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The Rhode Island DataHUB Highlighted as an Innovative Web-Based Application for Indicator Data
The Child Indicator
Winter 2011
By David Murphey, Ph.D.
Putting It On the Map: Web-based Applications for Indicator Data
Several innovative examples of web-based technology for dis-play of indicator information, often including maps, have emerged in recent months.
Rhode Island’s DataHub (www.ridatahub.org) is a tour-de-force of data integration. It draws on multiple data sets—federal, state, and local—to facilitate analysis and visualiza-tion across many topics of child and adolescent well-being. The DataHub includes both aggregate and individual-level (program) data (with appropriate confidentiality protec-tions). Tables, charts, and maps, both pre-made and cus-tom-generated, are part of the interface. Essentially a data warehouse, the DataHub uses visualization software, WEAVE, that is quite user-friendly. Another feature of the site, Data Stories, presents, through figures and text, suc-cinct, data-based explanations of key issues, such as sub-stance abuse, or mathematics test scores. In the site’s own words:
"Policymakers, program planners and grants writers can use the HUB to demonstrate where to target scarce public resources and explain the data-driven rationale behind policy decisions. With the proper clearance, the HUB is a researcher’s paradise.”
The DataHub, which is officially in “beta” mode, is developed and maintained by The Providence Plan, created with funds provided by the U.S. Office of Safe & Drug-free Schools, and sponsored by several state agencies, including Health, Education, and the Department of Children.
Full article available here: http://www.childtrends.org/Files/Child_Trends-2011_01_27_CI_ChildIndWinter11.pdf