected data over a number of indicators that show Louisville's place among its peer cities. (I was particulary interested because Jacksonville is one of those peer cities selected -- the more research others do about Jacksonville, the easier my job becomes!)
Second, the report is focused on a single goal -- "to move Louisville into the top tier among its peer cities by the end of this decade." To do that, they identified three "deep drivers" -- Education (specifically raising educational attainment to develop a more highly skilled workforce), Jobs (21st century industry and jobs), and Quality of Place (which deals with the urban vitality required to attract talent and the 21st century industry.) Each of the indicators then become linked to one of the drivers and linked directly to the goal.
Third, the mix of graphics and use of color makes the report engaging. You get the picture quickly.
Fourth, the website is engaging. You get the overview, and then can click through any of the three deep drivers, and then go to any chart, and then get an Excel data chart for each indicator -- I like the way they meet the information needs of multiple audiences.
The last thing I'll mention is that I liked how Jacksonville was improving -- our rates of progress, specifically in educational attainment and household income, have been a concentrated local concern, and I'm glad to see other people taking notice of our growth in these areas. Plus check out Jacksonville's parkland indicator! Hooray for preserving land as a recreational asset, environmental protection, and growth management tool!
Anyway, check out the report, and keep the new report release information coming.
Friday, November 14, 2008
Report Release: Northwest Arkansas Community Indicators Report
We've been seeing a growing trend of community foundations publishing community indicators reports. This is particularly exciting because it paces private philanthropic giving within an overall framework of community improvement, and has the added benefit of encouraging even more charitable giving to address clearly identified community needs. (I think I've mentioned a few times my strong belief that only through collaborative action can we address the multitude of inter-related issues in an effective manner, uniting government, business, and nonprofit sectors.)
Anyway, what triggered this thought was the release by the Northwest Arkansas Community Foundation of the Northwest Arkansas Community Indicators Report. The report covers the social and demographic composition of the region, and has sections on indicators of income and poverty, housing and homelessness, families and households, education, health, public safety, aging and elderly, natural environment, civic engagement, and the arts.
Two thoughts about the report:
First, I liked their explanation of why they needed to look at the indicators on a regional basis. They said:
A regional perspective on the quality-of-life in Northwest Arkansas is important because many issues transcend more limited territorial boundaries. Certainly, the Northwest Arkansas region consists of multiple local jurisdictions including counties, cities, townships, and school districts, with each having their own local planning autonomy. Nevertheless, there are a number of critical problems that can only be addressed regionally. In recent times, the Northwest Arkansas Council has made extraordinary efforts to address the hard infrastructure needs of the region (e.g. air and water quality, traffic patterns, transportation, growth) by adopting a regional approach. With a regional approach new alliances can be created, new partnerships forged, and innovative strategies developed to address the soft infrastructure challenges facing Northwest Arkansas in the 21st Century. Hopefully, this report will contribute to these future dialogues.
The second thought is about their indicators of the elderly and aging populations. I've been loking for good, localized indicators of the quality of life of older persons for quite some time. What I've been able to find so far is echoed in this report, though they put the data together differently and try to draw out the story better than I've been able to in the past. They measure the number of older persons, the growth in the agining population, how many live alone, how many are employed, and then focus into how many are in poverty, how many receive public assistance, how many are in nursing homes, and then go into indicators of health and death. I'm convinced there's a much larger story we need to be telling about this new life stage besides that of poverty and dying, but I can't find good, positive indicators of the kinds of vibrancy and contributions that this new generation of active retirees -- this new life stage -- is adding to communities. I'd love your help, if you can offer any.
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Cleaner Air in Pittsburgh?
For those of you who went to the Community Indicators Consortium conference in Jacksonville, Florida (conference proceedings available here), you'll remember meeting John Craig from Pittsburgh Today. This is an interesting regional indicators effort that's getting some local recognition.
Recently, Harold Miller's blog, Pittsburgh's Future, wrote up the progress the city has made in cleaning up its air and the usefulness of Pittsburgh Today's indicators as measurement tools.
From the blog:
The American Lung Association claims that the Pittsburgh Region’s air quality is the second worst in the country. However, their methodology is misleading, because it is based on the unusually high PM2.5 readings at the air pollution monitors in Liberty Borough and Clairton. (PM2.5 consists of soot particles less than 2.5 microns in size, which can cause heart and lung damage.) The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recognized that these monitors were not representative of the air quality in the rest of our region, so it designated that portion of the Mon Valley as a separate non-attainment area for PM2.5 pollution.
Much better measures of air quality have been developed by the Pittsburgh Regional Indicators Project (http://www.pittsburghtoday.org/). They average the readings from all of the pollution monitors in the region to determine the air quality that the majority of regional residents are breathing.
