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January 2018 Newsletter
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Smart Cville promotes the use of technology and data to help communities find innovative solutions by facilitating the exchange of ideas between civic institutions and citizens.
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In this issue:
- Open Data Deep Dive: Crime Data event
- Save the Date Civic Innovation Day
- Course offering: An Introduction to Web Mapping with Open Data
- Virginia School Discipline Project Launch
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Thanks to our latest 2018 Community Supporters:
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Open Data Deep Dive: Crime Data event
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We're excited to announce our second Open Data Deep Dive! We're back at UVA's Open Grounds for an evening to review the crime dataset on Charlottesville's Open Data Portal. For this event, we'll focus on drug-related crimes. We’ll start with a speaker to give us context, discuss some of the peculiarities of the data, and share some strategies for using R to obtain, analyze, and map drug-offense data. Free registration requested here. Open to all. Introductory knowledge of R and the tidyverse, is preferred if you plan to code along (see “Setup” on event page).
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Save the Date Civic Innovation Day
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Course offering: An Introduction to Web Mapping with Open Data
Introduction to Mapping Open Data
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February 21, 2018 - 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm
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407 E. Water Street, Charlottesville
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This course is aimed at local officials, technologists, civic innovators, and neighbors interested in learning how to create interactive maps using open data from the City of Charlottesville, the Commonwealth of Virginia, and the Federal Government. The goal is to enable you to generate a full-featured web map application from scratch that works on mobile devices … without any coding … in less than an hour.
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Session 1 – Introduction to ArcGIS Online and Cloud Mapping Services (Feb 20, 7pm-9pm)
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Session 2 – Designing Maps (Mar 6, 7pm-9pm)
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Session 3 – Working with Data – Yours and Others (Mar 20, 7pm-9pm)
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Session 4 – Creating a Web App (Apr 3, 7pm-9pm)
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Session 5 – Open Session for Project Work (Apr 20, 7pm-9pm)
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Virginia School Discipline Project Launch
We were proud to launch the Virginia School Discipline project in December. Profiled previously in the Daily Progress, this project aims to mitigate a clear systemic inequity in our education system. Recent statewide data suggests that Virginia public schools suspend or expel anywhere from approximately 1 in 10 to 1 in 4 students each year. These disciplinary actions are disproportionately imposed on students of color or students with disabilities, and many of the suspended and expelled students are elementary schoolers. Publicly available legal information--to the extent that it exists at all--is oftentimes found only on difficult to navigate websites, full of unfamiliar legalese and jargon, and provided only in English. Much of the information provided is designed to sell legal services--and while hiring a lawyer may be beneficial in many instances, doing so is frequently impossible for families because of cost, time commitment, and lack of familiarity with how to find a lawyer. After hearing stories from community members who felt overwhelmed and powerless when their students were suspended or expelled from school, we felt that providing access to information about the student discipline process in Virginia public schools was an important goal.
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How Can you Help?
- Add yourself to our volunteer list by contacting us! Be sure to include interests and availability.
- Donate to our non-profit or sponsor an event.
- Share our newsletter with someone who may be interested.
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