Envisioning

What IS the Walla Walla Community Indicator Project?

As of today, it's a bright idea, not yet a project.

Before it can become a project, it needs some definition, a little envisioning. I like to start with the end in mind. What will the Walla Walla Community Indicators Project leave behind when it's done? What will it specifically NOT create.

The WW See Eye (CI for Community Indicators. Get it?) Project, when completed, will leave a web site, fashioned after Spokane's Community Indicators site, which displays data chosen by interested citizens of Walla Walla to represent certain aspects of Walla Walla. The data will be, like the data on Spokane's site:

Comprehensive, or important to large numbers of the community

Ideally predictive, or at least outcome-oriented and not focused on inputs

Valid measurements of real phenomena, as defined by good science and social science

Understandable to a lay audience

Benchmarkable to other communities

Available repeatedly over time to allow trend analysis

Sourced from credible sites

Asset-based; that is, describing trends around a positive definition whenever possible.

WW See Eye will also leave a community capable of managing the site. Managing will include:

• Hosting the site
• Monitoring site use, including data download volumes and site traffic
  
• Updating the data displayed on the site
• Adding, deleting, and changing the data displayed

The project will leave a community interested in and capable of using the site's data. Also a process for getting additional indicators displayed on the site, including a means for managing the request queue and funding update requests.

The project will also leave behind an enhanced public image for the Port of Walla Walla.

What will this project NOT produce?

It won't produce a community dashboard. Dashboards are interpreted summaries of data. This project will NOT INTERPRET DATA—it will not decide the meaning of any data series.

This project will not fracture or further fragment the community. Many groups in Walla Walla have been working on creating the means to measure what's going on here. This project will seek to aid these groups to achieve their goals, not insist that others merely serve our goals. We want this project to bring us together into deeper consideration.