Submission 4: TrendsOnline
Shadrock Roberts
Public
Seen by 41
We know our community’s vitality, opportunity and sustainability depends on informed decision-making and collective action. That’s why TrendsOnline will become a vital resource helping Boulder adapt and grow by identifying chronic stresses, such as lack of affordable housing, achievement gap in schools and economic inequality. TrendsOnline will make visible these most pressing needs and connect people with organizations that are taking action.
TrendsOnline aligns with the UR Boulder goal of strengthening citizen engagement through open-source technology and supports the theme of Capacity and Preparedness. We also see a clear fit within the City Resilience Framework (www.100resilientcities.org), in which the theme of Empower a Broad Range of Stakeholders states: “Ensure everybody is well informed, capable, and involved in their city. This includes ... timely and appropriate monitoring.” TrendsOnline will be a highly-valued resource for nonprofits and government, as organizations seek to understand and address chronic stresses.
For 20 years, the Trends Report has been a valuable resource to nonprofits, government, business and residents. The new online version will complement the biennial publication. We’ll know this product works by meeting these objectives:
- Increase number and diversity of people reached
- Easier access to community indicators
- Simple, attractive presentation of data and analysis
- Easy to understand, search, navigate
- Deliver updated and relevant data
- People can easily connect with organizations
We’ll measure how people are using the product through web analytics; number/type of connections to other resources; citations from sources; and user interviews/surveys. In terms of impact, we’ll monitor how TrendsOnline information is referenced and shared in the community, compared to exposures with the print-only version.
Our research finds that nationwide, nearly all community indicators reports are publications. By creating open source technology that is designed for reuse we’ll benefit communities well beyond Boulder County.
Poll Created Wed 14 Oct 2015 1:40PM
Will this idea improve resilience in Boulder or strengthen citizen engagement? Closed Sun 18 Oct 2015 5:07AM
Results
| Results | Option | % of points | Voters | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
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Agree | 86.7% | 13 |
|
| Abstain | 13.3% | 2 |
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|
| Disagree | 0.0% | 0 | ||
| Block | 0.0% | 0 | ||
| Undecided | 0% | 30 |
|
15 of 45 people have participated (33%)
Erika Stutzman
Wed 14 Oct 2015 7:53PM
Trends is a valued resource in the community, but as a biennial publication putting it online an dynamic will reach many more people in our community. It encourages civic engagement and sustainability in our community.
Robyn Hazlitt
Wed 14 Oct 2015 8:30PM
TRENDS Online will absolutely improve Boulder's resilience and strengthen citizen engagement within the county. People are able to see actual data showing the areas needing drastic improvement, and that change is possible based on past successes.
Aaron Titus
Wed 14 Oct 2015 9:33PM
I am unfamiliar with Trends Report; though I would highly suggest coordinating with 2-1-1s, which have very good community trend data
Would the open source solution be federated or re-brandable by other organizations?
Maegan Vallejo
Wed 14 Oct 2015 10:46PM
The ways that people access information continues to change. Trends in its print form may not be reaching as many people as it could. The more people know about their community, the better they can proactively engage with it.
Le Chang
Thu 15 Oct 2015 2:52AM
It will definitely improve the resilience in Boulder and enhance engagement. If people know more about the city indicator figures and have more access to the information, people tend to discuss more, which will lead to collective actions.
Geri Mitchell-Brown
Thu 15 Oct 2015 4:14AM
TrendsOnline will improve resilience by shining light on chronic stresses (e.g. lack of affordable housing, school achievement gap, economic inequality) AND strengthen engagement by connecting people with organizations taking action on these issues
Dee Andrews
Thu 15 Oct 2015 4:18PM
Trends is the go-to report to best understand current challenges and opportunities to improve life in Boulder County. Having it online is essential as technology grows and the ways people access information continues to change.
Geri Mitchell-Brown Thu 15 Oct 2015 3:30AM
@jenniferzawacki +1 about diverse user testing, definitely on our radar. Calling in @erikastutzman to answer your Trends Report questions.
Jennifer Zawacki · Thu 15 Oct 2015 12:49AM
This sounds great! I'm curious to know more about the existing Trends Report (how is data collected, processed, and presented?). For a broadly-accessed online version, I'd love to see a lot of diverse user testing to ensure accessibility.