We would like to express our gratitude towards the following collaborators and their respective organizations: Boston MIS Department Bill Oates Boston Youthline Patty McMahon Boston Public Libraries Ruth Kowal Koren Stembridge Scot Colford John Dorsey Ken Peterson BCYF Amy Reid Daphne Griffin Boston’s GIS Group Claire Lane Jim Alberque Carolyn Bennet Boston Youth Services Network Hall Providence After-School Alliance Elizabeth Devaney Boston After-School and Beyond Vickie Stringfellow Patricia McGuiness Oracle Corporation Paul Laurent Boston Public Health Commission Michelle Urbano Jeanne Cannata BPS Shamil Mohammed Kenneth Still Wallace Johnson Alice Santiago Kim Rice Section Main Author Collaborator Partial Editing Final Editing Alvaro Soares Team Team Alvaro Soares Team Team Keck, Alvaro Soares, Ken Stein Ken Stein, Vincent Milano Alvaro Soares, Julia Zheng David Keck, Vincent Milano Michele Perry, Vincent Milano, Findings Alvaro Soares David Keck Vincent Milano, Michele Perry David Keck on
attribute. A four signifies that the system meets all of the requirements established for that specific attribute. A score of 1 through 3 would indicate that system meets some requirements, but does not fulfill all expectations. The rubric used is displayed below: 6 - Rubric for Vendor Evaluation 0 1 2 3 4 Performance Metrics Recording The program gives no option for tracking performance metrics. The lack of performance tracking is realized and is being worked out. Modules or for tracking performance are available, but not standard. Cannot all metrics as well as a single way to input information. Tracking performance metrics is a central feature of the system. Cannot track all performance metrics or having a single input method. Tracking attendance is very successfully implemented. Can track Attendance, Enrollment, and the remainder of the performance metrics, through multiple methods. Privacy There are no controls on user access to private data. Certain areas can be locked up, but the system is still insecure. Privacy barriers are beginning to form, but are not completely secure. User role is the only available access control method used in this system. Access control lists, user roles, and other protections allow for comprehensive control of privileged data access. Exports No feasible way to export information from the system. The current method of exporting information from the system is ineffective or incompatible with other systems. Exportation of the information is done through an excel spreadsheet which is compatible with all the systems. Exportation of the information is flexible, many data exportation methods are allowed. Exportation of information is possible via a database replication system. Information can be transformed and modified to suit the of the system importing the data in the process. Imports Importing information from a separate database is not possible. Information can only be imported if the system exports it in a specific format. Information can be imported into the system but is difficult to organize and privatize. Imports from separate systems are easily organized and compatible with the system. Imports from separate systems using a variety of file and data formats can be automatically transformed to be compatible with the database. They are easily organized and functional.
Scalable No flexibility in the future size of the system. Growth requires discussion and work with the company’s engineering team and requires hardware expansions. The system can change in size without help from the company, but requires hardware upgrades and software reconfiguration by the city. The system can change in size without help from the company or reconfiguration by the city, but requires hardware upgrades. The system can to meet the needs of any conceivably sized community user base in the future. Customization The system’s interface and underlying logic cannot be changed to fit the needs of the organizations. The system meets some of the requirements of some of the organizations, but cannot satisfy each individual organization. The system is customizable, but does not meet the requirements of all organizations. The system can be customized to meet most requirements that organizations desire. The system can be customized to meet any requirement that any organization desires without changing the system for the other organizations. User-Friendly The system’s user interface is very difficult to navigate. The system’s user interface is not organized and too much information overwhelms the users. The interface is complex, but is organized to avoid confusion. The system is easy to operate and well organized. The system is very user-friendly and the company is always looking to please the client. Online help is available for each menu or screen. Data Warehousing is no storage for past information. There are plans for the possible installation of a storage system. The company has experience in successfully providing a data warehouse. The data warehouse can be configured to most or all of the information required and can handle a large number of records. The data warehousing is complete and successful. It is able to handle huge volumes of data. It is upgradeable, obtainable, and easily used in statistic-based reports. One-card Integration No Card system available. Card system is possible but costly, and requires extensive custom development or modification by the company. A card system is available but is not included in the standard package, and costs a significant amount of money. A card system is one of the core functions of the program and it is well designed and flexible. A card system is included and has a well defined interface with privacy management controls for interaction with systems, designed to allow for quick and easy implementation of a one-card system without invasion of privacy.
