{"id":4255,"date":"2018-10-12T12:20:26","date_gmt":"2018-10-12T17:20:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/affiliate.wcu.edu\/csfe\/?p=4255"},"modified":"2018-12-13T11:58:41","modified_gmt":"2018-12-13T16:58:41","slug":"north-carolina-data-dashboard-gains-momentum-in-first-three-months","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/affiliate.wcu.edu\/csfe\/2018\/10\/12\/north-carolina-data-dashboard-gains-momentum-in-first-three-months\/","title":{"rendered":"North Carolina Data Dashboard gains momentum in first three months"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Angela Dills, WCU economics professor, utilizes the North Carolina Data Dashboard during a recent presentation to highlight workforce factors in Western North Carolina.<\/p><\/div>\n

Since its launch by Western Carolina University in June, the North Carolina Data Dashboard has proven to be an effective and reliable source of information about the westernmost counties, say those involved with the project.<\/p>\n

The open-access electronic resource serves as a one-stop information source that includes nearly 12 million independent observations from categories including workforce, product markets, land and infrastructure. The data, which can be examined down to the county level, is searchable by geographic area and time frame, and dashboard-generated charts are easily printed. It has been utilized by students, faculty and media outlets.<\/p>\n

The dashboard is more than a tool \u2015 essentially, it\u2019s a toolbox, said WCU economics professor Angela K. Dills, who holds the university\u2019s Gimelstob-Landry Distinguished Professorship in Regional Economic Development and is one of the primary drivers behind the project.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Daniel Hartness explains details of the North Carolina Data Dashboard, as Manuel Enamorado looks on.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cThe dashboard provides current information as well as long-run trends on a variety of economic indicators,\u201d Dills said. \u201cUsers include those looking to compare North Carolina counties to each other or to view county-level economic trends. The dashboard provides data on demographic changes, changes in the housing market, as well as trends in personal earnings and county-by-industry gross domestic product figures. Many data series are available at county-level as well as at the Prosperity Zone-level data. We aim for these data to help inform decision making in the region \u2013 for policymakers, for entrepreneurs, for grant-seekers and for researchers.\u201d<\/p>\n

The current project mostly reflects the labors of four students who work with direction of a consultant and under the supervision of faculty.
\n\u201cData compilation is from several independent sources,\u201d said one of those students, Daniel Hartness. \u201cSources include the Bureau of Economic Analysis, the Federal Reserve Economic Database and, of course, the U.S. Census. There are several ways to interpret the data and perform analytics, depending on what your objectives and needs are.\u201d<\/p>\n

In that way, Dills said, the dashboard complements what a local economic development director is doing, such as providing details for an entrepreneur considering a startup. The dashboard is organized by sectors for land, labor, product, demographics and industry market value. Analytics within each sector are broken down to critical measures. For example, the land sector includes home ownership rates, housing price index, number of new structures and transactions.<\/p>\n

The majority of the users are from Western North Carolina, but an increasing number are from Raleigh and Chapel Hill.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Edward Lopez<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cWe have testimonials from both campus and the business community,\u201d said Edward Lopez, who holds the university\u2019s BB&T Distinguished Professorship in Capitalism and serves as director of WCU\u2019s Center for the Study of Free Enterprise. \u201cWe\u2019re still in the early stages of the project, but I think we are already achieving measures as a catalyst for economic and community development. It supports cross-disciplinary research and teaching on campus, and readily available to the public and private sector.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs an educator, the dashboard is a fulfilling project because it gives these students the chance to gain hard skills and real work experience with data management, which is a great resume builder for them.\u201d<\/p>\n

The North Carolina Data Dashboard is sponsored by the Gimelstob-Landry Distinguished Professorship in Regional Economic Development and the Center for the Study of Free Enterprise, with additional support provided by WCU\u2019s Office of the Provost.<\/p>\n

For more information or to view the dashboard, visit the website NCDataDashboard.org.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Since its launch by Western Carolina University in June, the North Carolina Data Dashboard has proven to be an effective and reliable source of information about the westernmost counties, say […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":382,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4255","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/affiliate.wcu.edu\/csfe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4255","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/affiliate.wcu.edu\/csfe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/affiliate.wcu.edu\/csfe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/affiliate.wcu.edu\/csfe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/382"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/affiliate.wcu.edu\/csfe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4255"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/affiliate.wcu.edu\/csfe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4255\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4276,"href":"https:\/\/affiliate.wcu.edu\/csfe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4255\/revisions\/4276"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/affiliate.wcu.edu\/csfe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/affiliate.wcu.edu\/csfe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/affiliate.wcu.edu\/csfe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}