Helping local communities in Trafford represent themselves and highlight their needs using an online interactive data hub

Background

Trafford Council has been an advocate of open data since May 2010 when the council took the decision to create an open data page on its website to allow access to numerous data it collects. This includes: council tax, business rates, location data, such as for schools and leisure centres and election results.

However, it wanted to use the data more effectively to create an intelligence resource. With NESTA funding and support from a steering group which included other Greater Manchester local authorities it embarked on an initiative called DataGM – a platform that would allow data sharing across Greater Manchester.

Alongside its work with DataGM, Trafford also wanted to develop its own data sharing initiative and went out to tender for a solution that would enable it to develop what it saw as a data observatory for Trafford.

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The National Cancer Intelligence Network – Presenting cancer information in an easy to understand format for all to access

Background

The National Cancer Intelligence Network (NCIN) is a UK-wide initiative, working to drive improvements in standards of care and clinical outcomes by improving data and information collected about cancer patients, producing analyses and enabling and promoting research.

We spoke to Trish Watts at the NCIN who, along with colleague Steve Davies, has been involved in a project to present data relating to cancer in a format that can be easily accessed and understood. The NCIN works with the UK Association of Cancer Registries (UKACR), the organisation of the 11 Cancer Registries which routinely collect data on cancer in the UK, as well as with the NHS and cancer charities.

A vast quantity of information is produced by the NCIN and its partners. Statistics are published on how many people are diagnosed with, or die from cancer and reports are produced on how it affects different groups of people within the UK. For example, how it affects teenagers and young adults, or different ethnic groups.

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Roanoke Council of Community Services and a new online platform that brings life to community indicators through data presentation

Background

The Roanoke Council of Community Services was set up in 1960 to aid the planning of community services in Roanoke Valley. Its vision is to establish a community where organizations are able to work collaboratively to increase social wealth, provide greater access to resources, reduce redundancy and focus on human potential as the drivers for economic development and individual well-being. The Council has three areas of activity. First it acts as the central hub for identifying community needs and developing solutions to address these needs. Second it serves as a central clearinghouse, or gateway, connecting individuals in the community to programmes that are best suited to address their needs and third the Council serves as a launching pad for developing new programmes to meet community needs.

We spoke to Dan Meranda, Vice President of Planning & Consultation at the Council about data visualization and how it is being used to provide community organizations with timely insight about the local community. Dan explains that the Council put a lot of effort into establishing which indicators could be used to develop a picture of trends over time.

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IPPR – How a UK think tank is using data presentation turn a project on the needs of older people in London into a useful resource

Background

IPPR, the Institute for Public Policy Research, is the UK’s leading progressive think tank, producing rigorous research and innovative policy ideas. IPPR publishes more than 50 reports each year and it uses its website as a hub for progressive thinking.

Getting started

One of its recent projects was supported by the City Bridge Trust – a charity that supports charitable activity benefitting Greater London. The project culminated in a report Older Londoners that highlighted the urgent need to tackle social isolation among the oldest members in society. It found that the number of people in London aged over-65 is expected to rise by a third in the next 20 years and those aged over 90, by 95 per cent.

Senior research fellow Kayte Lawton says: “It was a project looking at ageing and growing problems faced by the over-80s. This is a group of people who are often classed with the over-65s but we wanted to differentiate the needs of this older group. They often have greater social care and health needs.”

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How Procalculo Prosis in Colombia is using data visualisation to help the Bogota Chambers of Commerce improve the business environment in the country’s capital city

Background

Procalculo Prosis is one of Columbia’s leading geographic information solutions (GIS) providers. It was founded in 1968 and its main goal has been to help its clients make strategic decisions based on accurate insight. Its expertise in the use of data visualisation software ensures it can meet its clients’ geographic information needs.

One of Procalculo Prosis’ clients is the Bogota Chamber of Commerce. The Chamber of Commerce was set up to improve quality of life and the business climate. It helps companies to start up and ensure that the employment opportunities created are sustainable by supporting business growth.

At the same time the Chamber promotes social responsibility and encourages better working relationships between local authorities, employers and citizens.

Getting started

The Chamber wanted to use GIS and data presentation to help it understand and respond to a number of issues. These included: urban land usage, monitoring the construction in infrastructure and high informal business and labour rates.

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Watch the latest InstantAtlas Essentials Video #20
‘How to create a button that links to a file or website’ by Andrea Kirk in InstantAtlas Support.

Poole Partnership | ‘Providing an information resource to help commissioners of childrens’ services address local priorities’

Background

Poole Partnership is the Local Strategic Partnership for Poole. It involves community, voluntary and faith groups, working together with businesses and the public sector. It  aims to achieve long-term improvements to the quality of life for people living in Poole.

