Over the last year, Data Driven Detroit (D3) has been working behind the scenes on large data projects that have made big headlines -- from Motor City Mapping, which documented the condition of every piece of property in Detoit, to the creation of a quality of life scorecard for the city.
"Everybody is looking to Detroit as a model, which is intimidating and flattering at the same time," says Erica Raleigh, director of
Data Driven Detroit, an organization whose core mission is to make metro Detroit's information more easily accessible to help improve quality of life in the region.
Raleigh became D3's permanent director early last year after the nonprofit's founder Kurt Metzger stepped down to become mayor of Pleasant Ridge. Metzger had served as the nonprofits director for six years.
Recently, D3 worked with Loveland Technologies and a diverse aray of community partners on the
Motor City Mapping project. Together they created an online interface that allows users to document the condition of individual properties in the city. Using the interface, a team of surveyors supplied information to a database documenting each of the city's 375,000+ parcels, which can be updated using an app called "Blexting."
Data Driven Detroit is also working on the
OneD Scorecard, which serves as sort of a quality of life indicator in the city. It shows how different geographies rank in terms of economic opportunity, proximity to good schools, and crime.
Data Driven Detroit plans to strengthen relationships with existing clients and community stakeholders over the next year by focusing on work it has already started.
"As always we will be working on improving the accessibility of data to the community at large," Raleigh says.
Source: Erica Raleigh, director of Data Driven Detroit
Writer: Jon Zemke
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