OCSI Data packs put more insight into Nottingham

Nottingham’s Local Information System ‘Nottingham Insight’ (http://www.nottinghaminsight.org.uk) was set up in response to challenges from the Local Strategic Partnership to make better use of evidence, and support stronger local partnerships.

We talked to Mick Dunn, the GIS, Data and Information Business Manager and Wendy Conibear, the Senior Mapping Officer at Nottingham City Council to find out more about the LIS and how they have been using Data Packs to keep up with ever-growing local needs for in-depth information on neighbourhoods and trends over time.

Background

Nottingham Insight was initially built from an in-house GIS system, which supported data and maps at a neighbourhood level. As local need grew for reliable, up-to-date and easy-to-use data, the system was initially extended by integrating the existing system into Instant Atlas Desktop (www.instantatlas.com). This served Nottingham’s needs well for some time, but as the required volume of data continued to increase further, it was necessary to upgrade the system to Instant Atlas Server.

In order to meet the demand for a comprehensive range of public domain data, the Nottingham team decided to enhance the content of the system by integrating the OCSI Data Packs. Combined with locally collected data and the extensive documents hub already in place, this made the whole range of required information instantly available to users.

“We decided on Data Packs because the demand for National Data was increasingly burdensome for us to meet – people are increasingly needing historic and in depth national data”

Benefits of Data Packs

Meeting local need for national data

Faced with the demand for reliable and usable national data, Mick explained how it made sense to populate Nottingham Insight with the OCSI Data Packs content. As well the city of Nottingham, the packs provide content for all districts across the county, with the system providing different home-pages for the different local authority areas. In addition, the team continue to collect and input their own locally collected data – enabling them to meet data needs for all users:

“Data Packs were particularly appealing as they strongly relate to the
JSNA and Community Strategy requirements”

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Waiting for Census

(This is a guest blog from Tom Smith at OCSI. The original was posted at http://www.ocsi.co.uk/news/2011/08/25/waiting-for-census/).

I’m going to take a punt that the Census 2001 is still the most widely used data-source in the UK when it comes to targeting local services and allocating resources (if you ignore underpinning datasets such as Ordnance Survey geographic stuff), despite being 10 years out of date. I’m yet to come across a Local Authority or other public sector organisation that hasn’t heavily used the Census for assessing ‘need’, and it’s also a major part in the way that public sector cash is targeted at different areas and communities (not least the formula used for local government funding).

And if you’re looking for commercial applications of open (freely available) data, census data is one of the biggest successes. Lots of commercial datasets and services rely heavily on census data, including the ACORN and MOSAIC user segmentations.

Which is why I’m excited about the arrival of Census 2011 datasets next year. The latest news is that the raw data has arrived from Lockheed Martin (presumably in big shiny steel briefcases padlocked to the wrists of very burly statisticians), and ONS are hard at work validating it all – with Census Director Glen Watson identifying coverage of 94% of the UK population (although some local authorities may reach as low as 80%, which suggests that coverage for particular groups will again be well below average).

So what is coming out and when? The provisional running order (download from the Census output page) is:

• Data table definitions: September 2011
• Final timetable for outputs: March 2012
• First data release (July 2012): UK, region and LA population totals by age and gender.
• Second release (not dated): Key Statistics and Univariate Tables from the smallest area (Output Areas) upwards. These correspond to the 2001 KS and UV outputs. [UPDATE: Rumours are that KS and UV tables will start to surface around October 2012]
• Third release (not dated): Multivariate data from Output Area upwards. These correspond to the 2001 CS and CT outputs. [UPDATE: Rumours are that CS and CT tables will not appear until 2013]
• Fourth release (not dated): Multivariate Standard Tables from ward level upwards. These correspond to the 2001 ST outputs.
• Subsequent releases: Migration tables,  workplace tables (ie data based on workplace rather than residential), detailed ethnic/ religious group outputs.

In other words, second half of 2012 is when it all gets going (I’ll update the dates when these are published) – just in time for the Olympics.

