Common Innovation Platform: An Innovative Communication Program for Data Structures and Project Collaboration

CIP will provide an environment that allows two way interaction with various communication and data tools. CIP will provide services such as video-conferencing, collaborative project workspaces, a video webinar interface, and severl other integrative customized tools. Each tool is combined through CIP using API capabilities into a single and easy navigable location. The four main components brought together by CIP are a data storage system and analysis system, data repositories, project and task management tools, and a multifaceted collaborative project workspace.

Data within the CIP framework is stored in the urban data observatory (UDO), a PostgreSQL server. The UDO is capable of interactive analysis of data and displaying it in a refined and apropriate format. When running data queries or simulations using CIP, the data is drawn directly from the UDO server. The data and its results are able to be displayed to all users in a collaborative workspace simulatenously, and all users are capable of performing operations on the UDO server. All data from the UDO is stored in a separate data warehouse, which allows large amounts of raw metadata to be stored in data lakes. Data from the warehouse cannot be directly analyzed for research purposes, which can only be done from the datafiles located in the UDO server.

CIP uses an open source web conferencing system for online learning called “BigBlueButton,” which enables remote students to have high quality online interactions and learning. It is designed for virtual office hours and locationless classrooms while still enabling a high degree of collaboration. The digital meeting room also allows for files and data to be shared in real time, allowing multiple people to upload, review, and analyze data simultaneously.

Finally, CIP has the capability to integrate version control systems as well as project management tools within the collaborative workspace, which would allow all participating users to see and manipulate the data simultaneously, enabling efficient and centralized collaboration on research projects.