Hub2

Having Gene Koo and Eric Gordon talk about their work in urban planning through Second Life sparked a good conversation in our C4FCM group Sept. 10. Some discussion points:
--Urban real estate developers think "communities are obstructionist," and when they come to get input from communities, the lay people "see a blank screen onto which you project your anxieties."

That's why using Second Life to engage the Allston community in the midst of Harvard's development process seemed like a nifty idea.
The goal was to get people "out of their own heads and their own interests" to focus on community needs. They put avatars who were walking their dogs, etc. to give people something natural to do in the virtual space being designed. To help cross the participation divide, they hired 40 youth from the local community as interpreters of the technology for the community folks. These young people were the ones who keyed in the information presented by some who were reluctant to even touch the computer keyboard. In fact the community organizing function was probably the most expensive and challenging part of the process. Getting people to show up, even when their interests are directly affected, was a challenge.

A couple of people in the C4FCM discussion suggested that in order to get non-tech folks to use civic media tools it is helpful to go where people are already active, and build out from their existing communal activities.

Once the Allston community participants arrived, Koo and Gordon used a process they called IDEA: imagine, design, engage, activate. These community folks ultimately "had a sense of efficacy" because they could play with the space virtually in Second LIfe and things would actually change there. Community members became more articulate about their values in the design process.
The goal was to create something that expresses what the community wants, to level the playing field between these citizens and the "experts" who speak in expert language.
Eric noted that their role was to help the public deliberate over what is public, not actually to design the space. Their findings were "very helpful" to the actual designers who received them, he said.
"Our focus is on the process, not the technology," Gordon said.