PlaceMatters - Tools and Technologies to Enhance Desicion-Making Processes

Enjoyable voice recognition, is it FINALLY here?

Ken — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 00:04:00 +0000

Given today it the release date of the new iPhone, I want to talk about something else at Apple the really caught my attention -- their automated customer care. Last week I had to call Apple to find out how to get the sales tax removed from a purchase given our 501(c)3 status. It was a complicated set of questions I needed to ask -- and yet the conversation was as smooth as talking to a live person. It struck me I was getting a sneak preview of something that is going to radically transform how we use technology on a daily basis -- FINALLY.

The Power of the Kindergarten Art Supplies in Planning

Ken — Wed, 05 May 2010 05:19:00 +0000

PlaceMatters has partnered with the National Charrette Institute on a number of occasions, providing trainings and giving panel presentations at conferences. One of our common themes is "High Touch, High Tech Charrettes." During the sessions we talk about the advantages of low tech and when it makes sense to bring in high tech. Below I have embedded a video that is a montage of clips filmed during a downtown revitalization Charrette in Wichita Kansas. In this project, PlaceMatters partnered with Goody Clancy to help residents go through a series of exercises including keypad polling and mapping exercises to brainstorm about the future of downtown Wichita.

Vehicle Travel as a Community Sustainability Indicator

Chris — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 21:00:16 +0000

If you were looking for a single indicator with which to measure reductions in a community’s environmental impact, vehicle-miles-traveled (VMT) would be a solid contender. It has the added benefit of capturing a lot of quality of life investments as well, since the steps you might take to reduce VMT are often the same steps [...]

The End of Planning

Chris — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 23:16:22 +0000

The APA’s magazine Planning recently ran an editorial (anyone remember what issue it was in?) ruminating about “the end of planning,” arguing that traditional planning – with it’s extensive process, lengthy documents, and static end point – should be replaced with a more nimble, iterative, and flexible paradigm. The editorial provoked an energetic and wide-ranging [...]

How to support the creative sector in your city – learning from Denver and Create Denver

Chris — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 20:30:57 +0000

The Denver Office of Cultural Affairs has hosted the Create Denver Week for 5 years now. I attended their Town Hall meeting to discuss ways to support the growth and development of the creative sector. On several occasions, guests from other cities mentioned their jealousy in how Denver is a leader in supporting its creative [...]

Three Provocations for Planners

Chris — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 15:26:19 +0000

Placematters’ director Ken Snyder, last week at our “Salon at the Saloon” in New Orleans, offered three provocations for planners: What if we eliminated traditional public meetings? What if we eliminated traditional comprehensive plans? What if no more than 2/3 of staff at all planning agencies are traditional planners? What if the rest were planners with unconventional planning [...]

Demonstration of Multi-Touch Table at APA

Chris — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 18:28:00 +0000

Demonstration of multi-touch table by Cirlce 12 from PlaceMatters on Vimeo. While at the American Planning Association conference in New Orleans this week, Jason and I swung by the booth of Circle Twelve. Adam Bogue, Cirle Twelve’s founder, sat with a group of us and gave us a quick demo. I took the opportunity to [...]

The end of planning LIVE

Chris — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 15:14:16 +0000

UPDATE (4/19/10): The blog is cleaned up now. If you spot anything that is a misstatement, please feel free to comment below and we’ll fix it. Also, if you feel there is a big omission from the log, let us know. Video documentation will be up soon. Also, read Jacob’s summation of the event here. Join [...]

Keys to successful TOD

Chris — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 18:26:32 +0000

Met with Marilee Utter today to discuss what are the ingredients of successful transit oriented development. She boiled it down to three things: Market, Plan, and Leadership. She intentially did not include money. If the others are there, the money can be found. Market is about the context of the surrounding area. What’s [...]

PlaceMatters’ new offering, AnyWare, beginning closed beta

Chris — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 04:47:13 +0000

AnyWare is a project I’ve been working on closely for a while at PlaceMatters. It is a web-based tool to brainstorm and evaluate ideas both in real time and over periods of time by large groups of people. It is a definite work in progress, but we are ready to begin letting a certain set [...]