chapter would allow the conditions for a study similar to ours, since statistical data would be readily available as a consequence of the unified information system. In our attempt to find correlations we went to the City of Boston’s Geographic Information Systems Department and asked for specific information to be placed on maps of Boston. The information that was gathered to generate these GIS maps was collected from the DoE and the Boston Police Dept. These maps can be found in Appendix H. This information was to be used to see if there were any similarities between different areas of Boston. We found it difficult to draw conclusions based on the maps that were generated. One problem we encountered was the lack of information readily available. Many correlations our group desired pertained to budgetary and attendance tracking information from after-school organizations. Unfortunately, this data was unable to be gathered which reiterates the need for an information tracking system in the City of Boston. Even though parts of these maps were incomplete, some correlations were spotted when comparing the different information. For example, in the areas of Roxbury and Jamaica Plain there is a higher drop-out rate as well as a higher crime rate than most of the surrounding areas. As we all know, there are exceptions to the rule and the highest crime rate is located in Downtown Boston, which does not have a significant drop-out rate. This might be because there is only one school located in the downtown area of Boston, and this area of Boston contains more businesses rather than residences or schools. There are other factors that may be influencing this low drop out rate in the
Are you looking for a summer job? This field serves as a filter. It will omit employment opportunity if unchecked An example of the proposed basic search engine fields is shown below: Figure 2 - Graphical Example of BOSTONavigator Basic Search Recommendation #5: Introduce an Advanced Search The user must also have the option of performing an advanced search, which is currently non-existent. The advanced search would allow the user to get very specific, tailoring the results closely to one’s needs. The following fields would be included in the advanced search: Table 13 - Advanced Search Fields for BOSTONavigator Field Description/Content Location of program A list of physical locations of programs be displayed and the user may choose the location based on that list. After school program kind The subfields include the activities under their respective ACES framework category. If the user has checked a program category in the search, that category’s subcategories would be displayed. Multiple program types may be selected. Organization The user has multiple choices of organizations.
BOSTONavigator has several of its own flaws including the absence of clubs, workshops, and other short-term or one-time only events in the database. Other problems are the website is not user friendly and organizations lack incentive to input the information into the database that is regarded as vital to the success of BOSTONavigator. Also, the search engine is difficult to use and discourages users, as the average time spent on the website is less than 10 seconds. BOSTONavigator was put together in a short period of time, which may contribute towards many of the flaws. Although the City of receives information every month about BOSTONavigator, but the team that created the database is no longer in direct contact with the City of . Incentives for Updating What Patty recommended was possibly offering incentives for the programs to enter data. Some ideas for incentives included: restricting funding, not giving out permits (for parks etc.), an ad on the website for timely updating, etc. She also mentioned a problem with health forms. A majority of the programs offered for the youth require health forms for the programs, but because the youth cannot always get to the doctor, or cannot afford to go to the doctor as often they do not have the opportunity to experience the after-school activities. Patty thought it would be a good idea if the city could hold onto the forms and tell the programs they have an updated form and they could be accessed at a time of emergency or when needed. Program measurements She also mentioned for the programs, such as if all of the available spots are taken in the program, the over flow of students who are rejected should be referred to a similar program in a close vicinity to the original one. This should encourage
has plenty of experience with the system, and they have a call in service by either email or phone, help can be provided. They also come to the site where they are implementing the system and train all of the staff in the use of the system as well as online videos to train new users. They have a detailed search of the system for specific activities very similar to the BOSTONavigator site. The different types of sites can be customized for the libraries, and community centers. Depending on what the specific sites want and can handle specific options can be selected and deselected. After School and Beyond is currently employing some of this software at 10 different sites in . There were a number of things that could have been used at these sites but are not because the specific sites felt that they would not be used and would be an unnecessary expense. When discussing privacy of the system there are different levels of security throughout the system. The highest level is the District-level, which can see all of the information about the sites regarding the programs. There is also a site-level, which can look at the information about the specific site. Other levels can be generated, like a login for the guidance counselor so the counselor can make suggestions to the student for activities. This is a very secure system and has an agreement that needs to be signed with FERPA for you to access this information. The site managers can subjectively enter information along with academics. They also have a referral system that had caught our attention. This could benefit our project because part of our project is to help create a recommendation system to encourage participation in after-school activities.