Mission:
To offer new ways to understand Boston and its neighborhoods in a regional context, thereby democratizing access to information, fostering civic discourse, and tracking measures of progress and shared goals in civic health, cultural life and the arts, economy, education, environment, housing, public health, public safety, technology, and transportation.

Background:
The Boston Indicators Project (BIP) was initiated in 1996 as a joint project of the city and the Boston Foundation. To formulate the indicators, which describe a complex social, economic, and physical environment, the partners invited more than three hundred Boston residents from different neighborhoods, sectors, and racial/ethnic groups to participate in working sessions over two years. Since 2000, the project has issued three biennial reports covering a period that includes the city's economic boom in the late 1990s, the tech bust that followed, and the difficult rebuilding period that continues.

Outstanding Web Features:
The BIP Web site offers copies of the project's biennial reports — The Wisdom of Our Choices: Boston's Indicators of Change, Progress, and Stability, Creativity and Innovation: A Bridge to the Future and Thinking Globally/Acting Locally: The Region's Wake-Up Call. The site also features something called the Hub of Innovation, which highlights forward-looking local, regional, national, and international work in ten economic sectors tracked by the project; Civic Agenda, a roadmap of analysis, agreement, alignment, and action in four key areas; the Data Portal, which links to other sites that offer comprehensive data and research about the city and surrounding region; and Links and Resources, which provides additional links to civic health and information sites. In addition, users can offer their views on issues related to the region's cultural diversity through the Cultural Resources Survey.