Content about Academia

How can technology provide useful insights in how cities function? How can this contribute to more informed planning? How does this impact society? The multidisciplinary conference, City of Flows, last week in Potsdam, Germany, explored these questions last week, providing unique“perspectives on the digital city in analog spaces”. I was fortunate to attend the conference and came away with many reflections concerning mapping and visualization of geographical data and the effects this technology has on society. 

The CNU 20 conference is begins next week (May 9-12), and as a media partner with Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU), EngagingCities is excited to be able to bring you live streaming of some highly anticipated sessions from CNU20, directly from our site.  So, even if you couldn't make the conference this year, you can still participate by listening in to the Friday night Plenary with Richard Florida here.

It is often through art and cultural activities that community members find an outlet for expression, preserve their past, and enrich their future. Recently, a link has been found between levels of direct government funding for culture and levels of public engagement in culture.

We see them every day, popping up on our Twitter feeds, filtered through blogs, or even scattered throughout the New York Times: maps portraying not the usual locations or destinations, but data. From people’s kisses in Toronto, to the concentration of pizza joints in New York, to the number of women who ride bikes, to the likelihood of being killed by a car in any given American city, the list of lenses through which we can now view our cities and neighborhoods goes on, thanks to data-mapping geeks.

On May 2/3 2012 the Living Labs Global Award will culminate in an Award Ceremony, a Matchmaking Summit and an Executive Training Workshop to bring solution providers and cities together and enable the dialogue around major urban challenges. The Living Labs Global Award Ceremony will take place on the eve of the Rio Summit on Service Innovation in Cities on May 2nd 2012. 21 Cities will present the shortlist and winners for their challenges in a festive ceremony.

In the lead up to Christmas, a time of giving and community spirit, it seems only fitting we look at one of the big urban trends of 2011, collaborative urbanism. Also known as ‘tactical urbanism’, ‘do it yourself’, and ‘lighter, quicker, cheaper’, collaborative urbanism describes community activated place making. Its about community led revitalization and the way in which it starts locally but has the potential to impact on a global audience.

Governments around the world are all facing budget shortfalls, spending cuts and reduced services. All of us — ordinary citizens, elected officials and community leaders — know that we must make dramatic changes to solve these crises, and yet governments remain gridlocked. How do we move beyond this impasse? How do we create an approach to budgeting that is both participatory and scalable? The answer is serious games!

Communities across the country are celebrating National Community Planning Month this October. The month long “event”, sponsored by the American Planning Association (APA), its members, chapters, divisions, and professional institute, was developed to recognize the vital role of planners and planning in communities throughout the U.S. At EngagingCities, we have been encouraged historically by the amount of participation we’ve seen with this celebration at a local level here in Colorado. We are excited to see what is in store for 2011’s celebrations around the nation.

Smart cities don’t happen by accident.  To help planners and policy makers better understand and manage the dynamic behavior of cities, IBM Global Business Services is introducing new analytics software and services based on their “smarter cities” strategy.  System Dynamics for Smarter Cities is an interactive model that allows leaders to observe how the core systems of a city -- such as the economy, housing, education, public safety, transportation, health care, government services and utilities -- work together and affect one another. 

Eastern Kentucky University and the City of Richmond will host the International Town and Gown Association’s seventh annual University-City Relations Conference in 2012.

I have always been impressed with the substantial body of public participation (P2) knowledge and experience that resides in the urban planning profession. This will be my third year chairing the International Association for Public Participation (IAP2) Core Values Awards, and each year IAP2 has received high quality urban planning projects from around the world. It got me thinking that public participation practitioners in any sector have lots to learn from their colleagues in urban planning.