Vol. 1 Issue 2, Fall 2006 | Azavea Journal

Vol. 1 Issue 2
Fall 2006

What do Election, Subversion, Expansion, Subscription, Education and (Photo) Location have in common? …and it’s not that they rhyme. Azavea’s projects are as diverse as these words are different - each of them describes elements of projects on which we're working. Read more about what we have in the works below… and welcome again to another edition of the Azavea Journal!

The Gerrymandering Index

By Megan Heckert Published in

Vol. 1 Issue 2, Fall 2006

The shapes in the image above are real legislative district boundaries. Gerrymandering, as described in the last edition of the Azavea Journal, is all about drawing electoral districts for political gain. Gerrymandering has largely gone without any official definition or measurement, more closely following the principle of “I know it when I see it.” While no standards work without exception, Azavea has used the geography of the legislative districts to calculate the level of gerrymandering across the US. Based on the local and federal districts stored in our Cicero Elected Official Lookup Service, we have created a list of the most gerrymandered districts in the US. To learn more about gerrymandering and to see the list, read our new Gerrymandering white paper.

Our white paper on Gerrymandering is making its rounds in the local and internet media! Read the article The Philadelphia Inquirer published on 11/02/06 on the front page of the Local section, based on our white paper.

The winner of last edition’s contest was Emily Kahoe of The Reinvestment Fund, who correctly identified the pictured city as Philadelphia (which has two districts among the top three most gerrymandered).

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Inside Azavea: Subverting Our Software

By David Zwarg Published in

Vol. 1 Issue 2, Fall 2006

Azavea’s development team constantly relies upon Software Configuration Management (SCM) software to author robust and dependable software. Whether development happens in Philadelphia, Seattle, Vermont or on the road, a copy of Subversion, running off a server in the office maintains logs and copies of code for collaborative, secure, and redundant storage. As all of Azavea’s developers are seldom in the office at the same time, maintaining a central repository is critical to the integrity of Azavea’s products and solutions. With the addition of TortoiseSVN, developers can write code from anywhere in the world that has access to the web, and easily manage their checked out versions of code in a familiar Windows environment.

It doesn’t matter if someone changed some code last week or last year, Subversion keeps track of those changes, and even includes a “blame” feature. Making each developer accountable for his or her changes maintains a higher quality of code, as each developer writes code with this informal contract in mind. This accelerates the Azavea development lifecycle when multiple developers work on one project. Not only because there are more people on a project, but because they constantly update the common code base, implementing application features in parallel. The resulting collaborative effort produces a shorter development time and quicker delivery to Azavea’s clients.

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Azavea is Growing!

By Abby Fretz Published in

Vol. 1 Issue 2, Fall 2006

In the past two months, Azavea has welcomed four new employees to its Philadelphia office. From left to rightt: Megan Heckert – Business Development Manager, Abby Fretz – Project Assistant, Chip Hitchens – Operations and Project Manager, and Rachel Cheetham-Richard – Vice President and Marketing Director.

Featured Employee Megan Heckert

Megan Heckert, our Business Development Manager, brings a diverse background to the Azavea team. While earning her M.A. in Geography at Temple University, she focused much of her research on the impacts of trees and green space in urban communities. She is very excited to be once again involved in geographic research and analysis. Prior to joining Azavea, Megan worked as program coordinator at Delaware Valley Earth Force and as a US Peace Corps volunteer in Ocho Rios, Jamaica. Her previous responsibilities included the writing and submission of grant proposals and reports, and the planning and implementing educational programming. She provided professional development to educators and assisted them in the implementation of environmental programming in their classrooms. When not at Azavea, Megan sits on the board of East Mount Airy Neighbors and is a Delaware Valley Associate in the Environmental Leadership Program. She also swing dances and does tai chi (though not as well or as often as her teacher might like), and is working on plans to learn how to sail.

At Azavea, Megan’s responsibilities include grant development, GIS analysis, professional services, customer relationship management, publications, press relations and product development strategy.

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Mapping The Wilma Theater

By Megan Heckert Published in

Vol. 1 Issue 2, Fall 2006

Photo by George Golem.

