Brief Overall Description of the Dataset:
“Enrich your community work with maps and data reports that can be shared and saved.” This website takes data from various sources and creates maps using the data. “The Commons” has maps spanning many subjects - from health to housing to poverty to SNAP. For housing. some of the map subjects include “average contracted rent,” “monthly homeowner housing costs,” and “proportion of median income needed to afford housing.” It does not generate its own data, and it does not do anything extremely unique with the data. This is why it would not be a viable source for our project. However, this source does have information regarding parks and “other recreation space,” which is something for which Emily was looking.
Link: http://www.communitycommons.org/maps-data/ (This is a link to the data portion of the website.)
http://maps.communitycommons.org/viewer/datalist.aspx (This is a link to a listing of all of the maps.)
Date Inventory Completed: 5/26/2015
Screening
- Is the data collected opinion-based?
- Is the data collection recurring (must be collected at least annually)?
It does seem as if the site uses many sources that release data annually, but the maps themselves are based on single years (or single sets of years if the source of the map is the ACS). Separate yearly maps have been created for some data sets.
- Is there data available for 2013?
- Is the data collected at the property or housing unit level? Community Commons does not have “property level data.”
- Can we access the data by August 15th?
Purpose
What is the purpose of the organization collecting the data?
Community Commons is a joint effort of the “Institute for People, Place and Possibility” and the University of Missouri, and it seeks to promote “healthier, sustainable, equitable communities.”
Why is it collected and how does the organization use it?
The organization collects the data and creates the maps in order to “promote change” by giving people “high quality data” and “resources” with which to work.
Who else uses the data?
Researchers, businesses, and policy-makers
Who do they sell the data to?
They do not sell the data.
Method
What is the data collection method?
Many people “contribute” to Community Commons, and the sources for all of the maps can be found here:http://maps.communitycommons.org/viewer/datalist.aspx. All of the sources can be found on a right hand column.
What is the type of data collected?
Some of the data comes from designed collection (such as the Census data), and some of the data comes from administrative data (such as South Carolina Department of Education data). Most of the housing data comes from the Census and the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (and we know some of the data from HUD comes from the Census Bureau), so much of the housing data comes from “designed collections.”
If designed, who created the questions?
For most of the housing data, government officials would have been the primary people who designed the questions.
What is the raw source of the collected data (prior to any aggregation)?
The raw source for the Census would be surveys they sent out. The HUD data would have various raw sources; their Census based data would have a raw source of the Census surveys and, for example, their “Administrative Data on Address Vacancies” would have a raw source of the records of the “United States Postal Service.”
Description
What is the general topic of the data (1-2 words)?
Various Housing Statistics (from foreclosures to number of homes built within a time period)
What are the earliest and latest dates for which data is available?
Varies for each data set.
Timeliness
Is data collected and available periodically?
Since this website receives maps from multiple users and these users rely on HUD and the Census (for housing), new maps become available whenever these organizations release data.
How soon after a reference period ends can a data source be prepared and provided?
Since there are multiple contributors, the turn around time is most likely quick for these types of graphs.
Selectivity
What is the universe (e.g., population) that the data represents?
For much of the housing data, the universe seems to be the United States (maps are created for the entire US).
Accessibility
How is the data accessed?
To get the data itself, you are going to want to go to the source of the data, which you can find under the “info” tab on the maps.
Is it open data?
Depends upon the source.
Any legal, regulatory, or administrative restrictions on accessing the data source?
Depends upon the source
Cost? - One time or annual or project based payment?
Depends on the source.
Does this dataset appear to meet our needs for the Census study? No
Explanation: Although Community Commons is a great source, it does not generate its own data, and it does not do anything extraordinary with the data (SDAL could create maps relatively quickly.). From an email exchange with Community Commons, we found out that “the Commons” does not “have any property data.”