Planning: Building cities in the virtual world

Web 2.0 has transformed the Internet from a static provider of information to a wide-open meeting hall where people can share ideas in a collaborative environment, and the planning community is finding ways to take advantage.

In April's issue of Planning, Chris Steins and Josh Stephens describe some of these technologies and how planners utilize them to reach a broader public.

Some of the strategies the writers list are:

* Blogs
* Photo sharing
* Video sharing
* Online surveys
* Social media/online communities
* Mapping mashups

"Planners sometimes tend to be oriented toward public involvement, and sometimes they tend to be technical," says Bill Fulton, a planner and a city council member in Ventura, California. "I think we're going to see a merging of those two roles as you put the technical tools in the hands of the average person."

The article also points out that these options can help to counteract the NIMBY effect by engaging people who might not be so gung-ho about attending every public meeting on a project.