networked community building & place-making in cities

8/8/2019 Networked community building & place-making in cities

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Building networked

community involvementDavid Barrie

Commission for Architecture & the Built Environment

November 3, 2010



We like this…



…and want to square it

with this…



One route heavily advocated

for 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 social

networking websites such as Facebook,

MySpace and Twitter Source: Kanter, B. & Fine, A.H., The Networked Nonprofit (2010)



But why use social media

when our lives are

increasingly trapped inin a closed circle…



One answer is a proliferation

of 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 socialnetworks

• A new member joins the business-orientated siteLinkedIn.com every second

• The largest living generation is young people bornbetween the years of 1978 and 1992

• 25% of people who play video and other screengames in the USA are over 50Sources: BBC, Neilsen, Kanter/Fine, Knight Foundation



Here are some other practical

reasons to bother:



• people are easy to find online and on

many 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 also

something else….



• failing local markets (empty shops)• end of edge-of-centre, residential-led

urban renewal

• growth of outsourced public services

• rise of social enterprise & “socialproductivity”

• appetite for mashed-up timelines (Lost)& interactive narrative (Seven Days)



‘open source’ place-making



Some web links and sites

that 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/koppe

lkiek/



…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 that

link 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 of

local 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, social

media is populated by certain

kinds of individual:



• instigator • evangelist

• donor

• spreader • happy bystander



Reasons why people

gather and share experiences

online - according tointeraction designers:



• Altruism

• Creativity

• Validation

• Affinity

• Prurience



And the most active or

interested 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 have

implications 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 actions

1 - Form a Speirs Locks Cultural Improvement District

2 - Review administrative contexts of site

3 - Turn disused adhesives factory in to low-cost shared workspace

4 - Create ‘making’ and ‘doing’ light-manufacturing workshops

5 - Support urban agriculture in leftover spaces

6 - Open up existing premises through programmes of community

education and involvement

7 - Create and run a public use/entertainment programme

8 - Create community spaces adjacent to built structures on site



Developer as theatrical

manager



Aggregated uses



• Physical space as ‘sovereign real estate’

• Events as ‘transient interrupts’

• Maximise opportunities for users to maketheir 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 as

an ‘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

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