How “My City My Spot” Started?

“ The Open Data movement is gaining momentum around the world, supporting the notion that certain data should be freely available to everyone. Cultural resource data represents a wide gamut of information and in some cases is restricted from public use for good reason.”

Municipal Cultural Planning (2010). Cultural Resource Mapping: A Guide for Municipalities. P.7

“My City My Spot” is an effort to make cultural resource information broadly available allows for an educational experience, where visitors, residents and organizations can discover the range of resources in the community. It can also function as an effective search tool for people to find specific information about cultural resources they know. The database can also serve an archival function, where information about cultural resources is captured for future generations.

How to transform soft data into sharp insights that can help us realize the strategic applications of community’s cultural assets? With this question in mind I developed My City My Spot, a design concept for an application platform that supports collecting information and consolidates existing sources of information. The process of consolidation of data is informed by the application of a Cultural Resource Framework (CRF) to the data. The CRF is basically a set of categories of cultural resources to support cultural planning and development. It about collecting soft data and turn them into sharp insights for future cultural planning and development.

During the research process, I asked the question, How can we visualize our cultural landscapes and how do we know it when we see it? How can Internet technology and social network media help us to share information with the public and stakeholders. Can I develop a concept for an application platform that encourages people to take part in mapping their cultural resources. In approaching this project, I explored various research areas related to design thinking, participatory design research, cultural planning, urban ethnography and knowledge visualization methods. “My City My Spot” is the result of these varied fields and disciplines.

This concept design for application platform was proposed to make sure the cultural mapping processes include a proactive public involvement part. Internet technology could help revolutionize the process by recognizing that people “Have a Stake” in planning for their cultural development. A web-based platform for cultural mapping is designed to involve stakeholders with meaningful public access to cultural contents and information. Stakeholders may be people, groups or organizations who care about or might be affected by a city council action.

Value Proposition

The concept design for an online mapping platform was developed for those who are involved with or interested in promoting the cultural development in the community. It will therefore be of primary interest to planning professionals and cultural workers. The design idea offers the opportunity to develop visual representations of the tangible and intangible benefits of cultural resources. This will be accomplished through considering an open-source model that would allow the public to access and contribute to parts of the cultural inventory database online. Unlike the centralized model where the city municipality is responsible for providing the data and entering it into the system, the proposed concept is based on an open-source model which allows community members to be involved in the mapping and planning process, which in turn offer a deeper insight into diversity, history and identity of the community.

“To develop a cultural mapping system we need to draw data from different sources.”

Captology Design Concept

Design Challenge

Design a platform that motivates diverse user groups to share information and content related to cultural assets, identities, and stories in their communities.

Persuasive Purpose

1. Increase opportunities for public participation by enabling users to become active contributors to cultural planning and mapping efforts for the city, thus seeing a return on their contributions of time and effort.
2. Design a concept that takes advantage of social media tools and interactive map applications to extract and visualize information from various sources in support of an ongoing cultural mapping process.

Justifications

1. Strengthen the information base needed to inform planning and make better evidence-based decisions in cultural and broader policy agendas.
2. Strengthen marketing and promotion of local cultural assets to residents and visitors and can serve as the foundation for authentic place branding to support tourism initiatives.
3. Creating dynamic web application as windows for local cultural content to expand access and provide opportunities for public participation.

User Description

Cultural Resource Mapping can be a useful tool for a range of constituencies. For policy-makers, it is a research tool that identifies resources and can illustrate links and trends. Municipal decision-makers and other leaders can use it to inform decisions and better communicate with the public. Similarly, culture and tourism organizations and businesses benefit from a broad set of cultural information that can help to plan and focus their efforts.

Information Flow

User Experience Storyboard

The city council, chamber of commence and local cultural organizations come together for the purpose of discussing future cultural development projects and to brainstorm a community vision for the improving the quality of life in the city.

Design Concept for Digital Cultural Mapping

Maximizing Public Participation

The intention behind the design concept for Participatory Cultural Mapping (PCM), was to demonstrate an innovative way that can help us visualize the invisible landscape of a place. During the conceptualizing of the design idea, my approach was guided by the question: Is there a way to mobilize community’s involvement in planning their cultural assets and how can we provide equal opportunities to all members of the public to become involved? Another guiding principle in approaching the design concept was that the data generated from the public participation through the platform should be functional for cultural planning. Therefore, the remaining question is how can cultural planners extract ongoing qualitative information from various sources to support the ongoing mapping process?

