SCOPE formulates new city research tool

Sarasota County Openly Plans for Excellence (SCOPE) is winding down a series of public workshops countywide that have helped the group and its partners put together a new research tool for current and future county and city residents.

Last week, SCOPE held a “Community Data 2.0” workshop at Robert L. Taylor Center so that city residents could provide input for the new technology.

The future web tool, dubbed “Sarasota Community Platform,” is expected to be released in beta form this fall with the help of a partner, which could be Washington, D.C.,-based The Urban Institute.

The organization, with the help of local governments, neighborhood organizations, police departments, health departments and school board and voter records, is almost finished compiling databases that residents will be able to access on a daily basis through one website.

“People will be able to find out certain demographics about neighborhoods without having to access multiple government entities,” said Allison Pinto, director of community data initiative for SCOPE.
For example, Pinto explained, a future resident with children looking for a home in the area could access the future site to find neighborhoods that already have children, what kind of school district the neighborhoods are located in and where the nearest libraries are, all by using an integrated layered map through the site.
“Over the past two years, SCOPE has been playing a role facilitating development of this community-wide data collaborative,” Pinto said. “What it means is a network of people, groups and organizations coming together to knit together various data resources and make them truly accessible so they are increasingly informative.”

The last of six workshops is being held this week to gather the perspectives of people throughout the community.

SCOPE and its partners will hold a meeting Sept. 17, to figure out how to continue investing in the development of the online community data platform. A timetable for when the online platform might be available for release is not available yet.