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Issue 13—December 21,
2006 
Welcome
to SAVI Connections, the electronic newsletter regarding the
SAVI system. SAVI Connections provides news about SAVI, demonstrates
various ways in which SAVI can benefit your organization, announces
release of new data, showcases new tools, highlights a variety of SAVI
users, and broadcasts user support and training options. The Polis staff
encourages your ideas and feedback. Please address comments to: savi@iupui.edu. View past newsletters at: http://www.savi.org/savii/about/news.aspx
All classes are offered FREE of charge and will be held at The Polis Center. Space is limited. Visit the training website to view a full description of each session and to register: http://www.savi.org/savii/support/training.aspx. You may also register by calling 274-2455. SAVI Charts & Graphs Workshop
SAVI Basic Training: Level 1
SAVI Basic Training: Level 2
SAVI Advanced Training: Level 3
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An exciting new tool arrives in December on SAVI. Charts & Graphs allow users to compare geographic areas, view changes over time, and view population distributions in a pie chart, bar chart, or line graph. They are also helpful to analyze trends and do comparisons. For example, you can create a chart showing a strong upward trend in Hispanic home purchase loans over a time period from 1992 to 2005 (see below). You also can look at trends specific to your own neighborhood. 
Two types of charts are available: Pie Charts and Bar Charts. Pie Charts allow users to compare proportions of a variable to a total count. Initially, you will be able only to select predefined variables for a given geography for creating a Pie Chart. In the future, SAVI may provide a system for allowing users to create Pie Charts with variables of their own choosing. With Bar Charts, users can compare a series of indicators in multiple geographic areas, view multiple indicators for a single neighborhood, or conduct trend analysis of multiple indicators. Any data in SAVI that is available for mapping may also be used for creating bar charts, allowing highly customizable displays. Once you have created the perfect chart, you can save it and/or print it for sharing with others. For more on this new tool, consult the SAVI training schedule in this issue and sign up for the Charts & Graphs Workshop or SAVI Basic Training Level 1. Click here to get started with Charts and Graphs.
On Friday, September 29, over ninety individuals, representing thirty-seven organizations, gathered on the IUPUI campus for the Second Annual SAVI Users Conference. In response to evaluations of the inaugural conference, the 2006 version was more interactive, with sessions designed to allow users to explore new SAVI tools and to share their experiences on how best to use the rich array of data in the nation's largest community information system. Breakout sessions included topics such as how to use SAVI to understand community issues, how to integrate SAVI data with other data from the Internet and other sources, and new approaches to mapping public health data. One-third of the participants agreed to evaluate the conference, which resulted in valuable information on how to make the day even more helpful to users. More time for networking was the most frequently offered suggestion. A number of attendees noted that providing a common lunch would be an ideal way to allow users to learn from each other informally. Another valuable suggestion was to provide users with more information about other local and state data resources, as well as guidance on how to use them effectively either with or without SAVI. For more on the conference evaluation results, click here.
Community Profiles have been one of SAVI's most popular tools since they were first added to the website in February of 2005. This tool allows you to view many different indicators in several categories all specific to a geographic area, such as Marion County, for example. Until now, Community Profiles were available for only counties, townships, and a handful of neighborhoods. This December marks the release of Community Profiles for school corporations and 2000 census tracts and blockgroups further expanding the capabilities of this useful tool. Look forward to the future release of Community Profiles for 1990 census tracts and blockgroups and additional neighborhoods. 
SAVI system maintenance SAVI will be unavailable from December 28, 2006 to January 2, 2007 due to University Information Technology Services maintenance across the IUPUI system. Concurrently, we will be backing up local SAVI servers and conducting our own maintenance. Please let us know if this presents a problem so we can work with you to find an alternate way to satisfy your need for data and mapping. | ||||||
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SAVI is a community information system administered and maintained by The Polis Center, a unit in the School of Liberal Arts at IUPUI. SAVI is supported financially by the following organizations: Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust; Richard M. Fairbanks Foundation, Inc.; Health Foundation of Greater Indianapolis, Inc.; Indianapolis Foundation, an affiliate of Central Indiana Community Foundation; Annie E. Casey Foundation; Lilly Endowment, Inc.; United Way of Central Indiana; City of Indianapolis, Department of Metropolitan Development; Marion County Health and Hospital Corporation; Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis (IUPUI). |
| For more information about SAVI, please visit the website at http://www.savi.org/. |
| To subscribe to SAVI Connections, send an e-mail to LISTSERV@LISTSERV.IUPUI.EDU with no subject and only the following in the body: SUBSCRIBE SAVI_NEWS-L |
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| Selected Results from SAVI User Conference Evaluations |
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