PlaceMatters' AnyWare Tools are a low cost, web-based set of tools for planners that provide several interconnected ways to collect feedback from stakeholders, including methods for gathering input from people via cell and smart phone, provided from any where, any time. The concept of AnyWare Tools is that planners should not need several different software tools to effectively gather good information and input.  Rather, a system of web-based tools can gather input, organize it, and reflect it back to participants, creating a rapid feedback loop. 

Below is a video that demonstrates some of AnyWare's capabilities:

AnyWare Brainstorming and Polling Demo from PlaceMatters on Vimeo.

AnyWare Polling

Keypad polling, where meeting participants vote using handheld devices with instant results, is being used in classrooms, public meetings, and boardrooms across the country. Yet much of the available software is expensive and not nimble enough for decision-makers grappling with complex issues.  PlaceMatters, one of the first keypad polling providers, has adapted keypad polling to make it web-based, eliminating the need for expensive software.

Participants can vote from computers, cell phones, and standard keypads. AnyWare Polling consolidates all votes, so participants can see all votes submitted, whether by participants in the room or those participating remotely via computer or cell phone. This builds on another AnyWare product, mPolls, a text message polling tool that has been available for several years.  

Location Aware Planning

AnyWare also makes use of location aware devices and cell phones.  For example, the AnyWare includes ways to send voice or text messages, photos, videos, and audio files directly to a website. These messages can then become options in a list of brainstormed concerns or ideas.  Citizens could see a problem or think of an idea on their local street corner and immediately provide their input to the list. These ideas can then be clarified, moved, grouped, consolidated or otherwise organized.  The list of ideas could then be voted on using AnyWare Polling or mPolls.

Touch Table

PlaceMatters has developed a low-cost touch table using a modified glass-top table, a standard LCD projector, an infra-red receiver, and infra-red pens.  The touch-table enables hands-on mapping during meetings and provides the ease of digital information capturing.  The AnyWare  touch table works well with AnyWare brainstorming and polling.  For instance, a list of ideas submitted during a meeting can be easily sorted, categorized using the touch table and then converted into a polling slide.  In addition, the table allows comments to be added directly to online maps, Google Earth™, or GIS maps and analyzed with scenario planning tools.

eMeetings

The touch table and other AnyWare tools can be integrated with live eMeeting technology.  eMeetings use communication technology to enhance group discussion, facilitation, and decision-making processes of both large and small group meetings. The basic ingredients of our eMeetings are wirelessly networked laptops and a keypad polling system, supported by online participation tools. Typically a live eMeeting involves gathering the outcomes of roundtable discussions via AnyWare brainstorming tools on the laptops at each table. Our team then synthesizes the results into keypad polling questions where results can then be prioritized or voted on in other ways by the full audience.