A wealth of natural resource information integrated with local data and knowledge, presented to meet specific area of interest or community requirements.

Users will be interacting with their own group of friends on Facebook as well as with petitions, other online actions, news articles, videos, etc., generated by the We Can Solve it campaign and fed into the Facebook app via several RSS feeds.

You'll get access to all the legislation, voting records, analytic tools, district maps, charts and graphs. You'll get to connect with other members, discuss issues, and rally for support.

The shift from a corporate paradigm to an assessment approach that is proactive and grassroots requires a layering of information that builds over time. As a live and open research platform, the community based DigiMapping system would be ‘live’, open integrate information from a host of sources. Data from existing needs surveys would function as a layer of information. Ethnographic data would function as another layer- ethnographic information such as interviews with residents would offer a holistic picture of neighborhoods for comprehensive community profiles. Spatial data from a Geographic Information System (GIS) would be integrated, providing information that relationally identifies technology access centers and hubs within a neighborhood. Other layers such as building zones, number of clinics, census data, broadband cable routes, would be organized and accessible through our proposed mapping system. Once the mapping system is developed and accessible, the information would be open and available to community members via web portals in neighborhood hubs such as libraries, community centers and schools. As neighborhoods change, layers of information would continue to build and shift in the DigiMapping system.

Community mapping is a method used to assist communities to self-identify key resources and areas of concern. We would work with target communities using handheld GPS units to collect data points for each feature of the community-generated map. Georeferenced photos would be taken to provide a visual baseline. Features identified as significant by communities are often missing from “conventional” maps. They may include natural resources that are economically important, culturally important, or linked to other amenities, such as recreational sites or places of shelter.Data from community mapping will be incorporated into a base map, using an open source mapping tool or API, complete with annotated data points. Georeferenced photos would also be added. Additional data layers to be added include available remote sensing imagery, data layers derived from downscaled global climate models, and available GIS layers showing land use/land cover, infrastructure, hydrological features, physical features, etc. Combining these data will enable the community to “find itself” in the “official” geography.

One of the best sources for understanding the divergent elements of any community system are community benchmark data, which is a comprehensive look at a community system and features data critical to the essentials of community-building knowledge. These studies and their data are available from economic development organizations across the country, including special improvement district assoction websites, urban research bureau websites, and civic data source websites. The Urban Rise project will synthesize and present data from 20 of the most cutting-edge community building websites in the country. Data that will be presented in an easy-to-understand fashion, that offers the "new" community activist an opportunity to understand how their own community works and the ways to become active in the community building processes. Think of it as a leadership primer based on the best practices of community building and the most current data about the best communities in our country.