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Issue 3—July 30, 2004
Welcome to SAVI Connections, the bimonthly electronic newsletter regarding the SAVI system!
If this message does not look like a web page in your email reader, you can read the latest edition at http://www.savi.org. 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.
SAVI People
Quick! What connection does Ali Jafari have to Indiana Jones? None, but this intrepid computer scientist has a big connection to Indiana—and SAVI is a beneficiary of his expertise.
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"SAVI is great—we love the maps—but can’t you make it easier to use?" The question was common not only to SAVI but also to community information systems that developed in Denver, Boston, Baltimore, and other cities during the 1990s. The GIS software used to manage these systems was powerful but cumbersome, especially for non-technical users. Thanks to valuable suggestions from hundreds of users, SAVI now offers a much easier way to get data and create maps. Quick Maps is a new tool that uses a simple checkbox to select and map data. It takes the user through five simple steps, from choosing a data item to creating a map. Another new tool, Quick Queries, allows users to ask questions about the data in a simple, straightforward way. Say, for example, you want to find your child’s school on a map or locate a target neighborhood or find areas with high concentrations of Hispanic population. Go to Quick Queries, follow the easy steps, and you’ll have an answer. A third new tool, Quick Charts, due for release soon, follows the same steps to create a chart from the data. To view these tools, go to www.savi.org and click Data & Mapping. These new tools will simplify the process of getting results from SAVI, but it took careful planning, innovative solutions, and plain hard work to create easy-to-use tools. The SAVI team follows an industry standard practice of establishing requirements and developing specifications before it begins to create an application. In this case, the team met with users to learn what SAVI needed to do—what functions it had to perform—to be a valuable tool. The answer was simple—easy mapping—but it begged another question: what would make it easier? There were a variety of solutions, depending on the experience of the user. What emerged was a careful, step-by-step development process (click here for a diagram). Users tested each version of Quick Maps and Quick Queries, which led to improvements and more tests until it met the minimum needs of a wide audience. Over the next few months, the SAVI team will monitor these new tools and learn from users how they may be improved. This cycle of continuous development keeps SAVI responsive to the experiences of users and helps it serve the expanding data and planning needs of Central Indiana. Check into www.savi.org periodically to see how these improvements will benefit you.
SAVI follows a common practice of releasing versions of new tools and data, with each one reflecting improvements and fixes suggested by users. Working from a detailed set of requirements established by a formal needs assessment, SAVI developers create the first working version of a tool or function, often called the Alpha version, for external testing. This initial release is published on a non-public website and groups of users are invited to use it and note problems. Usually thirty days later SAVI releases a Beta version of the now-revised tool. This tool also undergoes testing, with the goal to achieve an acceptable level of accuracy and stability. The goal is always to create a reliable and easy-to-use product that works on a wide variety of computers and with all major browsers. At this stage, users also are invited to participate in formal testing of the Beta version to ensure that the system is easy to use. One month after the Beta release, SAVI posts the final (“production”) version on its website. The development team continues to monitor use and fix bugs, always collecting information that will lead to improvements. Major revisions occur when users require more functionality or when new technology makes it possible to achieve greater flexibility or efficiency. Changes are noted by version numbers: incremental changes will be noted as Version 1.1, etc., while significant revisions receive new numbers, e.g., Version 2.0. SAVI will always note the latest version number on its web site. When you see it, you will know two important things: you always are working with the latest version; and more important, SAVI is working to keep its tools and data up-to-date, assuring you of a state-of-the-art community information system.
Indianapolis is the home to Indiana Black Expo, the nation's largest and longest exposition focused on African American culture, art, history, and economics. Here are several facts about the African American population in the Indianapolis metropolitan area.
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