The Internet Influenced the Nature of Community Involvement - Assignment Example

? How has the Internet influenced the nature of community involvement in development decisions (about urban planning)? Usually the Government of a particular place formulates the decisions regarding the urban development of that location. However, the Government arrives at these decisions through a series of interactions with the community of that area. There are various forms of communication that facilitate this exchange of ideas between the two parties. Over the years, the Internet has helped community involvement in urban development issues. This paper attempts to trace the role of the Internet in such a context. According to the International Association of Public Participation IAP2, any method which involves the public in making decisions or solving problems is known as a stakeholder engagement. The Internet has contributed significantly in increasing stakeholder engagement in the urban planning process. This paper attempts to investigate how far the Internet has been successful in doing so. Urban Development Planning The Planning Authorities formulate development plans for the urban, semi-urban and rural sectors. The entire development planning process involves the services of a wide range of professionals. They include civil engineers, architects, environmental engineers, geographers, real estate and property managers, surveyors, cartographers, community association managers, surveying technicians and also market and survey researchers (U.S Department of Labor, 2008, p. 222). The Role of the Internet The Internet has primarily been used to computerize the existing processes of communication between the Government and the community people. Citizens have used the e-mail to exchange information with the Government officials instead of writing hard copies of letters. The Community people have accessed information regarding urban development activities, on specific websites instead of reading pamphlets and reports. They could download this information from the Internet as a digital copy if they required it. Many urban planning bodies have posted an extensive amount of information regarding their plans and programmes on these websites. Earlier there used to be newspaper notices and official records regarding the same. The citizens can access a wide variety of planning related documents on the internet which sometimes also includes the agendas of urban planning board. Many planning agencies have adopted Geographic Information Systems (GIS) on their websites which have allowed the citizens to access GIS data and design their own maps. In 2004, a survey was conducted on the websites of 582 cities of the U.S.A which had recorded a population of 50,000 or more in the 2000 Census. It was found that 55% of the websites posted the urban plans of the Civic Authorities and 35% of them provided an e-mail address for the citizens to communicate. 37% of the websites also enumerated the major points of discussion of planned meetings with the community people. (Goodspeed 2008 p29; Conroy & Cowley, 2004) Brody, Godschalk and Burby have identified five areas where the Internet has played a significant role in facilitating community participation in urban planning and development. Some of these areas still offer considerable scope for the Internet to function as a significant medium of communication (Goodspeed, 2008). 1) Providing Information to the Community and Providing them with Opportunities to influence Planning Decisions: There are urban planning websites that have a provision for the citizens to write their views in an open forum where the planning authorities can clarify these opinions following a process of exchange of views. The website of PlanNYC (a student run site concerning urban planning) has allowed website visitors to post their comments. Similarly, blogs have been launched on the internet by some communities that have the provision for the residents to post their opinion on a variety of topics relating to urban development planning. A group called E-Democracy.org has launched a forum which facilitates a good quality interaction between the community and the government officials. The forum has a website of its own and also functions through e-mails. In another instance, the blog created by Montgomery County Maryland is exclusively dedicated to exchange of views on housing policy. When the community people receive information in time they are able to attend important events relating to urban development activities. This provides an opportunity for the citizens to influence the decisions taken in this matter along with their opinions posted on the websites (Goodspeed, 2008, p. 31). 2) Providing Opportunities for the Consistent Involvement of the Public throughout the Planning process: According to many theoretical urban development planning models, the maximum community participation takes place at the beginning and end of a particular planning project. Usually, the urban development projects are undertaken in phases over a considerable period of time. The Internet possesses the characteristics to serve as an effective means of communication for these ongoing projects. Internet blogs are maintained in a chronological order according to the progression of events of the development activities and these blogs are updated from time to time. Usually the Internet websites also provide an access to information on past related events through their section of archives. For example, The Department of Planning and Zoning of The City of Alexandria, Virginia has its own website which reflects all the information related to urban planning activities under the section of “Plans, Projects and Initiatives”. To ensure the consistent participation of the community at all stages of the urban planning process, it is important for the internet to keep posting information about relevant events so that it reaches the people in time for their involvement. By providing such information and regularly communicating with the residents, the internet provides the public with the opportunity of presenting their own independent views about the relevant issues and thus influence the decisions taken in this regard. The residents are sometimes allowed to register on websites to access their relevant newsletters (Goodspeed, 2008, p. 32). 