icegov2012 proceedings

3. SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT
3.1 Phase I
3.1.1 Overview
The first phase of the Development Database project,
implemented in late 2010, involved developing a novel web-based
database to collect information from municipal staff about
recently completed and planned developments. MAPC has
previously collected this information through telephone calls and
paper and online surveys. The web-based tool was developed
because it provided several advantages:
o Municipal staff can identify the location of a project on a
map, resulting in greater spatial accuracy than collecting only
addresses;
o Projects can be automatically labeled with the appropriate
municipality and Transportation Analysis Zone (TAZ) based
on the designated location;
o Municipal staff can review, edit, and update data collected in
a previous survey, completed in 2007.
MAPC collects development information for a variety of planning
purposes. In this case, the agency was updating population and
employment projections for use by the Boston Metropolitan
Planning Organization in their 2035 Regional Transportation Plan.
MAPC distributed the database web address and use instructions
to municipal staff by email, and 64 municipal representatives
created accounts to verify or enter development project
information, resulting in a database of over 1,100 projects. Several
technically sophisticated municipalities, including Cambridge,
Somerville, and Boston, provided information in spreadsheet
formats (including latitude and longitude coordinates) exported
from internal records systems. These were manually combined
with the data from the web-based system. The quantity of
development projects in those municipalities would have been
overwhelming for staff to manually enter individually. Following
receipt and input of all municipal submissions, MAPC staff
reviewed all projects in the database to confirm their location and
status. The final product was made available as a spreadsheet and
shapefile available for download from MAPC’s website.
3.1.2 Technical Architecture and Lessons Learned
The development database web application was built with freely
available open source software tools:
o PostgreSQL with the PostGIS extension for spatial data is
used as a database server;
o Data modeling, data forms, user registration and
o
management is done with Django, a Python-based web
framework;
Leaflet is used as mapping tool for displaying basemaps such
as OpenStreetMap, Bing Aerials or a custom MAPC
Basemap) and a project point layer and also allows users to
“drag and drop” markers on the map to add or adjust precise
project locations.
The interface for data manipulation was kept as simple as
possible. Although the chosen software tools would allow more
sophisticated functionality – for instance, instead of point
locations project polygons could be drawn on a map – the strategy
was to have low barriers for users in order to improve the
response rate and level of user participation.
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MAPC was fortunate to have a few friendly users during the first
few days after the launch. This group provided feedback that
helped to tweak the system and iron out elements in the interface
that caused confusion for non-tech-savvy users. A quick round of
usability tests before launch or roll-out would have been helpful to
catch some issues in advance, and is the recommended method
when primarily targeting a non-technical audience. The
application must be easy to use in order to generate a valuable
data stream in return.
As a fallback, if users were not willing to use the online system,
digital spreadsheets and paper maps were sent out to municipal
staff on request. The strategy was maximize internal efficiency
and have as many entries through the web application added and
validated.
From the perspective of the existing literature on information
sharing, Phase I of the development database confirmed the
significant potential that exists for technology to enhance sharing.
However, notably the technology augmented existing practices
and relationships between municipal employees and the agency.
3.2 Phase II
3.2.1 Overview
The two goals of the second phase of the project is to expand the
website’s functionality as well as opening the system to the
general public. Preliminary development of this phase is
complete, and a beta version was distributed to test users in July
2012. In order to enable broad participation but also ensure data
quality, this phase of the database will accommodate several
distinct user levels.
3.2.2 Development Process
The first stage of the development process included outreach to
the target constituencies for the “crowd”: municipal staff, public
agencies, academics, researchers, the development industry, and
journalists. Six semi-structured interviews were completed with
municipal staff and the development industry, and public agencies
and researchers were consulted. The outreach included questions
soliciting feedback about the existing system, specific
development attributes they desired, and requirements for data
quality. Municipal staff expressed an interest in using the system
to answer citizen information requests. Therefore fields were
added for project website URLs, as well as for sales and listing
agents. We also designed the system so each municipality could
link to only the projects in their jurisdiction.
The development community expressed an interest in entering
information about projects for marketing purposes, using existing
data for market research purposes, as well as to identify projects
for business-to-business marketing purposes. As a result of this
feedback we created a field for the lead developer.
For the next stage of system development, the results from the
outreach as well as MAPC’s internal data needs were used to
develop a list of database attributes, as well as wireframe
diagrams illustrating the revised system functionality and layout.
3.2.3 Website Functionality
The first version of the development database included the ability
to view all projects contained with a municipality, and view and
edit the detailed attributes for a project. The second phase features