record

Thesis Info

LABS ID
00068
Thesis Title
Crosswise: Sharing Goals, Sharing Time
Author
Tor de Vries
2nd Author
3rd Author
Degree
MFA
Year
2005
Number of Pages
55
University
Parsons School of Design
Thesis Supervisor
David Kanter
Supervisor e-mail
Other Supervisor(s)
Michael Gurstein (NJIT)
Language(s) of Thesis
English
Department / Discipline
Design & Technology
Languages Familiar to Author
English
URL where full thesis can be found
Keywords
Community informatics, information visualization, data analysis, cooperative planning, sociology, event calendars
Abstract: 200-500 words
Frequently, community organizations cannot or do not study what other local organizations are doing, which leads to event conflicts, redundancy, and missed opportunities. This “information obscurity” creates less than optimal social capital, even between organizations with mutual objectives. Today’s online event calendars are libraries of information rather than planning assistants for community leaders. The Crosswise system approaches this issue by adding information visualization and analysis to a web-based event calendar, exploring a new direction for community informatics. For leaders and planners, events are analyzed to highlight similarities, possible synergy, and opportunity for new events. This project documents the design and production of Crosswise, its initial use by Mission Columbia (a faith-based group of community leaders in Hudson, New York), and development of “what if” scenarios derived from Crosswise-based analysis of past event data.