We spoke to Sara Ireland, Senior Research Officer, about the project. “It originated from work with a children and young people’s dataset that we had been working on for a number of years. We realised we were sitting on a large amount of information and were only able to do a limited amount with it – so we wanted to find a way of getting it into the public domain in a friendly format,” she says.

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Image Credit – Jim Linwood

How data presentation is helping the Mexico Data Observatory get local information into the hands of a wide range of individuals

Background

Mexico’s Data Observatory works alongside the local government, organisations representing citizen’s interests and universities. One of its aims is to communicate data in such a way that it can be understood not only by experts but by the whole population. It had previously been using PDFs to present data but decided it needed to investigate other ways of doing this.

Salomon Gonzalez Arellano is Professor Investigator at the Observatory and faculty member of the Universidad Autonoma Metropolitana says that one of the drivers for them was to make the data accessible by a wide range of individuals – even to teenagers needing insight for their homework.

“We felt that we didn’t need a typical map server because that would require a large investment and not everyone would be able to use it,” he says. “We decided to look for another way to communicate our work.”

Getting started

The Observatory first came across InstantAtlas in 2005 through a design agency that was interested in geographical information systems (GIS). However, it was several years before the Observatory was given funding.

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Havering Data Intelligence Hub | Ensuring strategic partners are able to access data and get a better understanding of local need

Background

The Havering Data Intelligence Hub provides data, information and research about the London Borough of Havering. The Hub was set up to benefit the local authority, its partners and the public by helping them understand key information about the borough through data, analysis, surveys and reports.

Getting started

Rebecca Booker is Area Intelligence Business Analyst at the council. She says one of the key drivers for the hub was the need for all the partners to have access to the same data.“You often find that people obtain data from different places and this can be confusing as there is little consistency. We wanted to make sure all the data was in one place where everyone can access it,” says Rebecca.

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Cooperation and Working Together “Providing insight to improve the quality of children’s lives in the border regions of Ireland”

Background

Co-operation and Working Together (CAWT) is a cross border health and social care partnership comprising the Health and Social Care Board, the Public Health Agency, the Southern and Western Health and Social Care Trusts in Northern Ireland and the border counties of the Health Service Executive (HSE) in the Republic of Ireland. CAWT is managing a range of cross border health and social care programmes, part financed by the European Union’s European Regional Development Fund through the INTERREG IVA cross-border Programme managed by the Special EU Programmes Body. One of these project is  the CAWT Outcomes for Children Project which was set up to assess need and plan services for children and young people at a cross border level.

Getting started

Stephen Barry is Information Support Officer for the CAWT Outcomes for Children Project and has been in his current post since January 2010. He explains that mapping indicators is an important part of the partnership’s work. “The mapping of indicators, which are linked to outcomes for children as well as services, has the potential to underpin integrated planning of services for every child in Ireland,” he says.

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IA Tools Enhance JCCI’s Data Analysis Capacities

Jacksonville Community Council Inc. (JCCI) began using Instant Atlas to display its Quality of Life Progress Report community indicators in September of 2009. For the first 18 months, we used the Single Map Template to show approximately 125 indicators, many of them stretching back over 25 years, in a way that was revolutionary for our community.  People throughout our community, from policy-makers to grant writers to community advocates, appreciated the ease and clarity with which they could get the data they needed.  On our part, we appreciated the freedom from the constraints of the printed report, allowing us to update information as soon as it was released (often beating the local newspaper to the publication of new data.)

Beginning last month, we decided to see how our community would react to seeing some of the other tools Instant Atlas has to offer. When we used the Double Map Template and began playing with the scatterplot tools, we started to see interesting (and sometimes unexpected) correlations that we could verify over time. In fact, the use of this template helped provide a definitive answer if one of our indicators truly was still a significant and useful measure today. (It was, much more than anticipated.)

If the scatterplot tool, allowing comparisons between two indicators, revealed such interesting information, we wondered what the Bubble Plot Template might show? Once we began examining relationships among four indicators at the same time, we began to see targeted opportunities for additional research and policy direction. For example, when examining high school graduation rates, we found school districts that were overperforming in relation to the social and economic conditions within the district, and other districts that were underperforming – including districts with a reputation for excellence.  Suddenly, we were able to bring together useful information in a compelling visual display with the ability to reshape community conversations around priorities and policies – and the data is available for anyone in our community to check for themselves.

You can see how we’re using Instant Atlas at http://www.jcci.org.