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codeforsanjose / Project-Ideas

Hey have an idea for a Project? Post it here! See the Waffle version here:
https://waffle.io/codeforsanjose/Project-Ideas
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Build Javascript App for Crowdsourcing Qualitative Data #53

Open staceylee opened 8 years ago

staceylee commented 8 years ago

The task: Build a prototype web/mobile application to crowdsource political opinion and demographics for San Jose residents, similar in style to Mobility Map.

The issue:

The Envision San Jose 2040 General Plan includes the construction of 120,000 new homes, which will be concentrated in the development of 70 urban villages. Urban villages are pedestrian-, bike-, and transit-friendly neighborhoods with a mix of homes, shops, and jobs. (Greenbelt Alliance)

The Bay Area is in the midst of a housing crisis, which adds immense pressure to low income households, whom face the severe threat of displacement. Urban village planning is one way to address inequity, but this will require active participation of resident planners and stakeholders.

Today, concerned residents can attend community meetings to provide input, but the consistent patterns of low participant turnout does not fairly represent the actual stakeholders involved.

This mobile-ready application will supplement in-person community meetings by reaching more diverse community feedback on agenda items. This can help leverage a political voice to marginalized peoples, including those who face a language barrier. Additionally, the easy usability and widespread applicability make this app ideal to increase political participation across all age groups and levels of education.

Please view the mockup here or download the attached PowerPoint file.

_Seeking developers and specialists to assist in: _

Special thanks to @Kyle-Falconer for determining the languages and skills needed. Looking forward to get the ball rolling on this potential project.

LiveInput Mockup.pptx

howdoicomputer commented 8 years ago

A few points, I guess:

I can't tell what this issue is trying to solve. After looking at the mock up, I can surmise that it has something to do with voting on urban development. What are urban villages? What kind of input is needed? Qualitative data is rather vague.

A tl;dr I got from slack chat was "in a sense, it is a way for residents to vote online on city planning issues. The goal is to have marginalized communities a political voice." That's a pretty succinct summary and should be stated here in the ticket thread for requirements purposes.

An important question to ask is "how many people are projected to use this app?" Time isn't free and experienced developer time especially isn't free. The potential number of urban villagers who are enabled by such an app correlates to how much time we should put into making it. I don't see a good return if I spend 30 hours developing an application that only a dozen people will use over the course of a year.

Another question to ask is "would the city be interested in using this application?" If they are then the validity of this project is substantial.

Furthermore, potential tech stacks are moot because I don't really think this project calls for a 'fresh start.' MobilityMap was built using an off the shelf framework called shareabouts and it is meant to be rebranded. Any developer tackling this project should, in my option, grab the simplest pre-built option and run from there. Adopt a Drain might be a good start and just change the models, branding, and make individual points more editable and boom you're in business.

Resources:

staceylee commented 8 years ago

Thanks for your feedback! I've edited my first post to address some of these points.

The projected number of people using this application will easily be in the hundreds, if not thousands. For at least the initial prototype, anyone living in San Jose would be able to sign up and use the application. Viewing poll results will not require having a user account, so all visitors can view the current "agenda items". Ideally, users will self-report if they are living within an urban village boundary in their user profile, so this data would be reflected in the results breakdown.

My current goal is to help build a small-scale working prototype to present to city officials, perhaps using the framework you suggested. Beyond the city of San Jose, this application could easily be adopted by social science research firms and university researchers.

howdoicomputer commented 8 years ago

Alright, well, my docket is full at the moment but if somebody starts this then I can contribute here and there.

mthong commented 8 years ago

Here are some existing startups/products that are also focused on getting community input on planning topics: