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The information is out there, somewhere. But wouldn't it be nice to go to one place to find key facts about a neighborhood, such as home values, income levels, crime rates and bus routes?

Or what if someone looking for a service -- say an adoption agency -- could find a list for the Pittsburgh area, then click to see details on each one?

Late this summer, a nonprofit agency named 3 Rivers Connect plans to launch the first building block of an online resource that promises to become a research tool for the public and -- on a more comprehensive level -- for other nonprofit organizations, policy makers, educators and foundations.

The project is known for now, at least, as the Information Commons.

The initial piece of it will blend details on social services across Southwestern Pennsylvania into an online application called HumanServices.net. The Allegheny County Department of Human Services, United Way of Allegheny County and some other partners have been sharing their data with 3 Rivers Connect.

Much of the information that will appear on the "commons" already is on the Web. The problem is the guesswork, and hopping from site to site to find it.

"What we are trying to do is to break through some of the fragmentation," said Chris Sweeney, chief executive of 3 Rivers Connect.

Once the Commons is built, "If you want to do a demographic analysis of a neighborhood and compare that to some other piece of information, it's readily available. You can do the analysis without doing all the work of collecting the data, which in many cases is the hard part."

Casual users of the commons will do a quick topic search, find a program and learn the basics about it, and maybe look at a map.

"Maybe someone who lives in Colorado and has a mother in Pittsburgh needs to find out about Allegheny County services," said John Pierce, deputy director of the county's Office of Information Management. "They could go on this, and look up a whole bunch of information."

Professionals at neighborhood groups, nonprofits, universities, local schools and government workers will want more detailed demographic information, which they could put to use when they decide where programs should be offered and money allocated.

Allegheny County contributed parts of its human services master provider index to the commons, information that wasn't on the county Web site. "We wanted to make it available to the public, so they'll get better access to services," Pierce said.

Sweeney said the commons is launching at a good time. Federal spending cuts likely will reach state and local resources, forcing nonprofits to be more efficient and innovative with their money. And for school districts, the federal No Child Left Behind Act requires comprehensive reports that could be generated using data from the Commons.

About $1 million in foundation grants has been committed toward the project. Supporters include the R.K. Mellon Foundation, Heinz Endowments, Grable Foundation and the Human Services Integration Fund managed by the Pittsburgh Foundation. Maya Design on the South Side provided its technology for the project.

While much of the information will be free, professionals who use the commons' higher-level research functions likely will pay a subscription or user fee, Sweeney said. And some nonprofits might pay with an in-kind contribution -- putting their own data on the commons.

Since it was founded seven years ago, 3 Rivers Connect has worked to bring technology to nonprofits through personal computer distributions and other programs. The organization also managed getting high-speed, broadband Internet service for about 70 tenants in the Regional Enterprise Tower, Downtown, where its own offices are located.

While the Information Commons always was a goal, 3 Rivers Connect realized that timing was important, Sweeney said. Nonprofits still were setting up computer networks in the late '90s, and if they had Internet service it probably was a lower-speed, dial-up connection.

Systems similar to the commons already exist in other areas, although "We think we are in a position to not only catch up, but to jump ahead" because of the broad range of information it eventually will include, and because the technology will allow unusually high flexibility in doing research.

An education component will roll out before the end of the year, with information from the Pittsburgh Public Schools and probably some suburban districts. Fox Chapel and Quaker Valley have shown interest, and discussions are underway with others, Sweeney said.

Venture Outdoors will contribute specifics about trails and other outdoor recreation sites in the region. And later a community information system will provide economic data about each neighborhood -- employment, crime, vacant properties and other facts.

This will include U.S. Census data that students and staff at the University of Pittsburgh's Center for Social and Urban Research are including. "We make census data available to community and neighborhood groups, and we were interested in a neighborhood information system," said Sabina Deitrick, the center's director.

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