‘Blood donations and the German Red Cross – how data visualization software is helping to improve donation rates’

Background

Geconomy is a company that provides its clients with geo marketing, economic geographical analysis, multivariate statistical modelling and geostatistical research using leading GIS solutions and the latest scientific methods.

One of the organisations it has been working with is the German Red Cross. This is a national body with a federative structure of 19 regional branches and over 420 district branches. The Red Cross is involved in a number of activities which include the collection of donated blood throughout Germany. The Red Cross collects around 80 per cent of blood donations in the country.

Dr Thomas Fels, manager at Geconomy, spoke to us about the project and how it is likely to become a useful tool for increasing donations. He says the Red Cross has been looking for a way of identifying those areas where blood donation rates are lower than might be expected so that it can target its efforts to increase donations. Hospitals and healthcare providers are concerned about falling donation rates which is why this is such an important initiative.

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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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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.

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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Versión en español disponible

How Somerset Intelligence Network is using data presentation to explain community profiles to a wide user audience

Background

The Somerset Intelligence Network (SINe) aims to gather and use intelligence effectively to support policy-making and improve the quality of life for people living in the county of Somerset. SINe is part of the South West Observatory and is co-ordinated by the Partnership Intelligence Unit (PIU), based at Somerset County Council – a strategic partner. The website (http://www.sine.org.uk) is a public portal to SINe and the Observatory. It acts as a first point of access for people and organisations looking for data, information and research about Somerset at a range of geographical levels.

We spoke to Mike Smith, information manager with the PIU. He says that one of the issues identified early on was that individual partner organisations each had their own data sets but there was little coordination in terms of bringing them together. A team was set up to collate data sets and disseminate them which is now being done via a microsite called INFORM Somerset. This provides an overview of Somerset based on a range of themes including health and wellbeing and crime and community safety.

Getting started

Once staff for the PIU was recruited, it started to look at how other organisations were disseminating data and it was quickly recognised that a data visualisation package was needed. After going out to tender, InstantAtlas was selected as the preferred provider and the decision was taken to have a hosted solution.

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Statistiks Bremen – ‘Giving politicians and planning-related decision makers the intelligence to make better decisions’

Background

The Statistical Office of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen is responsible for providing the official statistics for the city of Bremen. Its main task is collecting data, processing, evaluation and publication of more than 200 statistics. The data relates to demographic, social, economical and ecological factors. According to Barbara Rosel who works in The Statistical Office, this data is vital for political and planning-related decision making.

“Data and information has to be processed and made available for local planning and administration agencies of the city. To secure local intelligence for the state of Bremen and beyond, we publish the data and information in different formats and offer different ways to access them,” says Barbara.

City of Bremen - Birth Rates (2005-2009) - Using Single Map Template

Getting started

The Statistical Office decided that InstantAtlas would help it present data in an informative and visually compelling format. The team has created a number of reports using the data presentation software:

• Bremer Ortsteilatlas (Bremen neighbourhood atlas). A data presentation of the different indicators at neighbourhood level of the city of Bremen

• Bremer Baublöcke (Bremen block-level atlas). A data presentation of the different indicators at block-level

• Bremer Wahlatlas (Bremen Election Atlas). A data presentation of the Federal Election results to the German Bundestag in the districts of the City of Bremen.

Meeting the need

The intelligence provided by the Statistical Office is used by various departments including the administration department, political and economic advisers plus members of the public.

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InstantAtlas Essentials Video Tutorial #15

“How to include upper limit and lower limit into the table on spine chart”

This video takes you through the steps necessary to show upper and lower limit associate values in the Table and Spine Chart.

Pinellas County ‘How a small team is helping stakeholders get a better understanding of the community and the impact of interventions through data visualization’

Pinellas County, on Florida’s West Coast, is a 280-square mile peninsula bordered by the Gulf of Mexico and Tampa Bay. The Health and Human Services Coordinating Council for Pinellas County works with funders and providers across the community to develop a human service system for citizens that provides seamless, high-quality care based on the best use of available resources.

 

The Council has developed a website (http://www.pinellasindicators.org) that provides timely access to statistics and dynamic data visualization. The website is sponsored by Pinellas County and the Juvenile Welfare Board: The Children’s Service Council of Pinellas County.

Joe Baldwin is the Senior Researcher/Planner for the Council. We spoke to him to find out how the website is helping to meet the Council’s objectives and how it all started. Joe explains that the initial step was to bring stakeholders from health and human services agencies together to develop specifications. A guiding principle developed early on was that the system had to meet the needs of three groups: residents, elected officials and community leaders.

