REGISTRATION INFORMATION & CALL FOR PRESENTATIONS AND PAPERS

PLANNINGTECH@DUSP 2011

Friday, April 8, 2011
11:30 AM – 6:00 PM
Location: MIT Building 9

DESCRIPTION

New technologies are transforming how we communicate, expanding access to data and information, and revolutionizing how we understand and navigate our cities. Join a diverse groups of practitioners, scholars, students, and citizens for a half-day conference on the impact of these changes on the field of urban planning. Held one day before the start of the American Planning Association’s National Conference (also in Boston), this will be an opportunity to meet innovators from around New England and the across the nation.

The event will include discussion of urban modeling, urban sensing for planning, planning support systems, meeting technology, social media and Web 2.0 tools, and gaming for participation.

REGISTRATION

Register using the following link. Registration is free:
http://planningtech11.eventbrite.com/

PRESENTATION INFORMATION

Participants have four options for presentations:
- Lightning Talks – presenters will have 20 slides, 20 seconds per slide, advance automatically.
- Paper Session – Presentation of a paper, submitted two weeks before the conference. Should be no more than 5-10 pages.
- Presentation Session – Presentation without a formal paper, A/V materials optional.
- Idea Session – A facilitated conversation on a topic. Will be finalized on the day of the conference.

If you would like to present, submit the presenter name(s), presentation type, and proposed presentation title to rob.goodspeed at gmail.com by Friday, February 25. The timeline for presentations is below.

Friday, 2/25 – Title and Abstracts due for presenters
Monday, 2/28 – Accepted presenters notified
Monday, 3/28 – Papers and final presentation titles due
Friday, 4/8 – Conference day

For more information see the conference website:
http://web.mit.edu/rgoodspe/www/planningtech/
Or contact planningtech at mit.edu

Read more: A Twitter in the City

If urban planners want to engage broad and diverse constituencies over the Internet through websites, forums, blogs, emails, or any web technology, they must consider the usability of these tools. It sounds like a simple concept, but anyone who has struggled to extract basic information from a convoluted government website will understand its importance. When we designed Rethink College Park, we used large fonts, a streamlined design, and intuitive interface to present information as clearly as possible.

That’s why I was particularly interested to hear from Julie Harpring, a master’s student in human-computer interaction design at Indiana University. She is interested in applying usability to urban planning for her capstone project. Although we just discussed possible ideas for the project and it won’t be complete until next spring, I liked the Bloomington by Bike and Bus map she created for IU last summer. Although technically it’s a simply application of Google Maps API, it seamlessly brings together disparate sources of information for students to use to plan travel (university bus routes, city bike lanes, bicycle rack locations and types, in addition to Google’s street map and aerial photos). Who knows how many bloated PDFs on government websites contain information that could be better displayed through such an interface?

Therefore I’ve put together a page on the topic of Internet Tools for e-Democracy in Urban Planning. It contains additional information about why planners should using the web, and a comparison matrix of common Internet technologies (webpages, email lists, blogs, wikis, etc). It also contains an evolving list of additional applications available to local governments that may be useful for urban planning purposes.

Since I am not a Washington Post subscriber I joined at the “silver” level, earning 500 points for joining and another 125 points for proving some basic information about myself. Members can earn 5 points per day for visiting washingtonpost.com, reading Express and entering a code, or answering a quiz requiring a copy of today’s Post. Other ways to earn points include attending community service events or getting coupons at certain businesses, but I didn’t think I’d be able to do either. Most days I read online or Express, meaning I could earn between 5 and 10 points. With over 600 points already earned, I was off and running.

A quick look at the rewards dampened my enthusiasm. A $10 CVS gift card looked like a useful prize. However, at 3,385 points it would take me 677 days of Express reading or almost one year of reading both a print publication and the website to earn enough points to earn it. If I purchased copies of the Post from newsstands for the $10 gift card, it would cost me $338.50 in newspapers. Taking 1 minute a day to enter the Express daily code would add up to 11.3 hours for the gift card. A $25 Visa gift card was even more out of reach. At 6,325 points, it would take 3.47 years of reading one publication daily to earn enough points for it.

In fact, the only prize available for less than 1,000 points was a points exchange between PostPoints and Amtrak’s frequent rider program: 500 PostPoints for 100 Amtrak points. Since a one-way coach ticket in the Eastern zone costs 3,000 Amtrak points, those 500 PostPoints cover roughly 3% of the cost of a ticket.

And the pizza? At 2,500 points, I’ll have to read both washingtonpost.com and Express for 50 weeks continuously.

Also, today DCist reports the bank is giving the organization a 30-day extension to raise the remaining $180,000. I’ve already given $10 and considering another donation, but if you needed convincing there’s nothing better than a recent blog post by Mike Grass who makes the excellent argument the house is worth saving not only because it would be expensive and difficult to recover it’s current state if the home’s contents are cleared out, but also because it is a unique symbol of the non-federal side of DC. I think he’s absolutely right: the house faces peril partly because it was built by a brewer, and “not a naval hero, not a granddaughter of Martha Washington, not even a Gilded Age mining millionaire turned politician …” And it is precisely for that reason, in addition to its beauty, that it deserves preservation.

For more information see brewmasterscastle.com.

Young People For Conference, originally uploaded by DCist Rob.

I have been spending the weekend at the Young People For student conference here in D.C. For information about the project see www.youngpeoplefor.org

Connecticut Ave, originally uploaded by DCist Rob.

Test of autopost.

Winter 2006
Honors Program
HONORS 135 – Ideas in Honors
Section 005: Women in Politics: From Susan B. Anthony to Sen. Hillary Clinton

Undergraduate Credits: 1
Advisory Prerequisites: First-year standing in the Honors Program.
Eligibility: Honors
Grading: Mandatory credit/no credit.
Primary Instructor: Benton,Elizabeth Patricia

How far have women in politics come since Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Susan B. Anthony and how far do they still have to go? This course will explore women in politics from the speeches and struggles of early women’s rights activists to the possibilities of America electing its first female president in the near future. We will look at the role of women as voters, activists, and politicians over the time period. This course will explore several questions relating to the issue: Why do women in politics matter? How do women act as a voting bloc? Are they a
voting bloc? Has the “glass ceiling� been broken? How is the role of women of color different or unique? The course will feature first hand knowledge of women in politics through special visits from current or former female elected officials. Course requirements will include weekly readings, in depth in class discussion and a final project.

My friend Emily Squires is also teaching a section which sounds interesting:

Winter 2006
Honors Program
HONORS 135 – Ideas in Honors
Section 003: Creativity and Consciousness
Undergraduate Credits: 1
Advisory Prerequisites: First-year standing in the Honors Program.
Eligibility: Honors
Grading: Mandatory credit/no credit.
Primary Instructor: Squires, Emily Jeanne

This class will explore ways in which communities and individuals use creative arts as resources and vehicles for social change. Examples from multiple art traditions and cultural contexts will be established, including, but not limited to, visual arts movements and meanings in South Africa during the anti-apartheid struggle; the practice of US printmakers during the Depression; and the influence of the Mexican muralist movement on future generations and goals of mural-makers. We will analyze the complex and shifting relationships between personal voice, community expression, and political movements in both historical and contemporary contexts. Class requirements include weekly course pack readings and a written response, as well as a final journal reflection. This class will be highly participatory with an emphasis on using the entire Michigan campus as our classroom.

> See all 135 sections