In looking at all of the infomation available to sort and sift through on Jacksonville's Databank (www.jacksonville.com/databases), it really is quite impressive on a couple different levels. 1) The amount of programming that the city has dedicated to compile and launch this many databases. 2) The variety of databases that are provided really cover a wide gamut of citizen interests. 3) I'd be curious as to how some city employees and officials felt when some of the information specific to salaries, etc. went live! (While I recognize that all of that information is public knowledge to begin with, it's a lot more accessible to the average joe!)

G. Feldmann, 2/24/08

Sometimes city employees' salaries, allwances, tax reimbursements etc. are put up inadvertently, or simply accessed legally. That happened in my hometown of Claremont, CA last year when a blog covering local politics and society went onto the city website and found paystubs of a number of senior city officials. It published them, and the mayor and city attorney responded by writing to Google, which owns the Blogspot service that hosts the blog, trying not only to have Google remove the posts but to shut down the blog altogether. Ultimately it didn't work, nor should it have, but it just highlights how some municipalities embrace Web 2.0, while others just try to have controlled information up.

Not terribly earthshaking, but you can read about it here if you feel motivated to do so.

-- Terril Jones

That was quite a bit of information contained in those databanks, I have to say I was a bit surprised that much information was put together in one space. I just wonder though how many people actually are aware of and use this resource. It could be a tremendous resource for comparison if other cities have a similar amount of data congregated in one public area. It would be interesting to see how long it took to gather and process the data to these formats (if necessary) and the number of people who worked on such a project. As I mentioned there could be quite a bit of potential to examine trends and make comparisions against time and location (in other cities).

Christie 2/25

The data compiled on the Jacksonville.com web site is an awesome compilation, though a considerable amount of it was compiled by governmental agencies and the Jacksonville news site is functioning as a host or clearinghouse of links to agencies like state department of education, etc.

Another very useful government database is the Ohio Department of Education’s web site. Though its homepage is sometimes chocked with hype about state-wide school improvement efforts, it provides access to a goldmine of data on schools that can be pulled by district, by school, by race, gender and income. It allows for comparisons  to the performance of schools within the same district, county or across the state. For example, the “Power User Reports”  allows you to pull on a wide-ranging databanks that include graduation and promotion rates, building ratings based on state report cards, student mobility rates, teacher attendance rates and certification, and teacher-student ratios. You can pull together text charts and graphics that compare various school indicators. Whether you are a reporter, researcher or a curious parent who wants to know how your child’s school stacks up against others in Ohio in important categories, the Power User reports can give you some decent numbers. At the same time, it’s important to be clear on exactly what the data represent; sometimes, the actual definitions are not exactly what you may be looking for.  http://ilrc.ode.state.oh.us/Power_Users.asp

In addition to quantitative databases, more and more education websites are offering useful qualitative databases. They are providing data that most governmental agencies are neither required nor equipped to collect.  Produced through much more painstaking data-collection efforts, theses databases open the door to analyses that would be impossible otherwise. A good example is the National Council on Teacher Quality’s database on teacher union rules and regulations. After studying teacher union contracts in 50 major districts across the country, the NCTQ created a database that allows you to compare the rules that govern classrooms, teachers and the principals who manage them. It allows readers to compare teacher salaries, length of school day, and the scope of collective bargaining agreements. I thought this would be of interest because so much of what goes on in our children’s schools has to do with the teacher union contract. http://www.nctq.org/tr3/search.jsp

Charlise 2/26