Update – MyCommittee online meeting tool improved

Back in June I wrote a short review of MyCommittee, an online tool to manage committees and meetings. I concluded that there was a lot to like about MyCommittee and that it would suit a small to medium organisation with reasonably complex agendas.

I also highlighted some issues with the interface and a number of limitations, including the fact that the task management feature was problematic for organisations with a staffed secretariat as actions could only be scheduled for committee members. There was also little ability to change the terminology in the agenda, but my biggest concern was the inability to view resolutions in anything other than chronological order and the lack of any facility to extract them for storage in a separate database.

I took up these shortcomings with the program’s creators, who indicated that they might be considered in the next release of the program – and that’s just what has happened. Paul Cox from MyCommittee has just responded, noting that the latest version addresses some of my concerns. I’ve only had a chance to check it out briefly but I’m pleased to confirm what he’s said – plus more. MyCommittee now has the following:

• More flexibility in customising the agenda template – for example, changing the terminology and order of the standing items at the beginning and end.
• The ability to create custom lists of resolutions, by date, keyword, status, etc.
• A facility to export any list of resolutions in PDF, CSV or XML format to print or import into another application or database.
• Access for committee members to subcommittees (to view and download meeting minutes, resolutions, etc.).
• A greater range of roles for committee members, including “resource”. This could cover non-voting staff attending the meeting, who I assume could be allocated tasks, but I have not yet tested this facility.

Of these improvements the ability to create custom lists of resolutions and export them is the most significant. Not only does this make it easier for organisations to set up their own resolutions databases, it also provides the ability to download and backup resolutions offline. I suggested in my review that organisations needing this facility should hold off until it was implemented – but with its incorporation in the latest version, now is definitely time to have another look at MyCommittee.

Web 2.0 tools unlock statistics 3 – accessing a whole “world of information”

In my last posts I looked at Australian examples of the innovative use of Web 2.0 to provide free, interactive access to census and other statistical information. This time I’ll shift scale and provide a brief overview of two sites which take a Web 2.0 perspective to the presentation of international statistics.

UNdata was recently launched by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA)  Under-Secretary-General Sha Zukang, who states:

“The UN System has accumulated over the past 60 years an impressive amount of information. UNdata, developed by the Statistics Division of DESA, is a new powerful tool, which will bring this unique and authoritative set of data not only to the desks of decision-makers and analysts, but also to journalists, to students and to all citizens of the world.”

The site proclaims that it is a “world of information” and this is no exaggeration. Since its foundation, the UN has been collecting statistical data from member states on a huge variety of topics. As the site states, this is a considerable asset but it was stored across a large number of separate databases, each with different access policies.

UNdata overcomes these problems by pooling these databases into a “single internet environment”, allowing access through a keyword search on the organisation’s home page. There is also a facility for advanced search and country profiles are provided.

The site claims there are over 55 million data points covering a wide range of themes including agriculture, education, employment, energy, environment, health, HIV/Aids, human development, industry, IT, national accounts, population, refugees, tourism, trade, as well as the millennium development goals indicators.

UNdata opens with a somewhat understated home page, “data” which centres on a search facility through which databases can be accessed. Type “health” for example, and 57 databases referring to health are listed. This is augmented by a simple menu system with four alternatives – data, glossary (which lists all the terms used in the databases), wiki (which provides access to a linked wiki which describes all aspects of the UNdata project) and advanced (which provides access to country profiles, advanced search and other features).

Below the search facility is a link to the Monthly Bulletin of Statistics (MBS) which provides economic and social statistics for more than 200 countries and territories. Under this is a section divided into three – Databases (which lists the key UN databases by category), Updates (which shows the latest additions to the databases) and Country data services (which provides links to the government data service of each UN member).

Clicking on a database name provides access to a fairly orthodox table, with columns typically for country, subgroup, year, source and unit value. The table can be sorted by any column and unwanted columns can be deleted. The tables can be turned into pivot tables or exported.

Whilst the front-end customisation features are relatively modest by Web 2.0 standards, a huge amount of work was obviously involved in bringing a large number of disparate databases together, integrating them on one site and displaying this volume of information in a consistent and accessible format.

If you want statistics on life expectancy in Africa or education in South America – or to find out how Australia performs in comparison to other countries in the world – this is the place to go. The country profiles are particularly useful, providing a statistical snapshot of almost all UN member states – and my one criticism of UNdata is that these could be better featured on the start page.

