InstantAtlas for Community Indicators

Background

InstantAtlas is an inexpensive yet powerful data management, reporting and presentation tool. It is being used by national, regional and local government and non-profit organizations to support the reporting of community indicators and the implementation of community information systems. InstantAtlas solutions are aimed at the communication of community indicators and performance indicators, enhancing the value of this data by making patterns and trends easy to visualize and explore. No specialist technical expertise is needed - yet the results can be stunning and highly effective.

What are Community Information Systems?

Community Information Systems are web-based solutions, often implemented and supported by a local partnership, that provide a range of end-user functionality from simple reports to more sophisticated analytical and data visualization tools. They are generally aimed at both internal staff within a partnership (managers, policy-makers, analysts and researchers) and external users (citizens, civic groups, non-profits and businesses). They provide direct access to an evidence-base to improve their decision-making and ultimately support improvement in quality of life in local areas.

Spotlight : Community Indicators Victoria, Australia

(click on image to view)

Scale: Local
Purpose: Community Indicators Victoria (CIV) has developed an online interactive mapping and analysis tool to enable visual communication of well-being indicators. The well-being map uses Instant Atlas to present a set of well-being indicators in a geographical context, revealing spatial variations and patterns across Victoria.
InstantAtlas Template: Single Map

Community Information Systems (CIS) bring together a wide range of social, economic and environmental data and information around objectives like:-

Monitoring the health, social well-being and sustainability of communities through the management of Quality of Life indicators;
Bringing together government performance indicators and community targeted indicators into a single solution;
Widening the use of data by citizens and public officials to support decision-making, improve policy and target resources;
Providing a wider local intelligence context to key performance indicators for government officials; and
Communicating outcome measures to citizens, stimulating public debate and building confidence in progress towards societal goals.

"Community Information System" is not a universal term for solutions of this nature. Others include Neighborhood Information Systems, City Information and Monitoring Systems, Data Observatories, Local Information Systems, Area Profiling tools and Crime Mapping solutions. There is also overlap with the more mainstream technology areas of Business Intelligence (BI), Performance Management (PM) and Geographic Information Systems (GIS). Common to almost all these types of solutions is the capability to manage and report on local statistics and indicators to a range of different audiences, making local intelligence more easily accessible and usable.

We have separate solution pages that cover Local Information Systems and Data Observatories, Area Profiling, Performance Reporting and Crime Mapping and Reporting.

GeoWise have been working in the UK and internationally for over 10 years delivering innovative, market-leading data reporting and visualization solutions for location-based statistical data. We offer off-the-shelf products designed specifically to make it easy and fast for you to deliver visual data using maps, charts, tables and area profile reports.

Community Indicator Reports and Community Information Systems: InstantAtlas Examples

We have provided some recent examples of our work with community indicators below. They use a number of different InstantAtlas Dynamic Report Templates. Click on the screenshot images to load the examples. They require the free Adobe Flash Player. If you have any problems viewing these examples please contact our Support Team for assistance.

New York City Community Health, US (Demo)	Well-being atlas, Community Accounts, Government of Newfoundland & Labrador, Canada (Live)

Scale: Local - City (New York City) Purpose: An atlas comprising a wide range of community health indicators based on the New York Community Health Survey with a 4-year time series. The atlas is based on our new InstantAtlas version 6 template. InstantAtlas Template: Single Map	Scale: Province / State Purpose: Community Accounts is an innovative information system providing users at all levels with a reliable source of community, regional, and provincial data. It provides a public-wide, online system for locating, sharing and exchanging information related to the province and its people. InstantAtlas is used as the Dynamic Data Map Tool within this system. InstantAtlas Template: Double Map
Bremen, Germany Social Indicators at a street block level (Live)	Bournemouth, UK - profiling levels of social deprivation (Live)

Scale: Local - at Street block level (Bremen, Germany) Purpose: Provides ability to explore a range of indicators within city neighborhoods. These include demographic, housing, social, socio-economic and migration variables over a span of 37 years. InstantAtlas Template: Single Map	Scale: Local - City (Bournemouth) Purpose: To provide an interactive report showing patterns of social deprivation across the city (population 163,000). The data used is the Index of Multiple Deprivation for England 2007. The report allows you to create a social deprivation profile for any neighborhood area across each of the main dimensions to the Index. You can also compare the profile of one neighborhood against another to visualize differences. InstantAtlas Template: Performance Analysis
Social Observatory for Álava Province, Spain (Live)	Statistical Atlas of Hamburg, Germany (Live)

Scale: Province / Local Purpose: Álava is a province in the Basque area of northern Spain with a population of approximately 300,000. The Observatorio Social de Álava has been set up by the Diputación Foral de Álava for sharing key statistical data to social welfare professionals and for the general public. This area profile report presents information on all aspects of unemployment. InstantAtlas Template: Area Profile	Scale: Local / City (Hamburg) Purpose: The report provides a statistical overview of the city (population 1,700,000) using a wide range of social indicators in the following themes: population, employment; social benefits, housing, infrastructure (e.g.. registered number of doctors), transportation (e.g.. serious road accidents), crime levels and voting behavior. InstantAtlas Template: Single Map

InstantAtlas Product Options for Community Information Systems

InstantAtlas is available as both a Desktop or Server product - you can select the solution that best meets your requirements.

Option 1: InstantAtlas Desktop

Option 2: InstantAtlas Server

1. Inexpensive and easy to implement, the solution is in widespread use internationally

2. Simple and quick to create report outputs for live web publication - create as many reports as you like using different geographies at no additional cost

3. Reports are richly interactive, visually appealing and easy to use

4. Minimize IT implications - simply publish a set of static files on your existing web site

5. The solution is designed for analysts to publish and maintain outputs using familiar tools like Microsoft Excel and Access

1. Larger scale server-based solution to support any number of community indicators, performance indicators or locality-based statistics

2. Data delivered live from a database with ability to support multiple styles of output including flexible area profile reports

3. Can be linked into your existing web site and branded accordingly

4. Complete suite of web-based administration tools to allow multiple administrators to support the application

5. Can be delivered either as packaged software to implement on-site or as a fully managed service (hosted externally)

Useful Resource Documents


InstantAtlas Desktop (2 page brochure 3 Mb PDF)	InstantAtlas Server for Local Information Systems (2 page brochure 3 Mb PDF)	Typical Excel CIS Data Manager file (Excel Spreadsheet)	Local Information Systems: An Overview Guide (5 pages PDF)

InstantAtlas for Community Indicators

Background

Community Indicator Reports and Community Information Systems: InstantAtlas Examples

InstantAtlas Product Options for Community Information Systems

Useful Resource Documents

Other useful links