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: david@davidbarrie.net

Twitter: @davidbarrie