I see great potential (and danger) in something I would like to call “gaggle Googling” — using the internet in a group setting to make more informed decisions. We need to keep experimenting, however, on how to use Googling and other information gathering techniques in a group setting in ways that is informative and productive and yet not too distracting and disruptive.
The art and science of Gaggle Googling is in using it in moderation…
Recently, we’ve has been doing some thinking about how to upgrade the public meetings to go completely wireless/cordless. I know this may sound like a silly notion, but we are looking to reduce the amount of friction for planning and holding public meetings and collecting robust feedback. We currently run most of our meetings using [...]
We often say we value innovative solutions to urban design and community planning problems. If we mean it, we need to make sure we walk the talk. Saying we love innovation but penalizing city staff, elected officials, and other decision makers when their earnest attempts don’t work as well as they had hoped makes people [...]
If you were looking for a single indicator with which to measure reductions in a community’s environmental impact, vehicle-miles-traveled (VMT) would be a solid contender. It has the added benefit of capturing a lot of quality of life investments as well, since the steps you might take to reduce VMT are often the same steps [...]
The APA’s magazine Planning recently ran an editorial (anyone remember what issue it was in?) ruminating about “the end of planning,” arguing that traditional planning – with it’s extensive process, lengthy documents, and static end point – should be replaced with a more nimble, iterative, and flexible paradigm. The editorial provoked an energetic and wide-ranging [...]
The Denver Office of Cultural Affairs has hosted the Create Denver Week for 5 years now. I attended their Town Hall meeting to discuss ways to support the growth and development of the creative sector. On several occasions, guests from other cities mentioned their jealousy in how Denver is a leader in supporting its creative [...]
Placematters’ director Ken Snyder, last week at our “Salon at the Saloon” in New Orleans, offered three provocations for planners: What if we eliminated traditional public meetings? What if we eliminated traditional comprehensive plans? What if no more than 2/3 of staff at all planning agencies are traditional planners? What if the rest were planners [...]
Demonstration of multi-touch table by Circle 12 from PlaceMatters on Vimeo. While at the American Planning Association conference in New Orleans this week, Jason and I swung by the booth of Circle Twelve. Adam Bogue, Cirle Twelve’s founder, sat with a group of us and gave us a quick demo. I took the opportunity to [...]
UPDATE (4/19/10): The blog is cleaned up now. If you spot anything that is a misstatement, please feel free to comment below and we’ll fix it. Also, if you feel there is a big omission from the log, let us know. Video documentation will be up soon. Also, read Jacob’s summation of the event here. Join us [...]
Met with Marilee Utter today to discuss what are the ingredients of successful transit oriented development. She boiled it down to three things: Market, Plan, and Leadership. She intentionally did not include money. If the others are there, the money can be found. Market is about the context of the surrounding area. What’s within .25 miles, 1 [...]