building networked community involvement
DESCRIPTION
Talk given to the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment, November 3 2010, outlining social media, online community involvement and physical place-making of real estate/renewal development sites.TRANSCRIPT
Building networkedcommunity involvement
David BarrieCommission for Architecture & the Built Environment
November 3, 2010
We like this…
…and want to square itwith this…
One route heavily advocatedfor just now is ‘social media’…
What is social media?“the peer-to-peer communication
and user-generated content madepossible through the advent of
participatory web tools…”Source: Kanter, B. & Fine, A.H., The Networked Nonprofit (2010)
social media ‘tools’
• Conversation starters like blogs,YouTube and Twitter
• Collaboration tools including wikis andGoogle Groups
• Network builders like socialnetworking websites such as Facebook,MySpace and TwitterSource: Kanter, B. & Fine, A.H., The Networked Nonprofit (2010)
But why use social mediawhen our lives are
increasingly trapped inin a closed circle…
One answer is a proliferationof online markets…
Audiences & participants:
• 82% of the population in the U.K. are on the internet• 1 in every 4.5mins spent by people online is on social
networks• A new member joins the business-orientated site
LinkedIn.com every second• The largest living generation is young people born
between the years of 1978 and 1992• 25% of people who play video and other screen
games in the USA are over 50Sources: BBC, Neilsen, Kanter/Fine, Knight Foundation
Here are some other practicalreasons to bother:
• people are easy to find online and onmany channels
• talk is cheap• serendipity is enhanced online• reciprocity online is incredibly easy
Some political reasons:
we need to
• encourage citizen activism• design local plans “bottom up”• support “collaborative local platforms”• give communities more powers• “cut demand for the state”• enable low-cost “soft” regeneration
But then there’s alsosomething else….
• failing local markets (empty shops)• end of edge-of-centre, residential-led
urban renewal• growth of outsourced public services• rise of social enterprise & “social
productivity”• appetite for mashed-up timelines (Lost)
& interactive narrative (Seven Days)
‘open source’ place-making
Some web links and sitesthat are worth looking at for
community organizing
useful networking ‘tools’ …
• Meetup - http://www.meetup.com• Facebook - http://www.facebook.com• Facebook Places -
http://www.facebook.com/places/• Twitter - http://www.twitter.com• Twitter lists - @davidbarrie/speirslocks
…building community…• Peckham Power -
http://peckhampower.org/• Groupsnearyou -
http://www.groupsnearyou.com/• Hubbub social game -
http://whatsthehubbub.nl/projects/koppelkiek/
…building ideas…
• Craftster - http://www.craftster.org/• Your Freedom - http://bit.ly/aT1FTy• Bing Maps - http://bit.ly/9gL41Y• Bexhill Local Action Plan -
http://www.bexhilllocalactionplan.co.uk/
…sharing the burden…
• Wikispaces - http://www.wikipedia.com• Google Docs - https://docs.google.com/• Neighborgoods -
http://neighborgoods.net/• Kickstarter - http://www.kickstarter.com/
…sharing knowledge…
• Geographically-linked news -http://foursquare.com/ -http://www.everyblock.com/
• Geographically-linked games -http://bit.ly/akEDPl
• Oral history -http://tellingyourstory.wordpress.com/
And some uses to date thatlink to the renewal of cities,places and communities:
• Fix my street - http://www.fixmystreet.com/• You Choose: Redbridge Conversation 2010:
http://www.redbridge.gov.uk/cms/redbridge_conversation_2010.aspx
• Boston Redevelopment Authority - http://hub2.org/• Friends of Redcar Cemetary - http://www.forcem.co.uk/• Heeley Millennium Park - http://millenniumpark.wordpress.com/• Wake Green Park - http://wakegreenpark.blogspot.com/• Talk about Local - http://talkaboutlocal.org.uk/how-set-
wordpress/
Different types oflocal websites:
• Civil society networks• Local discussion sites• Placeblogs• Local blogazines• Public social spaces• Local action groupsSource: Nick Booth, Exploring Hyperlocal, BBC Wesbite, http://bbc.in/aUurhp (2010)
As in urban renewal, socialmedia is populated by certain
kinds of individual:
• instigator• evangelist• donor• spreader• happy bystander
Reasons why peoplegather and share experiences
online - according tointeraction designers:
• Altruism• Creativity• Validation• Affinity• Prurience
And the most active orinterested users,people who are…
• interested in making new friends• keeping up friendships• open to succumbing to social pressure
from existing friends• believe in “paying it forward”
Does all of this haveimplications for place-making?
Yes
• A relationship economy• Temporary ties• Multiple independent groups of friends• Loyalty to experience and data, not platform• Physical places as passing scenery• Physical places that allow you to fulfill a task• ‘Swarming & switching’
Three channels of work
• Strategic entrepreneurship• Social entrepreneurship• Community entrepreneurship
8 actions1 - Form a Speirs Locks Cultural Improvement District2 - Review administrative contexts of site3 - Turn disused adhesives factory in to low-cost shared workspace4 - Create ‘making’ and ‘doing’ light-manufacturing workshops5 - Support urban agriculture in leftover spaces6 - Open up existing premises through programmes of community
education and involvement7 - Create and run a public use/entertainment programme8 - Create community spaces adjacent to built structures on site
Developer as theatricalmanager
Aggregated uses
• Physical space as ‘sovereign real estate’• Events as ‘transient interrupts’• Maximise opportunities for users to make
their own spaces and relationships• Theme of ‘doing’ and ‘making’ = popular
idiomatic understanding of site• Open-ended occupation• Site as catalyst to making markets, rather
than centre of a battle plan
‘urban apps’
Seeing everything as a utility
Seeing property asan ‘engine of participation’
David BarrieDavid Barrie & Associates
project design & delivery - creative/economic planning -public involvement - social ventures
Blog: http://davidbarrie.typepad.comMail: [email protected]
Twitter: @davidbarrie