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April 23, 2012
RTPI National Planning Convention 2012: Making it work!

Whatever your role in spatial planning the Planning Convention is this year’s most important planning event! The brand new one day format brings together big picture plenaries and special interests sessions to ensure you focus your specific professional needs. Leading edge speakers will tackle some of the most grappling issues including, the new planning agenda in England, cities in the UK, national infrastructure planning and Royal Town Planning Institute's (RTPI) new “Map for England”. This event will change your perspective, refresh your knowledge, extend your contacts and equip you with the tools you need to make it work in 2012.

March 7, 2012
Feel-o-Meter or Public Face Displays The Mood of The City in Real Time

What would it be like to measure and publicize the emotions of a city’s dwellers? Would we like what we saw? Would it benefit us? Or in an era of data deluge, are there some things that are simply better left unknown? Well, that really depends on whom you ask. This question was the philosophical heart of an art installation that made a splash a few years ago when it was first installed in Berlin, and later in Lindau, a small town in southern Germany.

January 18, 2012
Increasing Public Participation in Rural Planning & Community Development

A community planner from the “Back 40”, working on a multi-jurisdictional planning process for a small, rural community recently posed this question on Cyburbia. Planner.tk, a local design firm associate and community planner with a passion for 'saving the environment', inquires about how to drum up successful public participation in their county of less than 30,000 people. Insights and ideas came in from fellow Cyburbia members regarding useful techniques in community development as well as unique challenges faced by planners focused on rural areas.

December 5, 2011
The Planning Van: Empowering Citizens To Get Involved

The Planning Van is an innovative community outreach program focusing on capacity building, education, and project implementation. The program was initiated earlier this year by the Orange Section of the American Planning Association, California Chapter, and offers pro-bono assistance to local governments, non-profits, and community groups to implement small-scale projects in their communities. The Planning Van team is also dedicated to having a presence at community events throughout Southern California to promote the planning profession as a whole and educate the public on planning issues in a fun, non-controversial way.  It is a grassroots effort with a mission educate, engage, and empower both individuals and groups so that they may play an active role in the development of their communities.

December 1, 2011
Social Cities: How to Engage Citizens With Digital Media

The increasing growth and complexity of cities raises the question how we can use digital media technologies and principles from online culture to design livable and lively cities. How can digital media aid citizens to engage with their environment, with fellow urbanites, and with issues at stake in their cities? Most mobile and location-based apps are about personalized consumption and sharing preferences with an in-group of like-minded people. Can we use digital technologies to help solve collective problems in the city too?

The increasing growth and complexity of cities raises the question how we can use digital media technologies and principles from online culture to design livable and lively cities. How can digital media aid citizens to engage with their environment, with fellow urbanites, and with issues at stake in their cities? Most mobile and location-based apps are about personalized consumption and sharing preferences with an in-group of like-minded people. Can we use digital technologies to help solve collective problems in the city too?

September 15, 2011
Rebuilding Christchurch Part II: More Engagement Lessons From Canterbury Earthquakes

Recently, John Hamilton, the Director of Civil Defence Emergency Management, New Zealand, spoke about the Canterbury earthquakes at the National Board meeting of Neighbourhood Support. John was effusive in his praise for the “personal fortitude” of Cantabrians and the resilience of their communities. Their response has negated the myth of weak neighbourhood spirit prevalent in pre-quake discourse. The tragic impacts of the earthquakes have strengthened community engagement and communication.

Recently, John Hamilton, the Director of Civil Defence Emergency Management, New Zealand, spoke about the Canterbury earthquakes at the National Board meeting of Neighbourhood Support.

Resilience and personal fortitude

John was effusive in his praise for the “personal fortitude” of Cantabrians and the resilience of their communities. Their response has negated the myth of weak neighbourhood spirit prevalent in pre-quake discourse. The tragic impacts of the earthquakes have strengthened community engagement and communication.

March 3, 2011
Creativity and Engagement in Cities

For me creativity and engagement go hand in hand; the engaging city is a creative city. And by creative city I don’t only think of the creative industries but a wider definition of creativity as an ability to make; making art, making things happen and making a difference.

For me creativity and engagement go hand in hand; the engaging city is a creative city. And by creative city I don’t only think of the creative industries but a wider definition of creativity as an ability to make; making art, making things happen and making a difference.

October 21, 2010
Challenging the People with Challenge.gov

Earlier this month the website challenge.gov went live to the public.  A forum for citizen engagement, Challenge hopes to turn the typical participatory paradigm on its head.  Bev Godwin, director of new media and citizen engagement at U.S. General Services Administration equates it to the next form of citizen engagement; going beyond participation to co-creation.  

Earlier this month the website challenge.gov went live to the public.  A forum for citizen engagement, Challenge hopes to turn the typical participatory paradigm on its head.  Bev Godwin, director of new media and citizen engagement at U.S.

September 21, 2010
Cultivating Innovation

Here at Engaging Cities, we love to tout the possibilities that public participation and collaboration can provide for planning. With the goal of innovation in mind, how can we better stimulate the great minds of people collaborating to make great things happen?  As it turns out, some of the experts at the Harvard Business Review have a few suggestions.  First on their list is meeting people’s needs.

May 27, 2010
Community Assistance Through Crowdsourcing

If you are working with distressed neighborhoods but lack funding or expertise to tackle pressing issues, call on the SDAT, the Sustainable Design Assessment Team.  The SDAT is sponsored by the American Institute of Architects and each year they select communities in need, provide around $15,000 in funding and dispatch the SDAT team.  What exactly does the SDAT do?  They provide community assistance by, according to their mission, helping to develop a “vision and framework for a sustainable future” for communities by “achieving balance between cultural, environmental and economic systems”.