TM The Open Indicators Consortium A Local Regional

TM The Open Indicators Consortium: A Local, Regional, National and International Resource William Mass Director, Center for Industrial Competitiveness Associate Professor, Regional Economic and Social Development and Georges Grinstein Director, Institute for Visualization and Perception Research Professor, Computer Science University of Massachusetts Lowell Charlotte Kahn Director, Boston Indicators Project The Boston Foundation © 2010 University of Massachusetts

TM Motivation: “We’re living in a cold war between open and closed systems. ” – Tim Wu, Professor and Internet expert Columbia University (New York Times, 11/12/07) © 2010 University of Massachusetts

TM Goal: Create high-performance open source data visualization tools • • • increase access, distribution and use of public data facilitate the understanding of complex patterns support comparisons from micro to macro levels foster collaboration to solve complex problems encourage innovation and creativity in an open source environment • enable transparency and accountability © 2010 University of Massachusetts

TM Values: • Expanded access to high performance tools • Democratization of data capabilities • Low financial hurdles to participation for nonprofits and government • Continuous innovation through universitycommunity-industry collaboration and partnership regionally, nationally and internationally –Functionality developed in response to diverse stakeholders’ needs and preferences to create a “universal” platform. –Source code and software free for non-commercial use. © 2010 University of Massachusetts

TM OIC Founding Members 1. Metro Atlanta/Atlanta GA (Neighborhood Nexus Partnership) 2. Metro Boston/Boston MA (Metropolitan Area Planning Council and the Boston Indicators Project at the Boston Foundation) 3. Metro Chicago/Chicago IL (Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning) 4. Columbus/Central OH (Community Research Partners) 5. State of Arizona, State University of Arizona, Innovation and County Indicators 6. State of Connecticut (CERC & state agencies) 7. State of Rhode Island (Rhode Island Department of Education and the Providence Plan) With participation from the Greater Lowell, Boston, New Haven and Rhode Island Community Foundations through a matching grant from the James L. Knight Foundation © 2010 University of Massachusetts

TM The UMass Lowell Team • Computer Science Department – 6 Professors – 1 Postdoctoral student – 8 Graduate students – 4 Undergraduate students • Regional Economic and Social Development Department – 2 Professors – 6 Graduate students • Staff – 2 Staff (Administrative & Technical) with diverse industry experience – 1 Technical writer • Faculty and graduate students have degrees from US, China, Ghana, India, Israel and many also have successful commercial software experience © 2010 University of Massachusetts

TM Application to Early Education and Care (EEC) to track fine-grained progress and disparities • Provider level – quality measures linked to child care center or school growth or attrition and performance of children served by income eligibility, school readiness, MCAS scores, other • Service regions – municipality, school district, other • Geospatial layers – point, line and area data – School (students, staff, teachers), municipal, regional and state aggregation • Comparisons – student cohorts, classrooms, schools, districts, regions, states • Trends over time – change and progress © 2010 University of Massachusetts

TM Screen Snapshots of Demos Each of the following static images depicts highly interactive visualizations on customizable web sites © 2010 University of Massachusetts

TM Child Care Provider Capacity, 2004 -09 © 2010 University of Massachusetts

TM FCC Capacity by Town, 2009 © 2010 University of Massachusetts

TM Live Demos • Concentration of MA children in poverty by census tract – using 2000 Census data • Location and capacity of MA child care facilities – by municipality (2009) • Child care capacity – aggregated by municipality (2009) – multiple data providers (income eligibility, MCAS, …) • 3 rd Grade reading proficiency – Boston (2009) – all schools, Turnaround, and Circle of Promise Schools by all student cohorts • Rhode Island school performance © 2010 University of Massachusetts

TM Current Release 0. 7 • Founding members have a release – with their own data for mapping and data visualization • Agile development process – release frequently with continuous user feedback – management structure and operational responsibilities to assure collaboration, integration & cross training within UML and with OIC member staff • Members have their own sites – up for internal testing and/or public access © 2010 University of Massachusetts

TM Current Innovations • Open Source – open standards used throughout software (Flex, Geoserver, Apache, …) • Technological innovation – micro. API – incremental compression of shape files – anticipatory computation – continuous zoom – ease of data import – session history – collaboration … and much more on the data side © 2010 University of Massachusetts

