Web 2.0 for urban designers & planners

Abstract

The author contends that a class of new and emerging participatory Web-based tools, referred to at present as "Web 2.0," can and should be used by urban designers and planners to achieve better results in public participation exercises. A brief overview of the World Wide Web is given-how and why it came to be, where it is now, and a glimpse at where it's headed. Public participation is reviewed-reasons for it, some of the challenges faced in its practice, and a widely regarded, though seldom implemented model for achieving success with it, based on methods set forth by Christopher Alexander. Ways that Web 2.0 tools can be applied to overcome the common challenges, and ways they can be used to facilitate the model for success are identified. To show how such results can be attained in practice, a hypothetical scenario is constructed, in which a fictional planning team uses the full capabilities of Web 2.0 to facilitate public participation while authoring an area plan. The closing chapter identifies a short list of potential barriers to using the Web in public participation, and offers some ideas for dealing with each. The research draws from literature written on public participation in urban design and planning, and literature written about the World Wide Web. Interviews of experts from both areas were conducted. Existing and emerging Web 2.0 tools were analyzed, and a test of concept was constructed to prove it's easy to solicit public feedback using Web 2.0. This thesis lives on the Web, with comments enabled and welcome, at http://nmit.edu/jase/thesis. Keywords Collaborative, Design, Expertise, Internet, Knowledge, Language, Local, Making, Order, Organic, Participation, Participatory, Pattern, Place, Planning, Public, Site, Situated, Urban, Web 2.0, Web, Website, Wiki, World, WWW