CommunityViewer & Census 2010 LUCA Program

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CommunityViewer & Census 2010 LUCA Program

The Proximity CommunityViewer software (http://proximityone.com/cv.htm) and related data resources can help tribal, state, and local governments participating in the LUCA program maximize the comprehensiveness, quality, and usefulness of the LUCA-related data. The Proximity program provides a means for LUCA program participants to use the data that they help develop and establishes a structure and tools for accessing and analyzing Census 2010 data in a manner integrated with other data. Proximity is not funded by any Federal agency.

The Census Bureau will provide software which is expected to meet the basic requirements of the LUCA Program. The Census software has limited scope features and is not useful beyond the immediate LUCA Program operations. Your investment in learning the Census software cannot be used in continuing geodemographic data development, integration or analysis -- by design.

The Proximity CommunityViewer provides all of the LUCA Program capabilities plus provides many other related and important capabilities. CommunityViewer features ease-of-use as a top priority. All that is required to use the most basic version of CommunityViewer is a stand-alone personal computer with a Windows 98/XP operating system and minimal configuration. Users with limited or no GIS experience can use the basic version of CommunityViewer. Internet access is not required for the basic version of CommunityViewer. In the simplest configuration of CommunityViewer, which supports all LUCA requirements, there are no external file dependencies (beyond LUCA files themselves) and only an executable program is required -- less than 5MB footprint.

Like the Census Bureau supplied software, the basic version of CommunityViewer is available to LUCA program participants (formally designated LUCA liasion) at no fee. An optional support an technical assistance program is available for a nominal fee.

Comparison of Proximity and Census Bureau LUCA Solutions

Feature	Proximity	Census
Software
Perform all operations required by Census Bureau LUCA Program	Yes	Yes
Add your shapefiles to Census supplied project view	Yes	Yes
Add your MapInfo files to Census supplied project view	Yes	No
Add your imagery files to Census supplied project view	Yes	No
Geocode your address data	Yes	No
Create shapefiles from your geocoded addresses	Yes	No
Add your address shapefile to Census supplied project view	Yes	No
Existence of demographic data fields in block shapefile	Yes	No
Count addresses in blocks and update blocks shapefile field with sum	Yes	No
Label polygon shapefile with local and census counts	Yes	No
Layer editor to create thematic maps	Yes	No
Software Availability and Cost
LUCA Participating Jurisdiction Liasion - Level 1	No fee	No fee
LUCA Participating Jurisdiction Liasion - Level 2 /1	Nominal fee	NA
Non-LUCA Participant	Yes /2	Not Available
Data Resources & Management
Extended set of shapefiles (Level 2) /3	Yes	No
Local area data structures for importing your data (Level 2) /4	Yes	No
Support
Help desk support for software operation	Yes	Yes
Local address file development assistance	Unlimited	Not Available
Local assistance to modify shapefiles	Unlimited	Not Available
Local assistance to compare/analyze Census sourced with local data	Unlimited	Not Available
Consultation on logistical and operational issues	Unlimited	Not Available

Notes
1/ Level 2 features in addtion to those in Level 1 include: more advanced geocoding,
database management tools, point-in-polygon summarization to generate summary data, and
geoeditor enabling modification of shapefiles.
2/ Fee varies depending on level/feature options
3/ Level 2 users receive shapefiles from Proximity that:
-- are for a broader area that only jursidiction (e.g., county rather than just city)
-- include Census 2000 demographic data
-- may be in advance of Census supplied shapefiles
-- designed/structured for continued use after LUCA
4/ How do your load your own local area address data? Census provides no tool.
-- the data structures (actual dbase files) enable your ACSII or XLS data
to be imported and in a standardized, easy to use form.

Unlike the Census Bureau supplied software, the CommunityViewer software is designed to make analytical use of census-sourced and non-census data. It can be used as a key component of Census 2000 and Census 2010 data access and analysis. Optionally available features of CommunityViewer, also unlike the Census Bureau supplied software, will geocode address data. In addition, optionally available features of CommunityViewer, unlike the Census Bureau supplied software and when enabled with Internet support enables the user to download and integrate shapefiles and subject matter data from multiple Federal agencies including Census.

See these CommunityViewer sample application views that relate to LUCA operations.