TM Achievements • High performance – high level of interactivity (fast response time) – broad usability support (e. g. , choices for color deficient individuals, session support) • Visual and analysis tools to enable deep analysis and critical thinking • Several types of visualizations on the same page - Linked visualizations (selections in one highlighted in others) • Flexible platform for web page look and feel © 2010 University of Massachusetts

TM Second-Year Development (2010) • Session history – for personalization – to save multiple states and preferences – to understand web usage and patterns (web analytics) • Collaborative visual tools – to enable joint analysis from multiple sites – to provide support and training – with integrated voice chat • Cutting-edge hardcopy and dynamic reports – classic hardcopy with state-of-the-art images – interactive animations on web pages • Controlled and secure user and data access – based on groups • Ontology and Middleware – to support search for data and trend similarities across OIC member and National Data Commons sites Software architecture is already designed for these features © 2010 University of Massachusetts

TM Data Organization • Nested geospatial data • Multiple geospatial layers • Multiyear comparisons • Variable and custom geographic boundaries across multiple jurisdictions • Base ontologies and standard protocols –Supports differences in regions and comparisons across regions © 2010 University of Massachusetts

TM Multiple Levels of Access and Use: 1. Novice user (general public) – seeks to get summary information and narrative description – wants basic visualizations of bar or pie charts with maps – wants to compare one or several nearby regions – works with predefined indicators and preconfigured maps 2. Intermediate user (educator, planner, media) – weeks more interaction and access to larger database – reviews a range of predefined queries and selects from – predefined indicators – data visualization options – preconfigured maps © 2010 University of Massachusetts

TM 3. Advanced analyst (researcher, statistician, expert) – needs a high level of interactivity – explores the data by specifying parameters to configure “on the fly” data visualizations and maps – generates reports with visualizations 4. Expert users who help others, strengthen the system – the development of community or regional web sites for use by the typical and intermediate user – collaborative planning, technical assistance, training 5. An open community of practice – innovators and developers – early adopters – data intermediaries – academic and community groups – planners who can now work collaboratively © 2010 University of Massachusetts

TM Client Flex Application(s) Architecture Web Services HTTP Centralized Server (at UML, …) HTTP Server HTML/Java. Script and Flash Web Services Interface to Middleware OIC Site Lookup Services Consortium Directory Services Ontology Definition Services etc… Consortium Member Site running Middleware Data Server • Site defined data access • Ontology mapping Shape Server Geo. Server R Server (statistics / models) App Server (other servers for additional functionality) © 2010 University of Massachusetts

TM Collaboration Geo. Server © 2010 University of Massachusetts

TM Network Security & Anonymization © 2010 University of Massachusetts

TM Weave 2. 0 and 3. 0 Plans • Tools for comparative/similarity studies • National Data Locator • Ontology/taxonomy/metadata editor & support • Vision-impaired user support • Report generator with dynamics • Intelligent visualizations © 2010 University of Massachusetts

TM Why Should EEC & Partners Join OIC? • Administrative use and/or public data access • Leverage resources for priority applications • Early learning from local server installation • Influence on design priorities in development • Prestige and access to resources • High visibility • Help drive standards in EEC © 2010 University of Massachusetts

TM Questions? © 2010 University of Massachusetts

TM The Fundamental Mission • Enable data visualization of any available data anywhere by anyone for any purpose (under administrative and user controls) –to provide data visibility and increase access –to increase data understanding and knowledge –to support exploration and comparisons –to enable planning and accountability –to support communication and collaboration –to enable innovation and creativity –to facilitate data dissemination and distribution –to solve complex problems needing multiple people and organizations © 2010 University of Massachusetts

TM Civic Engagement Goals • Fill the vacuum of highly consumable, quality data for the use of stakeholder communication Data Rich, Insight Poor –explore and communicate local community and economic conditions –enable regional, national, global comparisons –have stakeholders define and shape the new tools for visualization and collaboration: charts, scorecards, dashboards, narrations and animations –support advanced use of visualizations in local blogs, websites, newspapers and television –provide visual and analytic information for public debate and community problem solving –promote collaboration on program and budget planning –support greater governmental, foundation, organizational transparency and accountability © 2010 University of Massachusetts

TM STEM DEGREES, MA, 2003 – 2008 © 2010 University of Massachusetts

TM © 2010 University of Massachusetts

TM © 2010 University of Massachusetts