Shows Usefulness of Self-service Semantic Publishing with OSF
The Peg project has just been moved from beta to public status by its two sponsors, United Way of Winnipeg and the Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD). Peg is an innovative Web portal for community indicators of well-being for the city of Winnipeg, Manitoba. Peg helps identify and, on an ongoing basis, track indicators that relate to the economic, environmental, cultural and social well-being of the people of Winnipeg. Here is the main screen:
The Peg website (www.mypeg.ca) is a fully integrated, interactive and dynamic information portal. Peg is a robust knowledge system that includes a graphic user interface to display a range of community well-being and sustainability themes and the indicators used to track progress over time. Structured Dynamics was the lead technical contractor on the project, basing the site on our Open Semantic Framework (OSF).
We originally completed and delivered the site to the sponsors in beta with a single indicator cluster around the concept of poverty. Based on our training and the tools packaged with OSF, the sponsors were then able to gather and load further data in broader indicator areas including Basic Needs, the Built Environment, the Economy, Education & Learning, Governance, Health, Natural Environment and Social Vitality. The Web site design contractor, Tactica Interactive, was also able to extend the baselline visualization tools provided by OSF using the existing APIs and documentation. Here, for example, is a chloropleth map created by Tactica for the site:
Datasets may be selected and compared with a variety of charting and mapping and visualization tools at the level of the entire city, neighborhoods or communities. All told, there are 54 datasets now within Peg representing more than 4,000 different entities. The sponsors collected, organized and inputted these data themselves according to specifications and tools provided with OSF.
Peg is a great example of how the basic OSF can be extended and maintained by site users. After initial delivery and training, Structured Dynamics played no role in the completion and publication of the site.
The Peg model shows how the combination of open source software, documentation and training enables any organization to deploy and manage their own semantic publishing system. Congratulations to all associated with Peg for this newest release!
