Comments on: Democratizing Urban Planning Practice

By: Session Proposal V 2.0 Revisiting How Do We Share Our Knowledge of Historic Places - THATCamp American Historical Association 2012

Wed, 04 Jan 2012 22:18:34 +0000

[…] Nast, Marjorie McLellan, Andrea Odiorne, Justin Hons, Stephen Titchenal, Doug Lambert, Jonathan Tarr, and Phil Sager. For a quick bit of background, I currently work for Baltimore Heritage, a […]

By: Jonathan E. Tarr

Jonathan E. Tarr — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 21:37:38 +0000

Thanks, Marjorie. I’m finding as I talk to more folks that you’re right: there’s quite a bit ahead of us in reaching a more democratic planning process. The plus side of that, of course, is that we can involve experts in storytelling, e.g., in the process for the first time and enrich our practice in addition to the plan that results.

By: Marjorie McLellan

Marjorie McLellan — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 01:02:57 +0000

There is a lot of potential in the link between social media and new approaches to visualizing data and the democratization (certainly a concern of humanities) of policy and planning. Quality of access may be a hurdle for fuller participation. It seems like citizens would need to be able to author as well as to comment on approaches. This may require hardware and local workshops in digital storytelling, mapping, and other tools. I look forward to discussing these ideas with you.

By: Jonathan E. Tarr

Jonathan E. Tarr — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 02:43:36 +0000

Erin,

Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I would think (this is all hypothetical as I haven’t yet worked in the field) that you are correct about the flood of information that could come in when we open the gates, but I would think that is manageable. The bigger issue in my mind is participation; in the cities where we work, not everyone has his/her own cell phone, or internet access at home, so the real challenge is to get as many folks as possible contributing like the Gov 2.0 article.

I am not familiar with any such information needs profile for planners, but I’ll ask around! And I’m going to check out the CWRU Second Life lead; thanks for pointing it out.

By: Erin Bell

Erin Bell — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 21:43:57 +0000

This reminds me a bit of the current discussion about city management and the mobile applications that have been launched around the country as vehicles for citizen feedback – mostly to log and geolocate complaints/requests for maintenance. (e.g. www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/12/28/government.web.apps/index.html ). I can (almost) conceive of similar tools that would address citizen concerns and collect input/feedback. I imagine that one of the reasons planners are often unable/unwilling to consider citizen voices might have to do with the manner in which they receive that information: an array of emails, phone calls, letters, and voices at private meetings and public forums. Not being a planner/developer myself, i am making a bit of a jump in assuming that after a while these scattered and conflicting voices might begin to sound like a mob. These communications each still hold their own value and we wouldn’t want to discard them wholesale but perhaps some kind of centralized system for collecting/logging/analyzing feedback might filter that information into something more easily digested and more productive.

Having a background in Library and Information Science, I now wonder if anyone has done an information needs profile on urban planners (or similarly positioned professionals)? How do they communicate and gather information? Speaking of libraries, I believe the Kelvin Smith Library at CWRU is very active in Second Life, going so far as recreating the entire campus in SL (or, so I’m told). I don’t have any SL experience but I wonder if “visiting” their campus to see how they (do or do not) present new buildings and construction/renovation projects might be revealing?

Anyway, just a bunch of thoughts that came to mind. Hope I can catch your session!