The second international site that I want to look at is linked to UNdata and picks up where it leaves off in terms of presentation. As the site states, Gapminder is a non-profit site “promoting sustainable global development and achievement of the UN Millennium Development Goals by increased use and understanding of statistics and other information about social, economic and environmental development at local, national and global levels”.

The site uses Trendalyzer software to convert tables into animated and interactive graphics. The site opens to four boxes – the two on the right devoted to videos of Gapminder in action, the left to the program itself. The main action is in the top left box, “Gapminder world”. Clicking on this leads to a graph which will show dynamically over time the changes within and between two national variables – for example, size of families and infant mortality, or urbanisation and population growth.

Depending on the variables chosen, the story that Gapminder tells can be extraordinarily vivid – and at times very depressing. Regions are depicted by different colours and its possible to tag specific nations to track their progress (or otherwise) over time. Maps can be attached to emails or blogs – I haven’t tested this, but it appears to send html code that links to the Gapminder site and loads the variables that you have used in the map.

It’s definitely worth viewing the tutorial and downloading the pdf document that summarises how the site works. You also need to experiment with the variables you wish to display and to play with the controls scattered around the graph (which could be a bit larger and clearer). Its also important to note that just because there appears to be a correlation between two sets of data does not mean that there is a causal relationship between them – and of course the quality of some of the statistics may be higher than for other data sets.

Verdict: Both UNData and Gapminder are invaluable tools for organisations interested in international aid or issues such as poverty, health or education, as well as those who want to benchmark Australia’s performance on key data sets against that of other countries. The two sites complement each other, so that the UNData site can be used to prvide a detailed snapshot of a particular issue – or through the country profiles, a picture of a specific country – whilst Gapminder can show in a vivid way the story of change over time.

The Trendalyzer software which powers the Gapminder site is available on Google Docs and I will look at it in a future post.

Web 2.0 tools unlock statistics 2 – value-adding by the private sector

In my last post I looked at the release by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) of TableViewer, which demonstrates the increasing use of Web 2.0 by the ABS to provide greater access to census data. Now I’ll take a look at how Australian company .id (informed decisions) has taken this a step further to produce a range of user-friendly profiles which rely heavily on Web 2.0 strategies.

.id develops and hosts LGA-level (and in some cases, regional) statistical profiles using a range of sources. Over 180 council areas across Australia use one or more of .id’s products. Whilst local government makes up most of .id’s customers, local communities, businesses and non-government organisations are also key beneficiaries as most councils with .id products put public links to them on their websites, thus providing a free source of formatted, interactive tables, graphs and thematic maps.

.id’s range includes:

• profile.id – a detailed social and demographic profile of a local government area. This is probably the most widely used .id product and has set the pattern for its other profiles. The basic format which allows users to select the relevant area (which could be a the whole LGA or a specific suburb) and then choose from a set of simple questions such as “how many people live here?”, “who are we?”, “what do we do?” and “how do we live” makes the data very accessible. It has also become the basis for the development of all the other .id products.
• atlas.id – a social atlas of thematic maps for an LGA. This is a “supercharged” response to the ABS’s Mapstats, providing much greater interactivity and control.
• forecast.id – a detailed demographic forecast for an LGA, broken down by customised local areas.
• housing.id – provides analysis of an LGA’s housing patterns and trends.
• economy.id – an economic profile of an LGA. This is .id’s latest and possibly most complex and ambitious project (click here for my review).

The .id website provides links to all the company’s clients and their .id profiles, most of which can also be accessed from the relevant council or regional website (though some links are easier to find on council websites than others).

Verdict: Whilst there is not enough space here to review in detail all the .id products, they are well worth checking out. The great advantages of these profiles is their accessibility, the extent to which tables and comparisons can be customised and the ease with which the resulting graphs and thematic maps can be downloaded.

For councils there is a significant upfront cost (upwards from around $25,000, depending on the product) plus an annual fee. However many councils consider that this is more than outweighed by increased efficiencies within councils, especially the savings in staff costs involved in preparing this data. In addition councils benefit from the improved data available to support planning and strategy development.

As previously indicated these benefits are shared by the wider community when these profiles are put online by the councils that have commissioned them, especially as the .id profiles are free to end users. The tables, maps and graphs produced from these tools can be pasted directly into community organisation reports and submissions, whilst businesses can learn an enormous amount about their local markets and the skills, size and demographics of the local workforce.

