For local governments who want to be more data-driven, there’s no shortage of data available. But policy-makers and planners often miss out because the data they need is hard to find and use. The volume and variety of data available can be overwhelming, especially to those from less technical backgrounds, and it’s scattered across a wide range of sources. Decision-makers may turn to analysts or engineers for help, but those specialized skills are always in short supply, so these decisions are either delayed or made without all the information available.
We think there’s a better option, and today, we’re excited to announce the initial beta release of the Civin platform. In four simple-to-use tools, users can find, analyze, visualize, and map information about their communities and get the answers they need within seconds. The platform comes preloaded with publicly-available data on a wide variety of topics, and soon users will also be able to connect our tools to their own internal datasets as well.
What’s available now?
Our tools give users of all backgrounds direct access the insights they need to solve problems and improve their communities. At the center of this platform is our Data Explorer toolkit, which includes:
Table Builder: Create customized tables across geographies and timeframes with ease.
Trend Charts: Visualize trends over time across a range of variables and geographies.
Map Viewer: Explore patterns within your community and compare across the region.
Comparisons: Analyze the links between key variables to understand how they relate.
These tools are built on top of a core platform that connects a user-friendly web interface with a powerful data back-end. Users can get started now with a curated collection of public data from the U.S. Census Bureau covering 29 distinct topics, with much more data coming soon.
What’s on the horizon?
We’re actively refining and expanding the platform now, and some of the features we’re working on for the Data Explorer include:
More pre-loaded public datasets from sources like the Bureau of Labor Statistics, EPA, Federal Reserve, and OpenStreetMap
Support for users’ internal datasets and integration with pre-loaded data
AI-based analysis summarization for easy interpretation and generating reports
Reaggregation of data to fit custom geographies like neighborhoods, police precincts, or council districts
Pre-built reports on key topics such as economic opportunity, housing, and education
Enhanced customization and export features for maps, graphs, and tables
We’re also in early development of several other tools that will be added to the platform later. These tools will give users the ability to do things like find information related to specific properties across a range of datasets, track key performance metrics across departments and programs, and prevent risks of adverse events such as building fires. (Check out our Solutions page for more information on those, and please reach out to us at info@civin.co if you want to collaborate on a pilot project!)
How to get access
Our beta release gives free early access to these tools to a select group of local government users, whose feedback will be used to improve and expand the platform’s features. We released the platform this week to users who first previewed our Data Explorer toolkit last spring, and we’ll be expanding access in the coming weeks to include additional communities and non-governmental users as well. Please reach out via email to get added to the waitlist.