3) Seeking Involvement from a Wide Range of Stakeholders: Sometimes the urban planners want the involvement of a wide range of stakeholders in the urban development process. This provides a host of opportunities for the Internet to function as an effective method of communication. If the desired community involvement covers a broad spectrum of society, it would include a large number of internet users possessing varying degrees of internet skills. There will be a group of citizens who would not be able to utilize a planning website properly due to the lack of access to the websites and also the absence of skills needed to operate it. This unequal division of computer expertise among the population is known as the Digital Divide. In addition to gaining access to Internet, people also need to acquire the expertise to operate the information technology effectively. Urban Planners can then explain the use of the technology through mediums other than the Internet. They can also collaborate with educational institutes to provide the community with such technical information (Warschauer, 2003). The effectiveness of the Internet as a means of communication has been found to increase when it is used alongside other communication techniques to get the public involved. Urban planners should plan out their strategy in both forms: an online strategy as well as an offline method of reaching out to a wider range of the population. Under the online strategy the website can be presented to the public in a number of languages. It can also be expanded to include videos, animations and other content material relating to the planning activities. (Warschauer 2003) A research done on the American population has shown that users of the Internet usually have different degrees of motivation and expertise in using the Internet. Therefore, information presented in a simple manner reached a larger spectrum of the community. This included newsletters sent through emails and also websites that were easily accessed by search engines. Alternatively, complex and sophisticated means of information reached a narrower range of people. 4) Using Novel Techniques to Exchange Information and Present Opportunities for Dialogue: Probably, the Internet can never replace the means of interpersonal communication which are so vital in exchanging complicated information, spreading new ideas and building a general consensus among people. However, nowadays the Government is increasingly using the Internet for providing information regarding urban planning activities like the report of a meeting, the main points of discussion etc. This generates interest among the community and they are encouraged to participate in such activities. The Internet is also very suitable for storing reference and archival information which can be accessed from any place at any given time using a suitable connection. The websites often contain online calendars and notices of upcoming events so that people might participate only in those events which interest them. This is a definite advantage that the Internet has over the more conventional methods that are used to encourage public participation. These traditional practices to encourage public participation often find a considerable number of people losing interest as the planning process progresses. This causes public participation to decrease along the way. Thus, compared to the conventional methods of interpersonal communication, the Internet serves as a medium for exchange of current conversation, provides additional information and also stores previous information as archives for future reference.(Goodspeed 2008 p34) It can be argued in favor of the Internet that, people communicating by this means do not have to possess close proximity to the persons with whom they communicate. As a result, residents are able to reach out to a wider number of relevant people and imbibe new ideas to generate their own interest in the urban planning processes. Whereas in the case, of the traditional methods of communication, it is essential for people to be physically close to each other while exchanging viewpoints. (Rice, 2002, p. 113) 5) Provides Information in a Clear Form: This area provides a considerable scope for the Internet to innovate and develop to ultimately devise methods of increasing the community involvement in the urban planning process. Urban planners can design the websites with information on themes that would generate public interest in the project. The Internet provides a facility of visitor tracking service using which the planners are able to identify the sites that are most frequently viewed by the public. The popular websites can be expanded and improved to provide more vital information. Alternatively, the less frequently visited sites can also be recognized and the planners can identify the obstacles which exist and accordingly rectify them. The websites for urban development planning should be designed to facilitate regular public usage. The urban planning processes need to be clearly explained and the related data should be organized in order. The specific terms of words related to the planning process should be clearly explained to the community people to increase their interest in the planning procedure. If the websites can contain an explanation of the planning policies and the related data, this would immensely help the common public as most of the population are not aware of these. It would be best if the planners could respond to public queries posted on the websites. Using such a method, the Internet can reach out to a wide range of persons including the common public, community leaders, advocates, nonprofit organizations as well as the media. (Goodspeed, 2008, p.35) In addition to providing this information the Internet also contains information on careers in urban planning. The details of the certification in urban planning as well as the job prospects and the resultant salaries are also available on the various planning websites. An example is the website of the American Planning Association. Some planning websites also provide information regarding the accredited urban and regional planning programs such as the website of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning. Persons who are interested to pursue a career in urban planning development find this information very useful. Instead of being associated with independent planning projects, such people can remain involved in this area throughout their working careers. (U.S Department of Labor, 2008, p. 222) The Role of Social Networking Sites Beginning from 2000, there