If you a scratching your head over whether to use ABS or .id profiles and other tools for your latest research project, here’s a suggestion.  The ABS products have more of a learning curve and are probably most useful for accessing metropolitan wide, state or national census data – or to construct tables which require a high degree of customisation (if you have the money to purchase the TableViewer subscription).

On the other hand the .id profiles are much easier to use and are specifically customised to provide LGA-level or regional census data as well as housing and economic information – provided your LGA or region is covered. If it isn’t then you will have to use the ABS tools.

Web 2.0 tools unlock statistics 1 – ABS releases TableBuilder

Web 2.0 tools unlock statistics 1 – ABS releases TableBuilder

So far in this blog I’ve looked mainly at end user applications, but this is not the only area in which Web 2.0 strategies are appearing. Another aspect which is also beneficial to councils, small businesses, NGOs and other organisations is the increasing use of Web 2.0 technologies and interfaces to provide masses of free statistical data and, perhaps more imprtantly, to make this information easier to use.

The provision of statistical information by governments parallels the development of the internet, albeit with a substantial time lag. Up to only a decade or so ago, most government data was available only in hard copy. Some material was on microfiche, or, if you were really lucky, on floppy disk and eventually CD – and you were often charged for the privilege of accessing it.

Eventually and somewhat grudgingly governments started making data available online, but usually in the form of static tables on websites or in PDF documents. Even where it was available in spreadsheet format, the size of the files and download speeds at the time often meant that CDs were still the best format for distribution – and there was little or no customisation.

This started to change with the advent of broadband. The advent of Web 2.0, changing community expectations and government attitudes have also combined with the emergence of third party providers to make this data much more available and accessible. There has been a dramatic increase in the data provided online by governments and they have (mostly) given up charging for it.

One of the oldest of these Web 2.0-influenced government sites and the one probably best known to Australian organisations is the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). The ABS has made material available online for a long time but has made increasing use of Web 2.0 interactivity, especially since the 2006 Census, to present census information through a range of products.

This process has greatly increased the accessibility of census data and also brought down the cost, as many of these products are free. Thus small businesses, community organisations and even individuals can develop their own profiles of their potential customer base, service catchment area or local community without having to hire consultants or researchers.

The ABS products which show the most Web 2.0 influence include:

• QuickStats, which provides a summary of key Census data relating to persons, families and dwellings in user-selected locations, compared to national figures. This is the simplest and least interactive of the ABS Web 2.0 products and therefore has limited options – you choose a location and it displays a summary table. You have no choice over the data Quickstats displays and you can also only choose one location at a time.
• MapStats, which provides thematically mapped Census statistics for a chosen location. It is step up from Quickstats, as you get to choose both location and data. In theory you also get to choose the geographic boundaries that will be used for the thematic mapping, but in many cases this is predetermined for you by the type of location you have selected. The maps which can be downloaded are quite effective but the lack of control over the level of boundaries used can be frustrating. You also can’t access the underlying data.
• CData Online, which enables users to create their own tables of census data at levels ranging from a single collection district to the whole country. Unlike the previous products you can choose to start with either locations or topics and you have much greater choice over both. The resulting tables are very detailed and can saved in a workspace on the ABS website or downloaded. CData Online is obviously more influenced by Web 2.0 than the preceding products and is therefore much more flexible but it requires a fair degree of work to produce the result you want.

 The ABS has just added substantially to its Web 2.0-enabled stable with the release of TableBuilder. This new online tool allows users to create their own tables of census data by accessing all variables in the census output record file for all ABS geographic areas. Users are able to prepare their own cross-tabulations and smaller tables may be exported or viewed as a graph or a thematic map within the product, whilst large tables can be downloaded to the desktop for further manipulation.  

 

In effect, TableViewer combines almost all the features of the other ABS Web 2.0 census-based products – but all this comes at a price. TableViewer is a charged subscription service costing $1,655 (including GST). This price is for individual users for a “single Census reference cycle” and includes online training and ongoing help-line support.

TableViewer is a very sophisticated product which allows a much finer grain of manipulation of census data online by the end user than even CData Online does. Whilst a trial version is not available, the online and interactive Tableviewer tutorials provide a good idea of what the product can do and how it performs.

Whilst the ABS products provide a wealth of census information in an accessible format, a Melbourne company, .id (informed decisions), has taken Web 2.0 concepts a step further to produce a range of user-friendly interactive profiles. These I’ll take a look at in the next post.