Webcast For The American Town Planning Association

Crea%ng a Truly Collabora%ve Planning Pla2orm

Dr Mark Ellio8, Director, CollabforgeAmerican Planning Associa/on, Webinar18th September 2009

Future Melbourne’s Collabora%ve Plan Wri%ng Ini%a%ve

[Future Melbourne home]

www.FutureMelbourne.com.au

A collabora%ve planning pla2orm, using technology similar to Wikipedia, was developed to enable council officers to collabora%vely draJ the city’s 10 year strategic plan. Addi%onally, during a four week period, anyone in the world was able to register to edit the content of the plan 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

David Mayes, Manager of Strategic Planning and Sustainability, City of Melbourne

mandate for a collabora%ve city plan

inspired by Wikipedia as collabora%ve process

Collabforge mapped the council’s exis%ng planning process

re‐engineered the process for a collabora%ve outcome

How did this eventuate?

tradi%onal public consulta%on such as...

This led to...

a shiJ away from exclusive focus on

TextText

...town hall meetings, the review of print documents and submitting commentary via letters and emails.

Stay within the box.

Approved

With tradi%onal consulta%on, the contribu%ons that can be made are in a fixed format, ve8ed, and must...

But what if you're the type of person who values ac%on over analysis?

Perhaps it's simply a case that exis%ng processes and tools just aren't cut out to cope with such complexity.

What do we typically mean by ‘collaboration’?

‘working together towards a shared objective’

Typically we mean....

When a group of people add/edit/delete the same pool of content

Collaboration is really:

3Cs ‐ Framework for Collec%ve Ac%vity

Collabora6on ‐ enables innova%on as a result of co‐crea%on

Coordina6on

Coopera6on

‐ enables synergies as a result of proximity

‐ enables gains as a result of aggrega%ng individualis%c contribu%ons

Collective Activity

Process Output

CoordinationDisparate elements pulled into a relational space

Patterns across disparate elements emerge


Examples• how a search engine uses keywords to

bring together webpages and resources on the Internet,

• how fish swim in schools and birds fly in flocks,

• how communities are synchronized through language, culture, norms, etc.

Collective Activity

Process Output



CooperationIndividuals comply to process / set of instructions

Aggregated value of individual contributions


Examples• a company & profit, • a survey & results, • voting & elected politician, • participation in the planning process &

captured community opinion.

Collective Activity

Process Output



CooperationIndividuals comply to process / set of instructions

Aggregated value of individual contributions

CollaborationParticipants of a group add/edit/delete same pool of content

Co-created innovation representing a shared understanding


Collective Activity

Process Output

CollaborationParticipants of a group add/edit/delete same pool of content

Co-created innovation representing a shared understanding


Examples• Coauthoring a written work or song. • Performing an improvised group work

(e.g. jazz, blues, folk, etc), • Developing ideas through discussion

(with our without documentation).

www.FutureMelbourne.com.au

engagement

resourcing

buy‐in

accessibility

user‐led innova%on

collabora%on on a global scale

In fact, we saw registered users from as... Nepal, New Zealand, India and Indonesia ‐ and a great many other countries as well.

challenges

common fears

You mean anyone can edit my work?!

Who guarantees quality? community modera%on

Future Melbourne Team

City of Melbourne

Stakeholders

Public

Dear sir/madame, i am sorry to find a spelling mistake in the third last paragraph, second line. the second word is mis‐spelled as 'knoweldge'. please check. thank you for your a8en%on. with faith from, john tam, chinese in hong kong.

may be needed for cases of disagreement

arbitra%on

expert input can be a valuable tool

In very rare cases...

So... the host organiza%on is in charge...

26

Though, ideally as a sort of ...benevolent dictator.

risk analysis

risk management strategies

daily, mul%level monitoring of every single edit

But this s%ll requires...............

Some were worried that it might be a case of Council leaving the front door open and coming back to clean up aJer the party.

But.. it wasn’t

offensive contribu%on

not a single instance of...

spam

off‐topic

there are risks.....but the benefits far outweigh them....

understand what they are

be upfront about them

addressed them through appropriate policies and monitoring

Of local registrants, the majority came from the central city area, however the project drew many from wider surroundings.

We saw 40.3% female and 59.7% male par%cipants.

However interes%ngly, this ra%o is reversed when looking at numbers of page editors versus page viewers.

