Meeting local community information needs with bilingual microsites

Background

The Local Government Data Unit Wales (the Data Unit) is part of the local government family in Wales. Originally the Data Unit was set up in 2001 to help local authorities and the Welsh Assembly Government use data more effectively so that they are able to understand local priorities and improve the services they provide to the people of Wales. The Unit is now presenting the latest national statistics on its local information system InfoBase service as well as providing access to seven regional information systems.

Welsh Index of Multiple Deprivation 2008 – Quintiles of deprivation | Map – InfoBaseCymru

Starting point

Local government leads, or contributes, to a wide range of strategies and partnerships. Most require a robust database of small area information to inform planning and service delivery. In the light of this, the Data Unit, along with partner organisations, developed a small area multi data agency dataset at a small geographical level across all Wales (SAMDA). The first version of SAMDA, a CD entitled ‘Data for your local area’, was produced in September 2003 and the second version was published on the Data Unit website in 2005.

In 2008 a project was set up to look at providing a web-based area profiling tool to replace SAMDA. The Data Unit compared a number of different software packages. It needed software that provided good functionality and could produce reports in addition to maps. This was the feature that set InstantAtlas apart from the others.

Read the full article here

See microsite examples below