STUDENT  PROJECT  ASSIGNMENT

Students should form teams of 3-4 to develop and produce a project, using data on the City of Seattle to develop a case similar to any of the three lab cases.  We will discuss this assignment in class and section.

• Individuals should exchange information on their project interests and ideas by Monday 26 January.  [LINK to e-Post site for exchanging information].
• Teams should identify themselves and a basic project by Wednesday 11 February, and
• propose team assignments (who's taking on what tasks) and identify likely data sources by Wednesday 18 February.
• Class times on Monday and Wednesday 8-10 March will be devoted to team presentations.
• The final project (worth 20 of the 100 points for the course) is due to Jonathan Glick by Friday 12 March, and will be graded on the basis of:  the group presentation; a team-written report (what was the case scenario, what data were available, what overall approach, what techniques, what findings); and individual self-assessments.

Organizing a project
Pick something that is not very ambitious:  there's challenge enough in identifying the best approach and some appropriate data, accomplishing the work, and making sense of it all to yourself, your teammates, and then the instructors.  See the ideas sketched out below, under the descriptions of each of the course's cases.  The Glick-Harrington team will let you know if a proposal is not ambitious enough, or, more likely, too ambitious.
 

Data availability
We'll make available City streets files (sufficient for geocoding), 1990 Census data (at tract level);  Jonathan will prepare a list of other available data and sources.

We can arrange a presentation on geographic data available through the UW Libraries.

In Case 1, you'll identify the optimal route for a delivery service among several clients in one neighborhood of Seattle.  You'll then identify all businesses that meet certain criteria, within a certain distance of the daily route.  You'll propose a targeted marketing campaign to add some of those businesses to your client base.  Project extensions could include:

• a different neighborhood
• a different buffer zone and criteria for selecting businesses
• more thoughtful suggestion of the marketing plan

• using actual Seattle geographic data, with either fictionalized or acquired data on relative profitability (or sales volume) of outlets.  (Note:  acquiring actual data on outlets' profitability, or even sales, may require having an individual "in" with a retailer;  talk with Jonathan or Dr. Harrington before fictionalizing data).
• researching (from the case and from published sources) the kinds of market-area attributes (including, for that matter, the typical geographic size of market area for that type of retailing) that are generally optimal for a specific kind of retailer, and using geodemographic data and market-area analysis to identify which of several potential Seattle locations would be best for that retailer.
• attempting to use geodemographic data and market-area analysis to suggest how the product-mix (or other elements of a marketing strategy) might optimally vary across the outlets of the same retailer.

• replicating this idea for library (or other public-service) locations within Seattle;
• changing the criteria for local need, in the original problem;
• thinking through and operationalizing a slightly different methodology that recognizes that not all poverty is localized, or that people can travel across county lines to go to a public facility;
• assessing the equity in the location of a set of public-service facilities (e.g., fire stations, public health facilities, etc.) in Seattle:  how well are service areas covered?  what are characteristics of under-covered areas?

"What do you want by 26 January?"

A mere paragraph that identifies what kind of project (what topic, what task) interests you, and why.  (The "why" will help us all understand your motivation, so that perhaps another kind of project may actually satisfy your goals).  You might flesh this out with a very brief scenario (the exact scenario will probably change as you form a team).  You should post this online, using the project forum.

"What do you want to see in a project?"
Harrington and Glick have developed some additional guidelines, available online.

"What do you want on 11 February?"
A basic proposal (can be in outline or full prose;  probably one page):

• Identify the team members.
• State the problem to be solved (probably in the form of a brief scenario), identifying the geography (what part of Seattle;  using what kind of geographic sub-units).
• Outline your approach.  Conceptually, are you planning targeted marketing, or identifying analog markets, or identifying optimal service areas, or...? Technically, what features of ArcView will you be using?

• Clarify or modify any elements of the previous proposal.
• Identify your data.  To the extent possible, identify how/where you will obtain the data.  At least, identify the kind of data and levels of geography that you need.
• Identify the approximate division of labor you envision among team members.