OCSI Data Packs help Facts about Coventry improve local public services

Facts about Coventry – some background

Coventry’s Local Information System, ‘Facts about Coventry’ (http://www.facts-about-coventry.com), was set up in November 2010 by the Coventry Partnership. It set out to offer citizens and service providers a single point of reference for information about the public services people use, and background contextual information about the place itself.

Facts about Coventry primarily aims to ensure Service Managers can improve services through better access to better data. However, the system also serves a wider range of users, including local councillors, civil society organisations or members engaged in the Big Society, local businesses, those with an interest in public issues, students with projects, teachers and more. We talked to Tim Healey, Corporate Research Officer for Coventry City Council to find out more about how they are using Data Packs.

Launching Facts about Coventry

Unlike many Local Information Systems, ‘Facts about Coventry’ was not built on an existing system, but was built from scratch. Before the development of this system, the different departments within the authority were used to collecting and presenting their data in different ways from one another, with no integrated system in place. Faced with this problem at the inception of ‘Facts about Coventry’, developers decided the best approach was to buy a system using ‘off the peg’ solutions.

After an extensive review of the range of products available, Instant Atlas Server (http://www.instantatlas.com/iads.xhtml) and OCSI Data Packs (http://www.data-packs.com) stood out as offering the best solutions. Data Packs were selected due to the comprehensive range of public domain data and reporting they made instantly available, and because they were prepared in a way that enabled the user to load them directly into the Coventry system in a format readily processed by Instant Atlas.

Benefits of Data Packs for Coventry

A powerful tool for service managers

Facts about Coventry has proved to be useful to all Partnership data teams and service managers. As Tim explained, it is standard practice in Coventry for service providers to collect and analyse local service information. The contextual information provided by Data Packs is now used to support and strengthen this local data and has enabled service providers to deepen their analysis.

Read the full article

 

Watch the latest InstantAtlas Essentials Tutorial #17
How to configure a component to be a pop up window

Video Transcript below

Today I would like to show you, how you can make a component of your dynamic report to be a pop-up window that can be toggled on and off using a button.

To demonstrate this, I will use this example report. This report is as it comes out of the Publisher – nothing has been changed yet.

Now let’s say I would like to make the Time Series Chart a pop-up window. I would maybe want to do this if a component is not primarily important for the report or if I am running out of space to display all components next to each other.

I will open the config.xml file in the InstantAtlas Designer, select the component I would like to make to a pop-up window – in my case the Time Series Chart – and tick the checkbox of the property ‘PopUp Window?’. There is another property called ‘PopUp Window Visible?’ which allows me to define if I want the component visible when I open the report or if it shall be hidden on start-up. I want it to be hidden initially, so I leave this checkbox unticked.

Now I need a button to be able to toggle the component on and off. I will insert a new button via ‘Insert’ – ‘Button’ and give it a label e.g. ‘Time Series’. In the URL field of the ‘Links’ tab I now have to call an ActionScript function. This has to start with “script:” followed by the appropriate function name. The Designer section of the InstantAtlas Desktop User Guide lists all available ActionScript functions but I can also find the name of the function of I select the Time Series Chart again and hold my mouse pointer over one of the two pop-up window properties. The tooltip that appears will tell me the correct ActionScript function, in this case ‘toggleTimeSeries’.

So I go back to the new button und write exactly this function behind the ‘script:’. Please note that the function names are case sensitive.

I can now save my changes and refresh the report in my browser window. Initially I don’t see the time Series chart but when I click on the Time Series button, I can toggle the component on and off.

By the way: The data explorer is by default set up as a pop-up window which is toggled using the ‘Data’ button. If you would prefer to have the Data Explorer as a static component rather than a pop-up window, you can simply delete the ‘Data’ button and untick the ‘PopUp Window?’ property in the Data Explorer Properties.

If you experience any difficulties in setting up your own pop-up windows, or if you have any further questions please do not hesitate to contact support@geowise.co.uk.