has been the development of a number of social networking websites like Twitter and Facebook. These websites have provisions for the Internet users to form communities among themselves, share personal information among the community members and also interact in several innovative ways. These websites are very popular among the population as they promote a high level of interaction among the Internet users. These social networking sites have designed special platforms that facilitate the sharing of information and photos. Networking sites like Facebook allow the users to share links (relating to any topic on the Web), photos (via flick.com) and videos (via youtube.com) among their respective communities. These websites are simple to access and use for the Internet users. The networking sites have a great advantage: they allow the users to form their own groups and collectively communicate online. This feature can be used to gather public opinion regarding the urban development planning process. Internet users interested in a particular urban planning project can form their own social group and exchange information regarding the project on these networking sites. The social networking websites have generated a number of advantages for the urban planning community. They have been able to create certain sources of information about many local issues which include certain urban development plans of the particular locality. This has been possible because the websites have been able to engage a huge number of citizens in these issues. The Internet can now be found to contain email lists of the neighborhood, discussion boards, blogs and other forms of such interactive websites. They contain information on the planning events as well as people’s opinions relating to them. From the side of the urban planners, the networking sites provide a variety of technological tools by which the planners can share their information with the community and also interact with them. (Goodspeed, 2008, p.8) The Project Management Urban Planning Construction of Houston Texas has created its own forum in the Facebook. The Project involves the designing of architecture for the Urban Planning in that region. Project Managers, Urban Planners, Architects, Engineers and the Community People related to the Project exchange their views through this networking site. There is information about the project, photos and discussions posted on the website to provide information to the concerned community. (Facebook, 2011) The School Survey Project-Urban Planning for Crown Point High School has also created its own page on Facebook. The information contained in the website is exchanged by Student Groups. The page also contains a survey which the website visitors can fill up. The results of the survey would be used to gather students’ opinion regarding the development planning of the Crown Point High School. The site contains a forum (called “Wall”) where the visitors can write their opinions about the project. (Facebook, 2011) Advantages of Increasing Stakeholder Engagement in Urban Planning Developments: As we have enumerated, the Internet has contributed in increasing stakeholder engagement in Urban Development Planning in various ways. There are many advantages of increasing such people participation in important community projects. From the point of view of the Development Proponents and Planning Authorities, this ensures that the vital policy decisions are formulated considering the community consensus also and are not based on the discretion of a small group of planners alone. In an arrangement of increased public participation since the Authorities are in constant touch with the community sentiments, they can anticipate issues which need to be addressed in the projects and address them before they assume a bigger proportion. The Urban Authorities are able to provide a consistent response to people’s enquiries and suggestions. An increased public contribution towards urban planning results in better result for all parties concerned. Since there is a healthy exchange of requirements, priorities and viewpoints this facilitates a more optimal solution to the urban project. Such an arrangement also improves the relationship of the Urban Planning Authorities with the community people which might prove to be beneficial for future planning projects. With regard to the stakeholders, i.e the general residents, such increased involvement in urban development planning results in increasing the awareness about their community and helps in better understanding of the urban development projects. Through such a process of mutual cooperation between the Urban Planners and the community people, the urban projects result in outcomes that are reflective of the community’s thoughts and aspirations. This process of increased participation of the community people imbibes a spirit of involvement and ownership in them with respect to the projects. On the whole, this sense of stake holding proves to be beneficial to the society. A country where the citizens have an increased sense of ownership towards the social infrastructure is bound to be on its way to economic progress. References City of Alexandria, Virginia, Planning & Zoning Website, available at: http://alexandriava.gov/planning/default.aspx?id=65 (accessed on August 26, 2011) Conroy M.M & Evans-Cowley J (2004) Informing and Interacting: The Use of E-Government for Citizen Participation in Planning Journal of E-Government 1(3) Goodspeed R.C (2008) Citizen Participation and the Internet in Urban Planning, available at: http://goodspeedupdate.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/goodspeed-internetparticipation.pdf (accessed on August 26, 2011) Rice E.R (2002) Handbook of New Media: social shaping and the consequences of ICT London Sage Publications Ltd. U.S Department of Labor (2008) Occupational Outlook Handbook U.S.A: Skyhorse Publishing Inc. Warschauer M (2003) Technology and Social Inclusion: Rethinking the Digital Divide Cambridge: The MIT Press Facebook (2011) School Survey Project-Urban Planning http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=54895357158&v=app_2373072738#!/group.php?gid=54895357158&v=info accessed on 31 August 2011 Facebook (2011) Project Management/Urban Planning/Construction http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=54895357158&v=app_2373072738#!/pages/PROJECT-MANAGEMENT-URBAN-PLANNING-CONSTRUCTION/101546324077 accessed on 31 August 2011 Read More