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O.W.Duke-Williams
and J.C.H. Stillwell The paper describes a Web-based Interface to Census Interaction Data (WICID) constructed using the software components Apache, PHP and PostgreSQL. The system provides access to a range of outputs produced from the 1981,1991 and (when available) 2001 UK Censuses. These data are migration and commuting matrices detailing flows between origins/residences and destinations/workplaces. These matrices are large and sparse, with the largest expected from the 2001 Census being 150,000 by 150,000 cells or more. The data sets have previously been under-exploited, due to their complexity and the lack of user-friendly access software. This project has thus had the specific aim of increasing use of the data through provision of an improved user interface. The interface is designed to flexibly adapt to a variety of data, including future data sets whose exact structure is not yet known. The primary audience of the system are UK academics and students, although the system may also be useful in other contexts. The interface allows users to interactively generate a query, to execute that query, and then to perform analytical functions or to tabulate the data in a variety of ways. Oliver Duke-Williams |