In Philadelphia’s vibrant cultural landscape, theaters and other arts organizations must work hard to cultivate new audiences while delivering excellent shows and experiences for all of their patrons. The Wilma Theater recently undertook a strategic analysis of its core audiences, including a geographic study carried out by Azavea. The study used the locations of existing Wilma patrons to identify untapped markets of theater-goers. Utilizing geographic data provided by the theater and specific census variables such as per capita income, household income, number of gay/lesbian couples, percent college educated, average family size, people per square mile, median age, and average household size, Azavea determined areas of Wilma high-density neighborhoods, and used this information to describe a “typical” Wilma neighborhood. We then identified other areas in the Southeastern Pennsylvania region with similar populations and compared the two maps, highlighting the most promising areas for increased attendance of the theater.

For more information see the Spring issue of this year’s Arts and Culture Advocate, a publication of the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance, in which this study was featured.

This project was performed as part of our internal research and development program. Azavea employees spend 10% of their time each month on personal research or pro bono projects, of which this analysis is just one example.

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SBIR Announcement

By Chip Hitchens Published in

Vol. 1 Issue 2, Fall 2006

We are proud to announce that Azavea has been awarded a research grant with the US Department of Education’s Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program. Last year, Azavea teamed with the University of Pennsylvania’s Cartographic Modeling Lab to create a web-based application called schoolBase for the School District of Philadelphia. It was designed to allow users from the school district to visualize their vast quantity of data using maps and charts to aid in critical decision making. With an interest in creating a more open system that could easily be adapted to the particular needs of school systems around the country, Azavea applied for a Phase I SBIR grant from the US Department of Education. As the name implies, these grants are designed to fund truly innovative research and development that small companies might not otherwise undertake. Azavea’s grant, one of only about 35 awarded by the US Department of Education, will help fund research into improving the user experience and extending our Kaleidoscope framework to cover educational data. If our research indicates a potential for a commercialization (as we believe it will) we will be eligible to apply for a Phase II grant, in which we will receive funding to more fully develop and market the product.

This project is supported by the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program of the U.S. Department of Education, Contract Number (ED-06-PO-0929).

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PhillyHistory.org “Guess That Photo!”

By Abby Fretz Published in

Vol. 1 Issue 2, Fall 2006

Week after week Azavea interns continue to unearth striking photographs from the Philadelphia Department of Record’s City Archives and post them to PhillyHistory.org. The photographs cover over 150 years of Philadelphia history and range in topic from waterways and transportation to architecture and education. Can you guess the Philadelphia location, year the photograph was taken, and the activity taking place in this photograph from PhillyHistory.org? Be the first to send an email to info@azavea.com, with all three correct answers and you will win a $25 gift card to Borders.

Continue your visit of the streets of Philadelphia at the Atwater Kent Museum.

Don’t miss…
How Philly Works: Streets as Barometers of Urban Life
October 6, 2006 – September, 2007

How Philly Works: Streets as Barometers of Urban Life includes paintings, photographs, prints, objects and documents, using William Penn’s vision for Philadelphia to explore street activity over 300 years. Drawn almost exclusively from the City Records Department, individual City Departments and the Atwater Kent Museum, the exhibition showcases the recent program of the Records Department to make its holdings available on the Internet. The exhibition features the Philadelphia City Charter, drafted by Penn in 1701, the wampum belt believed to have been given to Penn by the Lenape tribe, a waywiser from 1750 used to measure consistent city blocks, historic regulatory measures from the Department of Licenses and Inspections, and police paraphernalia from the late 1800s. How Philly Works will be on exhibition until September, 2007.

Atwater Kent Museum of Philadelphia is at 15 South 7th Street, one block west of Independence Hall, between Market and Chestnut Street. It is open for general admission Wednesday-Sunday from 1-5 p.m. School and group tours are scheduled everyday from 10:00 a.m.- 4:00 p.m. Admission is: adults, $5; seniors and children 13-17, $3; members and children 12 and under, free. The Museum Store is open Monday and Tuesday from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and Wednesday through Sunday from 1-5 p.m.

For program information call 215.685.4830 or visit www.philadelphiahistory.org.

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