Top 5 Most Popular EngagingCities Posts of 2011

We hope all of you have had a joyous holiday season, and from all of us here at EngagingCities, we wish you a prosperous and happy New Year! In conclusion to a great 2011, here’s a quick look back at our most popular posts, according to our web analytics data, from this past year.

Cheers - more to come in 2012!  

1. Using Online Tools - and Building Civic Infrastructure
Matt Leighninger explored the benefits of several online engagement techniques and whether any (Facebook, Twitter, etc) are sufficient alone to solve the problems of 21st century democracy.  Results of extensive research indicate that the use of online tools within a larger civic infrastructure may be the potential of social media – particularly in the form of neighborhood- and school-level online networks – to sustain networks of people.

2. Crowdsourcing the Walkability of Streets in New York and the UK
Adam Davies asked our readers, “How do we know if a street or area is walkable? Is it just about how many different destinations are within walking distance of any particular spot?”  Davies took us on a tour of a new web app, Walkanomics.com, showing how to address some of these issues using crowdsourcing and open data

3. How Storytelling Helped Three Communities Find Their Heart & Soul
Rebecca Sanborn Stone highlighted three communities from the Planning Tool Exchange (Golden, CO Vision 2030, Portland, Oregon Vision Vessel and Starksboro, and VT Art & Soul), where digital storytelling was used to engage citizens and identify common values – part of a broad community planning processes.

4. It’s a 3D Model, what’s the difference?
David Leonard explained the four main categories of software that encompass 3D modeling in the planning profession: GIS systems and their extensions, object builders, viewers and renderers, and photorealist modeling. Leonard also provided many examples of products utilizing these softwares, including illustratives, animations, and realtime navigation environments.

5. Public Space Trading Cards
Claudia Paraschiv examined the different aspects of a community which inspire the appropriate methods for engagement, finding that a robust articulation of an existing condition by both planners and the community users can add invaluable relevance to whatever new projects are created.

Runner Ups:
6.  Social Cities: How to Engage Citizens With Digital Media
7.  Simply The Best: Why Bicycle Planning Makes More Sense Than Ever
8.  Immersive Planning: Rethinking participation design with new technologies
9.  Playing Games: Three Fun Tools for Planning Your Community’s Future
10.  Betaville: The Radical Democratization of Urban Planning