– The maps generated by the Social Explorer site provide users with a visual component alongside the data accessed.  The availability of data tables to accompany the images qualifies this data, and allows for visual analysis of the given statistics to facilitate the study of particular geographic areas (in our case, Manhattan Chinatown).  This site is a valuable resource for understanding and quantifying the information we will collect for our neighborhood documentary project.

– The Social Explorer program certainly seems to put the “demo” in demographics.  Its interactive, user-friendly interface allows students to explore – on their own – immigration patterns in relation to gender, age, class, and race.  The ability for users to save the information retrieved from the Social Explorer site to Microsoft Powerpoint or Excel draws attention to the well-planned nature of the program.  I am also impressed by the amount of detail contained in the maps generated by the site.  In testing it out, I was even able to find my own block!  Perhaps we can use the Social Explorer program to map out blocks for our Chinatown project.

– What type of repository stores this information?  Is there a way to perform checks on these statistics to ensure their accuracy?  How do the developers of this interface monitor and update their database?