There was a broad range of age groups ‐ the majority of par%cipants being mid twen%es to mid for%es.

Page views per day were consistently high, roughly 2,500, with around 30,000 in total, and 7,000 unique visits to the site over the course of the month long consulta%on.

Several hundred edits were made to the plan by members of the public...

“Could this be the beginning of par%cipatory governance?”

“Kudos City of Melbourne! A8en%on Melburnians: be sure to have your say and take advantage of this excellent site so what you think and feel the city should be like in the future is accounted for in policy development“

Future Melbourne covered on 40+ interna%onal blogs & websites...

“It's not hard to imagine why Melbourne has a reputa%on as a vibrant and progressive city”

“I'd love to see the Mayor of my city on the front page of a wiki asking for contribu%ons!”

Interes%ngly, since consulta%on wrapped up in mid June last year, we con%nue to have new registra%ons on the wiki at a fairly consistent rate.

And, interest con%nues offline as well. We're con%nuously receiving interest in the project from all over the world.

Contribu%ons from the public spanned the spectrum from simple spelling and grammar correc%ons...

To extensive and well‐considered contribu%ons.

This one sharing knowledge on how the city of Helsinki successfully dealt with bicycle lanes.

Certain people are naturally drawn towards certain tasks and types of engagement..

With these sort of outcomes, we now realize it’s cri%cal to re‐evaluate what it means to engage the community, and what we can expect to receive in return.

online publicorganiza%on

While some organiza%ons are just beginning to dip their toes in the water...

online publicorganiza%on

Others are already realizing the unique benefits of enabling direct par%cipa%on in the planning process.

Core Learning ‐ Strategic Engagement

Build it.. and they won’t necessarily come.

Strategic design is impera%ve ‐ specifically, addressing & communica%ng mo%va%ons & incen%ves for par%cipa%on.

Any associated marke%ng campaign must have an online component.

Web communi%es for par%cipatory planning & policy development require %me & energy to cul%vate.

Purpose‐built Web communi%es are an investment into your organiza%on's human resources & your community’s digital literacy.

Therefore, these communi%es are a resource that should be protected as an investment across and between engagement ini%a%ves,

Core Learning ‐ Strategic Engagement, cont.

‐ avoid star%ng from scratch each %me.

Recycle ‐ community members for other projects

Reduce ‐ the need to start from scratch

Reuse ‐ the input for other ini%a%ves

www.wePlan.parks.vic.gov.au

A public engagement pla2orm Collabforge developed for the re‐working of a major na%onal park management plan for the Australian State of Victoria.

As a na%onal park management plan is fundamentally based upon how people use a park, media sharing helps inform this understanding and provides an easy and engaging way to par%cipate‐

The ability to create explicit connec%ons with friends, acquaintances or colleagues to enhance community cohesion and transparency of process... results in a more genuine level of engagement from the public.

The wiki component enables the public to help Parks Victoria draJ the management plan prior to the legislated public par%cipa%on window ‐ that is, during the actual internal draJing period.

Emerging Trend: Mass Collabora%on

Planners can widely collaborate & draw upon a global solu%on & problem domain

100s ‐ 1,000s DraJing a Document Together

(extending collabora%ve capacity)

New Collabora%ve Tools & Social Processes

Ci%zenInnova%on

inGovernment

Par%cipatory Democracy

(extending representa%ve democracy)

New Collabora%ve Tools & Social Processes

All that is needed:

This type of innova%on can happen anywhere

Commitment, enthusiasm & crea%vity on part of everyone involved.

Awareness of the opportunity & interest on part of a project sponsor,

Experienced prac%%oners ‐ either internally or externally sourced, who can navigate virtual community dynamics carefully & strategically, and

Where is this all going?

How will it get there?

Who will get it there?

The Web (in some form or another) is here to stay,

Self evident:

Web development is geung faster, cheaper, easier & more replicable,

‐ be it seman%c, mobile, ubiquitous...

‐ this puts power in people’s hands.

If government at all levels does not step up to the plate, & lead in this space then...

...leadership will come from elsewhere

What does this ‘elsewhere’ look like to you?

[email protected]

Twi8er: @MarkEllio8

Phone: +61 421 978 501

See www.Collabforge.com to learn more about the collabora%ve planning pla2orm, or our other services & a copy of this presenta%on.

Dr Mark Ellio8, Director, CollabforgeAmerican Planning Associa/on, Webinar18th September 2009

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