 

Getting started

Residents wanted a better understanding of the quality of life in Pinellas County and to discover whether agencies’ efforts were having an impact. Elected officials wanted information about their constituencies and to be able to make data-driven decisions. Community leaders wanted to be able to monitor indicators that were important to their individual organizations.

Joe was already familiar with InstantAtlas but found out about the server version at a Community Indicators Consortium conference in Washington. He realised that this version was more suitable for the Council’s needs. “We are by comparison to other community indicator initiatives a small team,” says Joe.

Making the project work

“There were some challenges when it came to getting the system up and running but the support staff at GeoWise were very supportive. Once the initial leg work and the indicators were set up the team realised the extent of the efficiency gain.”

“The Health and Human Services Coordinating Council for Pinellas County was created by an interlocal agreement between funders, and it supports the efforts of many health and human service agencies working together to effect positive change in the community. This means a data presentation tool like this has to be highly collaborative. We have a data committee that is working to develop shared responsibility for the quality of the data and avoiding duplication of effort,” says Joe.

Read more here >>>

Bristol City Council – ‘Giving Bristol and its neighbourhoods access to local data in a visually compelling and easy-to-understand way’

The Bristol City Council Corporate GIS Support team is providing the council and the Bristol Partnership with an online resource to share intelligence, through maps, atlases, statistical reports and dynamic reports about life in Bristol and its neighbourhoods.

We spoke to Mark Newman, Senior GIS Analyst, Bristol City Council to find out more about the project. Mark explained that Bristol City Council initially saw the potential for InstantAtlas as a platform for geodata visualisation. The council has been a pioneer and strong advocate for digital technology and its benefits on the engagement between general public and Local Authority, and on the social, economic and cultural aspects of a connected City. Its Open Data portal has helped it to make the most of tools like InstantAtlas.

Getting started

The council identified a number of groups who were likely to be users of the service. Within the council this included analysts within the different business units, service managers as well as senior member of the council who would need to access data for strategic overview. In the wider Bristol Partnership and beyond this included charities, organisations needing evidence for funding, academics and the citizens of Bristol. To cope with the range of user skills the data visualisation had to work for people with GIS experience and those without.

Meeting the need

Users are now able to access a wide range of data through the Bristol data profiles website (http://profiles.bristol.gov.uk/). This includes Bristol statistics and census information and much of this information is used by the council as evidence on which to base its plans and policies. Indicators of quality of life in Bristol are also available. The Quality of Life in your Neighbourhood survey began in 2001 and provides an annual snapshot of quality of life in Bristol…

To read the full article click here

Cornwall Fire Explorer, United Kingdom

Cornwall Council’s Community Safety Partnership aims to reduce crime and disorder in the county and improve the quality of life and wellbeing for people where they live, work and spend leisure time. The partnership has replaced the six former district based community safety partnerships and includes representatives of the Police, Police Authority, Local Authority, Fire and Rescue Service, the Primary Care Trust, Probation Trust and many other organisations.

Amethyst is the intelligence hub for the partnership. It was set up to facilitate the needs of the partnership and in 2009 it developed the Cornwall Crime Explorer. The aim of the Cornwall Crime Explorer is to reportcrime statistics at a local level to better understand the issues around crime and meet the needs of both the local public sector partners and citizens.

Phil Davies, Strategic Intelligence and Projects Manager, Amethyst was instrumental in Crime Explorer and has since been involved in developing Fire Explorer. Having seen Crime Explorer the Fire and Rescue Service recognised that a similar approach would help them to better understand risk and promote fire safety in the region.

Starting point

Partner organisations are mandated to share data which means that Amethyst has access to a wide range of data sets that can be linked to develop insight into a particular area of focus. As a result Fire Explorer is a data visualisation tool that displays recorded fire incidents at ward level for the following five categories: all fires; arson; car fires; road traffic accidents and chimney fires.

“It’s an excellent tool that allows users to look at fire risk in an easy-to-understand way – whereas previous information systems only served to limit the users,” says Phil.

Meeting the need

According to Phil, Fire Explorer has encouraged the Fire and Rescue Service to take an evidence-based approach.

The Chief Fire Officer, Des Tidbury believes it is helping them change the pattern of delivery so that it is more closely linked to risk. Previously teams would gear their fire safety efforts to where they thought risks were highest. However, these assumptions were based on past practice rather than looking at the evidence which has revealed changing trends…

Read the Full Article – Click here

Lower Lemon Street, Truro – Cornwall | Image Credit – Wikipedia User - Joowwww (licensed under the Creative CommonsAttribution 2.5 Generic license.)