Dr Mark Elliott's (Collabforge) keynote to the City Planning, Civic Participation the Internet at Princeton University - 1 May 2009. This presentation details how Collabforge worked with City of Melbourne to map the existing city planing process to develop a re-engineered process that leveraged collaboration and utilised cutting edge 'Web 2.0' solutions. Most notably, an open source wiki-based collaboration environment was developed in order to enable collaboration amongst the many City officers and stakeholders, as well as members of the general public during the public consultation period. The Future Melbourne project (www.futuremelbourne.com.au) recently won the Planning Institute of Australia (Victoria Division) Awards for Excellence, Local Government.

1. Wikis & Web 2.0 for City Planning:
Transparent, Par,cipatory, Collabora,ve
Dr Mark EllioA, Director, Collabforge
City Planning Civic Engagement and the Internet
Center for Informa6on Technology Policy
Princeton, April‐May 2009

2. [Future Melbourne home]

3. David Mayes, Manager Strategic Planning and Sustainability
mandate for a collabora,ve city plan
inspired by Wikipedia as collabora,ve process
Collabforge mapped the planning process
re‐engineered the process for a collabora,ve outcome

4. shiK away from exclusive focus on
tradi,onal public consulta,on

6. Stay within the box.
Ap
pr
ov
ed

7. collabora,on
is more complicated than
commen,ng

8. challenges
common fears

9. You mean anyone can edit my work?!!

10. Who guarantees quality?
community modera,on
Future Melbourne Team
City of Melbourne
Stakeholders
Public

11. dear sir/madame,
i am sorry to find a spelling mistake in the third
last paragraph, second line. the second word is
mis‐spelled as 'knoweldge'. please check.
thank you for your aAen,on.
with faith from, john tam, chinese in hong kong.

12. EDIT

13. arbitra,on
may be needed for rare cases of disagreement
expert input
but remember, the host organisa,on is in charge

15. 15

16. risk analysis
risk management strategies
daily, mul,level monitoring of every single edit

17. not a single instance of
spam
off‐topic
offensive contribu,on

18. there are risks
but the benefits far outweigh them
understand what they are
be upfront about them
addressed them through appropriate
policies and monitoring

19. local postcodes

20. female to male registrants

21. age groups

22. page views

23. public edits

24. Future Melbourne covered on 40+ interna,onal
blogs & websites
“Could this be the beginning of par,cipatory governance?”
“Kudos City of Melbourne! AAen,on Melburnians: be sure
to have your say and take advantage of this excellent site so
what you think and feel the city should be like in the future is
accounted for in policy development“
“It's not hard to imagine why Melbourne has a reputa,on as a
vibrant and progressive city”
“I'd love to see the Mayor of my city on the front page of a wiki
asking for contribu,ons!”

30. organisa,on
online public

31. organisa,on
online public

32. Learnings
Build it, & they won’t necessarily come.
strategic design ‐ addressing & communica,ng
mo,va,ons & incen,ves for par,cipa,on
Web‐relevant promo,on is a must!

33. Learnings cont.
Web communi,es for par,cipatory planning & policy
development take ,me to cul,vate.
purpose‐built Web communi,es are a resource
that requires ,me & energy to grow, & they should
be protected as an investment
an investment into the organisa,on’s human
resources *&*
your community’s digital literacy

34. Reduce ‐ the need to start from scratch
Reuse ‐ the input for other ini,a,ves
Recycle ‐ community members for other projects

37. 37

39. New Collabora,ve Tools &
Social Processes
Par,cipatory Democracy
(extending representa,ve democracy)
Ci,zen
Innova,on
in
Governance

40. this type of innova,on can happen anywhere
needed:
awareness of opportunity & interest on part of
project sponsor
experienced prac,,oners ‐ either internally or
externally sourced
naviga,ng virtual community dynamics
needs careful, expert aAen,on
‐ this is a key risk
commitment, courage & crea,vity on part of
everyone involved

41. Self evident:
the Web (in some form or another) is here to stay
‐ be it seman,c, mobile, ubiquitous...
Web development is fast, cheap, easy
& replicable
‐ this puts power in the people’s hands

42. if government at all levels does not
step up to the plate, & lead,
leadership will come from elsewhere

43. what does this ‘elsewhere’ look like to you?

44. www.Collabforge.com
Mark.EllioA@Collabforge.com
www.TwiAer.com/MarkEllioA
Phone: 613 421 978 501
Dr Mark EllioA, Director, Collabforge
City Planning Civic Engagement and the Internet
Center for Informa6on Technology Policy
Princeton, April‐May 2009