Issue 9—July 1, 2005
Welcome to SAVI Connections, the bi-monthly electronic newsletter regarding the
SAVI system. SAVI Connections provides news about SAVI, demonstrates
various ways in which SAVI can benefit your organization, announces release of
new data, showcases new tools, highlights a variety of SAVI users, and
broadcasts user support and training options. The Polis staff encourages your
ideas and feedback.
Please address comments to: skandris@iupui.edu.
View past newsletters at: http://www.savi.org/savii/about/news.aspx
What's New?
New Tools
New Report
- Demographics: Population Change 1990 - 2000
New Data
- Juvenile Charges for Marion County (2000 – 2004)
- Uniform Crime Reports for Marion County (Quarter 4, 2004)
- More 2000 Census Categories
- Updated Human Service Programs
- Updated Places of Worship
- Updated Libraries
User Conference
- User Presentations are Posted
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SAVI People:
Dr. Panagiotis (Panos) Linos
Butler University
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| Panagiotis (Panos) K. Linos and his students at Butler University bring strong academic credentials and technical expertise to the SAVI Community Information System, as witnessed by their work on developing a |
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more robust search engine for SAVI. Panos also brings an international flavor to this Midwestern project.
Born in Athens, Greece in 1955, he came to the U.S. with his wife, Virginia (Veni), to complete his Ph.D. in computer science at Wayne State University. He joined the Butler University faculty in 2000 as professor and chair of the computer science department, after serving in a similar position at Tennessee Technological University.
At Butler, Panos has developed an innovative Software Engineering program based on strong ties with industry. The EPICS program (see related story in this issue) is part of several undergraduate opportunities he created to give students real-world experiences in software design and implementation. Through this program, students worked for two years to develop a search engine for SAVI that searches the entire system for information related to the user’s needs.
Panos is an active researcher and publishes regularly in professional journals; he also presents his work at numerous conferences, both nationally and internationally. A father of three children, Panos enjoys spending time with his family, as well as swimming, traveling, and listening to music.
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SAVI Users Conference Attracts Diverse Community Audience
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On June 10 almost 100 participants gathered at the Ruth Lilly Health Education Center for the first Annual SAVI Users Conference. Attendance at the daylong event demonstrated how SAVI functions as a true community information system: representatives came from a wide array of sectors, including health and human services, government, private enterprise, faith-based organizations, foundations, community development, neighborhoods, and economic development, among others (see chart).
Through SAVI, the Indianapolis MSA is a national leader in using GIS technology to provide Web-based access to community information, noted Tom Kingsley, an Urban Institute fellow who delivered the keynote address. The Urban Institute is a Washington, D.C. think tank with special interests in using data to improve communities through more effective decision making. Twenty-two cities nationally now have community information systems, with more cities planning to join this movement over the near term. The development has important implications because it coincides with the emergence of national information systems, thus promising a seamless web of data and data-driven indicators of community and national concerns. Central Indiana's model of widely available, comprehensive data managed by a neutral community trustee, Kingsley argued, will continue to influence this national movement.
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Presentations by users highlighted the afternoon sessions, which focused on the ways Central Indiana organizations and neighborhoods use SAVI to make decisions. In these presentations:
- Anthony Bridgeman of the Indianapolis Neighborhood Housing Partnership demonstrated how Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data in SAVI helps communities understand a variety of housing issues and trends, especially at the neighborhood level.
- Anne-Marie Predovich, Executive Director of the Indianapolis Neighborhood Resource Center, and Guy Hayes, planner for United Way of Central Indiana, discussed the importance of SAVI data for asset-based community development. SAVI's asset information helps neighborhood residents see the strength of their communities and not simply its problems.
- Suzanne Scher, SAVI Manager for the Indianapolis Marion County Public Library, used four examples to illustrate how community organizations were able to use SAVI to understand a problem. She also demonstrated how SAVI information can be used in desktop systems to extend its analysis capabilities.
- Jim Bronkema and Jim Larkin, teachers at George Washington Community School, presented lessons plans they had created to use SAVI in the K-12 classroom. Using information from the communities where students lived, they concluded, enhanced student learning across the curriculum.
A final session asked users to help define the future for SAVI by identifying the tools and data that would make this community information system even more useful. Among the suggestions were:
- Other data types, such as voting demographics, environmental data, home sales data, mental illness data, and work force development information;
- Additional tools and resources, such as a radius search tool and guidebooks on proxy data, relationships between data, and appropriate uses of data; and
- Additional services, such as a user help line, integrating indicators from other websites in a one-stop-shop, and increased marketing.
All presentations from the users conference, as well as a transcript of the interactive final session, may be accessed at
www.savi.org/conference/2005.
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