Information Networking Forum of Oakland

A collaboration between the Geographic Information Science Center and the Institute of Urban and Regional Development at UC Berkeley, the Urban Strategies Council, and citywide advocacy groups and organizations focusing on low-resource, minority communities of Oakland. The participating organizations have a common commitment to social justice and "democratization" of data.

Background

InfoOakland recognizes that good information can be a powerful tool for community organizing and for assessing, planning, and evaluating strategies and programs to achieve positive social change. By sharing and expanding access to community organizations and residents, we strive to:

• inspire fresh perspectives on the realities facing communities and the circumstances causing them
• increase use of data by community organizations to plan and evaluate programs and campaigns
• increase interest in data will increase political visibility and help provide access to more data, thus further democratizing information
• create relevant, local content that will inspire Oakland residents to use the internet or their Neighborhood Resource Hubs to access data
• develop a framework for a regional site for the Bay Area, which will replicate many of these impacts on a larger scale (in collaboration with statewide efforts, such as Neighborhood Knowledge California).

System Data

InfoOakland’s Map Room serves as the interactive web-based mapping tool for community organizations to gather and to analyze information in furthering their goals toward social justice. The Oaktown Datahouse site hosts an extensive range of data and powerful functions to serve its wide range of users.

• Information and boundaries for civil and political districts (i.e. city council, county supervisor, community initiatives, and local neighborhoods)
• Locations and Profiles of:
  • Health & Safety (hospitals, clinics)
  • Educational facilities (schools and libraries, and their contact information, hours of operation, etc.)
  • Community facilities (recreation centers, parks)
  • Environmental sites (toxic and hazardous materials sites)
• Aerial photographs

Application Features

• Basic functions
  • User friendly viewing
  • Interactive mapping of area demographics (US Census 2000)
  • Customizable print & layout feature for interactive maps
• Advanced functions
  • Advanced select & identify tools for effective viewing
  • Customizable map of viewable data
  • Exact Address-Finding capability
  • Custom report generation for viewing and on-the-fly comparison of demographic data for different areas

Contacts

Geographic Information Science Center, UCB (GISC)
Anders Flodmark (flodmark@gisc.berkeley.edu)
Patty Frontiera (pattyf@gisc.berkeley.edu)

Institute of Urban and Regional Development (IURD)
Heather Hood, AICP, Assoc. AIA (hhood@uclink.berkeley.edu)

Urban Strategies Council, Oakland, CA
Junious Williams (juniousw@urbanstrategies.org)

Screenshots

The main user interface gives the user access to quick ways of finding their way around the City of Oakland. The user also has control of visibility layer and access to custom tools.

Detailed 2000 census information is displayed in tabular form but can also be quickly mapped

Mapping Census 2000 vacant housing units, at the click of a button.