ABOUT INSIDEINFO
INSIDEINFO can only exist thanks to the honest and voluntary participation of members of the communities established within the area. These communities have been established as RESIDENTS, STUDENTS, WORKERS and VISITORS.
Once the users of the site have decided what community category they fall under, they are encouraged to comment on the area they live, with honest and appropriate information that THEY feel would help other members of the community in the local vicinity, but especially to assist those outside of their community who may wish to become part of that area in the near or distant future.
There is no right or wrong entry, just honest opinions by people who know what it's like to live, work, study or visit the location being discussed. If you need motivation to add content, perhaps consider the kind of information you'd like to know if you had just got a new job in a city you know nothing about. Knowing the general feeling in areas, the types of community who reside there and other relvenat information may come in very useful for you. Consider these points when adding your own information.
HOW IT WORKS
The PROJECT page displays the information using the Google Maps system and some extensive usage of the Google Maps API, Php and MySQL. The functionality of the mapping and searching system is down to Google Maps excellent API and information and you can expect all of teh usual features associated with Google Maps.
The information you provide is entered in to a database and the community type and attitude you choose determines the type of presentation you see on the Map itself. Providing this information allows people to filter the communities and attitudes that are relevant to their personal search criteria and makes the project site more user friendly. To filter the map, there are a number of links running along the bottom of the map including SHOW ALL, RESIDENTS, STUDENTS, WORKERS, VISITORS, COUNCILLORS, CRIME RATES and ATTITUDES. By selecting any one of these you can filter the map to see just these specific entries. This provides immediate mapping of the areas used by specific communities.
WARD COUNCILLOR INPUT
The interviews that have been conducted with ward councillors are stored on the server, and stream whilst they are loading, to minimize the waiting time for the user. The views of ward councillors were deemed very important to supply a critical edge to the comments being posted, with official information for the area. Unfortunately it was not possible to gather information for every ward in Plymouth as not all councillors were available for comment. But genereally they can supply useful information about the general feel to the ward that the general members of the public may not know.
There is also the ability to upload Audio Files of yourself or others discussing the local area that they live in or upload images of the area you are talking about. You can do either of these from the upload box. It is recommended to use .mp3 (under 2MB) for sound and either .jpg, .png or .gif (under 2MB) for images.
WHAT ABOUT INACCURATE COMMENTS?
Well there are unfortunately a select few individuals which may wish to put up inaccurate information. Indecent information will be removed as soon as possible, but to allow other members of local communities to have their say on others comments that are not deemed inappropriate, a rating system has been implemented for each information box that is shown.
This allows people to rate the comment shown, so if the comments about your community and area are accurate, then you could select the 5 star rating, which shows to other users that the comment is a valid one. If you disagree with the comment on justifiable grounds (i.e. its an inaccurate representation of an area, rather than just a personal opinion) then you may wish to rate the comment a single 1 star out of 5, to show other users that it may not be an acccurate comment. The more ratings applied to an information box, the more valid the ratings become. If this is the case, it is best to add your own statement to the map, in response to the member in question's view.
The main idea is to spark interest and debate within the community, without taking away personal opinion.
KEY FOR LOGO'S ON MAP
A LITTLE ABOUT THE COMMUNITY TYPES
The community types have been decided on after much consideration and research in to communities and communtiy types. 4 communities is about as many as could comfortably fit on the map, if the site proves to be very popular. If there were many more than this (for example, if urban communities and digressions within those were also taken in to account) the map would become unreadable.
The idea of using four community headings, and the four chosen specifically is that all people in the area of a city should fall under one of these community types.
Residents cover every single person living within the area of a city. Student, who are there temporarily, or maybe permanently as residents, cover anyone who is in education at any age. People who work under any discipline and don't necessarily live in a city are covered by Workers and the visiting community who spend time in these locations are covered under Visitors.
Essentially, there are no further personnel within the area of a city who do not belong to one of these communities. The aim of the project is to appeal to all of those who use the locative space of a city, for whatever reason.
