Ron Briggs, UT-Dallas, The Press and the 2000 Census, December 2000 1

GISGIS

Local Sources and Local Sources and the 2000 Censusthe 2000 Census

Ronald Briggs Ph.D. Director, GIS Programs

Associate Director, Bruton CenterThe University of Texas at Dallas

briggs@utdallas.edu

This presentation is available at:

www.utdallas.edu/~briggscensus2000.ppt

Ron Briggs, UT-Dallas, The Press and the 2000 Census, December 2000 2

GISGIS

Census Data Primary Processing Technology

• 1960: Paper

• 1970: Mainframe

• 1980: Mainframe/minicomputer

• 1990: High-end PCs and workstations

• 2000: any Personal Computer

Ron Briggs, UT-Dallas, The Press and the 2000 Census, December 2000 3

GISGIS

Data Storage and Distribution Technology

• 1960: paper• 1970: ½” reel tapes for mainframes

– 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th Counts– couldn’t they get it right the first time?

• 1980: ½” reel tapes for mainframes– STF-1, STF-2– New name, same old format

• 1990: CD-ROM• 2000: The Web

Ron Briggs, UT-Dallas, The Press and the 2000 Census, December 2000 4

GISGIS

Analysis Methodolgies• 1960: mechanical calculators• 1970: mainframe programming languages

– Fortran, PL1

• 1980: command line statistical packages– SPSS, SAS

• 1990: tabular spreadsheets– Lotus123, Excel

• 2000: map based displays– Free GIS*-based browsers

*Geographic Information Systems

Ron Briggs, UT-Dallas, The Press and the 2000 Census, December 2000 5

GISGIS

The Analysts

• 1960: a very few, very patient people

• 1970: mainframe programmers

• 1980: university-based social scientists with advanced computer skills

• 1990: computer-literate professionals

• 2000: any and everybody

Ron Briggs, UT-Dallas, The Press and the 2000 Census, December 2000 6

GISGIS

The 2000 Picture

• Processing technology: home PC

• Data storage and distribution: The Web (or CDs)

• Analysis: free map-based browsers

• Analysts: any and everybody

The 2000 Census is now a mass market phenomena, rather than a university fiefdom.

Ron Briggs, UT-Dallas, The Press and the 2000 Census, December 2000 7

GISGIS

Universities as “Local Data Sources”Past• Universities were the primary local data source since only they

had the technology (mainframes) and expertise (programmers) to access data

• By agreement, North Central Texas COG provided public interface

Present• University’s role now lies in

– Research and Data interpretation – Teaching and training in data analysis

• North Central Texas Council of Governments operates the main access site: www.dfwinfo.com

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GISGIS

UT-Dallas Activities • Research and Data Interpretation

– Collin County Community College District, Analysis of Service Area Characteristics and Trends

– Dallas Morning News, Toxic Traps: Public Housing and Pollution

• Teaching and Training in Data Analysis: 15 credit hour graduate certificate programs in– Geographic Information Systems– Quantitative Analysis of Social and Economic Data

Ron Briggs, UT-Dallas, The Press and the 2000 Census, December 2000 9

GISGIS

Global is Local & Local is Global• Many global resources contain local data

– http://www.geolytics.com/ contains the US Census on one CD

– http://cronkite.pp.asu.edu/census/ Guide to Census 2000 for jounalists

• Local Web sites accessible from anywhere thus unprecedented opportunities for– us to see local data anywhere in the world– anyone in the world to see our local data