PlaceMatters - Tools and Technologies to Enhance Desicion-Making Processes

Webinar Registration - Step 1/2

Chris — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 15:41:59 -0700

New Webinar Series Led by Author and Practitioner Doug Farr

June 19th, 2008

2-4PM Eastern (1-3PM Central, 12-2PM Mountain, 11AM-1PM Pacific)

The task of implementing sustainable communities will require the participation of the next several generations of development and planning professionals. New tools and techniques can greatly assist in the adoption of Sustainable Urbanism as a dominant pattern of human settlement over the course of the next few decades. Farr Associates, in partnership with PlaceMatters and the APA Technology Division, has put together this convenient and affordable series of online workshop to teach planners about the principles and practices of Sustainable Urbanism.

REGISTRATION IS NOW CLOSED FOR OUR JUNE 19TH SESSION!

Join us in the first session of our series “Sustainable Urbanism: Where We Need to Go” to learn about such issues as:

Integrating transportation and land use in an auto-dependent era
Creating sustainable neighborhoods through density and walkable neighborhoods
Using tools and techniques for engaging the public and making more informed decisions in planning and development

Session Offerings:

Overview of Sustainable Urbanism by preeminent experts in the field
2 AICP CM credits
Copy of Sustainable Urbanism textbook ($70 value)
10% discount for APA Technology Division Members
One year free APA Technology Division membership for non-members

Cost

$148.50 for first time participants (includes copy of “Sustainable Urbanism: Urban Design with Nature” textbook by Douglas Farr)--rates increase to $178.50 after June 13th
Group rate available (contact us for more details)
10% discount for APA Technology Division Members!
Subsequent Sessions: $68.50

Future Session Topics

Adopting the 2030 Challenge in Your Community
Increasing Sustainability Through Density
Sustainable Corridors
Linking humans to nature including walk-to open spaces and local food production
Building high-performance neighborhoods including district energy systems
LEED ND and Sustainable Urbanism

REGISTRATION IS NOW CLOSED FOR OUR JUNE 19TH SESSION!

DO NOT FILL OUT THE FORM BELOW. SESSION CLOSED.

Anatomy of an eMeeting

Chris — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 15:57:34 -0700

Over the last weeks I finally found the time to put together a video outlining our eMeetings using the video footage we collected during our community workshops for the Routt County 2030 project.

eParticipation and Cross-Media Participation Webinar

Chris — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 14:50:58 -0800

Today I was invited to host a webinar for the EBM Tools Network talking about our civic engagement work. I boiled down the longer presentation I usually give to leave room for a very interesting Q&A session afterwards.

Play audio file to listen to a recording of the presentation >>

Send in your Nominations for Outstanding Use of Technology in Planning

Ken — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 09:02:27 -0800

The Art and Science of Planning

Ken — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 23:32:26 -0800

As technology becomes more an integral part of planning and public outreach around planning, the need for a “creative touch” becomes increasingly important. While technology can increase the quality and quantity of public input, it can also diminish the quality of human interaction and creativeness. As we look for technologies that engage citizens, we also need to find ways to utilize art materials, maps and other visuals, and encourage storytelling.

Smart Growth and Sustainability Should Focus on Climate Change More Than Immigration

Ken — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 16:29:10 -0800

This evening my wife, Beth Conover, will appear on a televised panel discussion on "Immigration and Sustainability" aired on Rocky Mountain PBS's Colorado State of Mind, hosted by Greg Dobbs. The panel includes former Gov. Dick Lamm, former Post columnist Diane Carman, and State Rep. Michael Garcia (D-Aurora). An mp3 of the program is already available at the following link.

Yahoo Local adds community suggestion board feature

Chris — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 08:18:55 -0800

Yahoo just added a community suggestion board feature on its Localsite for two California cities where citizens can post and deliberate about local issues. People rate the suggestions, comment on them, subscribe to posts about particular issues and spread the word by printing flyers, adding events and forwarding posts to neighbors.

From Webware.com: "...for instance, on the Sacramento "Neighbors" site,people have suggested that the city needs more downtown gas stations,more urban farms, and a dog park. It turns out the Sacramento BicycleKitchen is seeking volunteers and a group is volunteering to help withpainting projects.

The pilot test is also running for San Carlos, south of San Francisco.Following a three- to six-month trial, the feature will roll outnationally, Yahoo said.
"We're providing a forum for the community to airconsiderations," which ideally will lead to action, Frazier Miller,general manager of Yahoo Local, said on Wednesday. "We think people arevery passionate about their local community. This is a Web 2.0 site forpeople to talk about local community issues."

It's interesting to see big players jump on the hyperlocal bandwagon. Also, I'm fascinated by the overlap with e-democracy.org's Issues Forums. The interesting question will be: Is simply offering the right features enough to build community and to be heard by decision makers?

First edition of Engage features article on cross-media public participation

Chris — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 13:43:33 -0800

The first edition of Engage, a Limehouse publication, features my article on cross-media public participation >>

Community Almanac - RFP to build an online mapping platform

Chris — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 10:17:52 -0800

The Orton Family Foundation just released a RFP to help them build their Community Almanac - an online mapping platform that helps communities to capture their assets or heart&soul.

From the RFP: ... as stories, pictures and videos emerge during communities’heart and soul articulation processes, and as technologies ever simplify thedigital capture and depiction of such information on maps, the Foundation wouldlike to offer the ability for its project communities and communities at largeto utilize simple open source or Web 2.0 technology to build online, digitalcommunity almanacs. These community almanacs would be digital maps (perhapsGIS-derived, but not requiring active GIS to use) to (1) depict the communityor county in which the project is located, (2) "easily" collect,display and manage community stories, pictures, graphics and videos throughuploads by people in the community, and (3) make these stories and picturesreadily accessible to all citizens through hotlinks on the map and/or otherintuitive interface components.

Read the full RFP document here >>

Online Dialogue - Berlin Tempelhof hosted by Zebralog

Chris — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 09:14:05 -0800

My colleagues at Zebralog in Berlin have recently released a great video clip showcasing the online dialogue they hosted about the reuse of Flughafen Tempelhof, formerly Berlin's biggest inner city airport. It shows the on-site workshops they organized which accompanied the online discussion to inform and educate participants. The end of the clip demonstrates the importance of public kiosks to reach a less tech-savvy crowd and include their opinions into online processes.