Community Mapping ACM Mid-Southeast Conference November 12, 2010 Josh Moore Faculty Advisor: Dr. Brian Toone Community Mapping

Overview Goal – answer the question… What is community health? Provide tools to help make progress towards answer mapmycity.org – visual display of GIS data, data collection servemycity.org – collect organization and volunteer info resourcemycity.org – facilitate charitable giving

mapmycity.org

Marker display for spot-location data

How is data collected? Completed Map page entry Street address GPS coordinates In-progress Facebook Twitter Email Smartphone Apps

What kind of data is stored? Census data Data currently used is from 2000 census Marker-based information User Category Latitude and longitude Full street address Reference to a stored picture (if applicable) Date reported Date resolved Why collect this data? To show changes over time.

Heat map display for summary data polygon overlays

How are the heat maps created? Census data obtained and stored in MySQL database. Data is queried based on user input (e.g., median income for Birmingham) Green, yellow, and red polygons are drawn on the map using Google Map’s GPolygon API function.

Heat map display for markers GPolygon overlays

Marker display for spot location data Public safety (e.g., abandoned houses) Social services (e.g., charitable organizations, clinics) Education (e.g., schools, job training, Bible studies) Business/commerce (e.g., businesses, shopping centers) Workforce (e.g., employment agencies) Technology (e.g., internet cafes, free wi-fi locations) Churches (e.g., church locations)

How are the marker maps created? XML file is parsed by GDownloadURL request as map is loaded.

Example usage of spot-location data Identify where to focus resources Nehemiah Group – purchases abandoned houses Habitat for Humanity – properties for renovation Churches – guided prayer walks Raising community awareness Motivate people to provide information Motivate people to change their community Encourage people by showing changes over time Raising funds from potential donors “Let me show you the community…”

Heat map display for summary data Median income ($) Finer granularity Faster map creation for large areas than GPolygon We need a new Global Mapper image for this slide which includes the missing county. global mapper

Heat maps Goal - summarize data using colors Polygon overlays Hover over to display specific information Nicer visual integration with Google Maps Global Mapper Downloadable, standalone map Allows easier offline distribution Wider range of colors Easy to change color scheme

servemycity.org

servemycity.org Idea – mobilize volunteers Organizations can create an account where members can provide their skills, interests, availability, etc. Organizations can then see a list of their members who want to volunteer and use this tool to help make decisions about who to place where Individuals can also independently fill out a survey and placed in a generic unaffiliated category

Survey for individual wanting to volunteer

Survey for individual wanting to volunteer, cont’d

Survey for individual wanting to volunteer, cont’d

Registered organization info page Information on this page is generated from responses on the registration form Organizations receive an individual page (e.g. servemycity.org/unaffiliated)

Listing a service opportunity Integral part of Serve My City – collect organization and volunteer info Listing service opportunities here will make opportunity appear on MapMyCity map and on the organization page

Changing organization information

Responding to survey results Organizations can mobilize volunteers to serve on service opportunities Organizations can filter survey results to contact groups of people who best fit the needs of service opportunities

resourcemycity.org

resourcemycity.org Still in brainstorming phase Idea facilitate charitable donations route the donations to areas of greatest need donations can be time/money or in-kind

Summary Three tools for defining, visualizing, and impacting community health: Mapmycity.org – visualize health Servemycity.org – mobilize volunteers Resourcemycity.org – facilitate charitable giving

Thank you! Any questions? Josh Moore – jzmoore@samford.edu Brian Toone – brtoone@samford.edu http://mapmycity.org http://servemycity.org http://resourcemycity.org