You can read the rest of the article here.
Thursday, July 26, 2007
South Florida Indicators Website
Here's an interesting resource for community indicators fans. The Florida Atlantic University Center for Urban & Environmental Solutions (you may have met Jim Murley or Lenore Alpert at a Community Indicators Consortium conference) hosts SOFLO.org, "Your Resource for South Florida Indicators."
The site is remarkably easy to navigate, with a video, indicators reports, hot topics, news, events, related research reports, and indicators data available on the front page. It's a different look and feel than GIS-based sites, and does a pretty good job of showing how indicators reports are part of the larger picture of understanding the region.
While you're at the site, be sure to check out Charting the Course and their use of indicators to examine future scenarios for the region.
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
Alliance for Regional Stewardship Change
In November 2005, the Alliance for Regional Stewardship published a monograph called Regional Indicators: Telling Stories, Measuring Trends, Inspiring Action (available online to ARS members only.)
At that time, we had great hope for ARS to serve as a catalyst for regional indicators efforts around the country. In our region in Northeast Florida, they helped inspire the creation of a Regional Leadership Academy, using their developing John W. Gardner Regional Leadership Academy to bring people together. Part of the Northeast Florida Regional Leadership Academy work led to regional leaders calling for a regional vision and indicators to measure progress toward reaching that vision.
With that context, I just received a press release from ARS. I'm more than a little concerned about the loss of a network focused on regional action, and am not convinced that the ACCE affiliation allows the same breadth of regional interest we had seen before. I'm interested in your feedback, especially if you've worked with ARS before.
American Chamber of Commerce Executives and Alliance for Regional Stewardship Announce Affiliation Agreement
ACCE is a national non-profit association, founded in 1914, that serves individuals in Chamber of Commerce management. ARS is a national non-profit network of public and private practitioners, launched in 2000, whose mission is to build strong, globally-competitive regions for the U.S.
Under the Agreement to be signed this summer, ARS will become a signature part of ACCE's expanded focus on regional activities, research and partnerships. ACCE will assume responsibility for the management, funding, and operations of ARS. Current and new ARS programming will be offered to ACCE members, and to interested leaders in the public, private, and non-profit sectors who want to promote development in their regions.
"With this affiliation," said Mick Fleming, President of ACCE, "ACCE will expand available resources for communities and chambers related to regionalism. We will establish a separate wing of our website for ARS with regionalism-related content, links, research and resources. We will expand ARS consulting services and energize the ARS Regional Stewardship Awards program. And we will ensure strong regionalism content in our national meetings."
Fleming added: "This affiliation agreement is a win/win for regional activists and for the 1,500 Chambers of Commerce across the country. Business leaders increasingly are engaging across political and geographic boundaries to help solve the challenges confronting their communities. ARS brings experience in more than 50 regions as advisors and mentors, helping build the multi-sector coalitions that are the key to regional success.
All current ARS members will be offered membership in ACCE at no additional cost through 2007, with benefits including attendance at two national conferences, participation in web-based training and learning, and access to ACCE's extensive information network.
This new Affiliation means that the ARS National Forum, scheduled in November, 2007 in Long Beach, CA, will not be held. Instead, current ARS members and others interested in ARS Forum topics will be invited to ACCE conferences this year, where regional topics will be featured. In future years, the ARS annual conference will become a feature of ACCE annual meetings, held annually in August.
Joan Riehm, Chair of the ARS Board of Directors, noted that the ARS Board adopted an ambitious strategic plan last year to expand its services, but found it needed a strong organizational framework to make the plan a reality. "We are delighted that ACCE sees the value that ARS has built in helping deliver real, measurable results in the regions where we have worked. We're looking forward to expanding our consulting, research, and information services to reach a much broader audience than we could do on our own."
David Thornburgh, current President and CEO of ARS, will be stepping down from that position once the Affiliation Agreement is complete. "David has a great commitment to the ARS vision," said Riehm, expressing the gratitude of the ARS Board for his service. "His insights and disciplined thinking about how to realize the ARS vision have been enormously important to the Board and to the decision to pursue this strategic option."
Riehm, a consultant in Public Issues Management based in Louisville, KY, will serve as interim executive director of ARS through 2007, until ACCE hires a staff director for its expanded regional activities.
About the Alliance for Regional Stewardship
For more information on the Alliance for Regional Stewardship, visit http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=qvvpabcab.0.eubuszbab.bkbmfxbab.679&ts=S0254&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.regionalstewardship.org%2F
About the American Chamber of Commerce ExecutivesFor more information on the American Chamber of Commerce Executives, visit http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=qvvpabcab.0.su5d74bab.bkbmfxbab.679&ts=S0254&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.acce.org%2F Read more ...
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