At the present time, there are thousands of Application Programming Interfaces (API) that would allow designers and cultural planners to use the rich data that are generated from the participatory cultural mapping application platform. Applications such as Twitter and Flicker offer comprehensive APIs that enable different user interfaces form the actual sites. New applications, such as Infochimps and Factual, also initiated lately and were exclusively designed to provide structured data (Nathan Yau, 2011). At the individual level, the user can update friends on Facebook, share his or her location on Foursquare, or tweet about it on Twitter.
The diagram below shows the different social media tool and digital mapping are integral parts of designing a web-based platform for community identity mapping.

Purpose of the Design Concept

Any PCM initiatives has a proactive public involvement component. Therefore, the design concept for the current project was built around increasing public participation and encouraging diverse user groups to share information on their cultural assets, identities, and stories about their communities by using social media tools and interactive map applications. Based on this, the purpose was to design an empowering tool that enables the public to express their opinion on what they like about a place and why and what would make it better. The purpose was also to make information broadly available, in which visitors, local residents and organizations can discover the range of resources in the community. It can also function as an effective search tool for people to finds specific information about cultural resources they know. Collectively, the generated data can provide a wealth of information to help improve decision making and communicate different options more effectively. The data can also serve an archival function where information about cultural resources is captured for future generations.

Prototype

The proposed design concept of the platform provides a dynamic web application that operates as window for local cultural knowledge of people to be diffused and shared with other by using social media tool. It can be viewed as a channel for public participation. For example the user can post his/her thought about cultural map to facebook wall or can twitte about his or her feeling and sense of place or something unique about the place. Users can also post video by using YouTube or post images on Flicker.

The concept for interactive platform should include features that help us consolidate different sources of information to create a digital cultural map of cultural resources based on quantitative analysis of cultural inventory. Furthermore, it should incorporate options for networking and exchanging cultural contents through connection with social media tools.

These snap shots of the proposed concept design illustrates maps created by users. These maps reflect their personal view of what they perceived as cultural to them.

Features & Functionality

Photos Application

• Users can upload photo of their favorite places, spots, and cultural events.
• Photo tagging, helped by face recognition technology and comments on photos, users can tag photos with a brand, product and events.

Sharing videos

• Users can share their videos by uploading video, adding video thorough mobile and using webcam recording feature.

Security and Sharing Features

• Login approvals.
• Access to community events schedule and other cultural contents that provide useful information, e.g., tourist brochures.
• Sharing community events and activities with other users.

Other Features and Interactions

• Users can chat and exchange comments.
• Users can use phone to vote for favorite cultural landscape, assets and events.
• Promotions and updates news based on user profiles.

Benefits of Design

• Identifies clusters, hubs, opportunities
• Leads to new ways of thinking and working
• Crystallizes community identity
• Makes the invisible visible
• Is a great visual tool
• Identifies connections to city planning
• Creates baseline for bench-marking
• Supports Municipal Cultural Planning

Shortcomings of Design

• Not every resident or visitor has direct access to the Internet.
• May be too complicated for novice users.
• Difficulty of convincing people to take some time to share their cultural experiences.
• Difficult to consolidate all users’ cultural maps and information in one meaningful map.

Expansion: What Else is Possible?

Other form factor possibilities:

• Opportunities to incorporate augmented reality technology.
• Opportunities to provide a live stream video channel.
• Opportunities to customize the application platform according to users’ interests and cultural tastes.

Feedback From

Suggestions for Data Partnership

Initiating Data Collaboration

Having appropriate up-to-date information about the cultural resources is critical to good cultural planning and management. As suggested by the Canadian Municipal Cultural Planning Inc. (2010), the underlying principle of any partnership framework for PCM is that the responsibility for collecting, updating and enriching mapping information must rest with those organizations most familiar to the content of that data. Before discussing these recommendations, it is important for those organization to understand the commitments involved in the cultural mapping partnership framework from having a unified way of grouping cultural information, to having a shared technology platform as well as a dedication to give to shaping future projects related to mapping cultural assets in the community.

While setting the foundation of a cultural mapping information baseline requires drawing and consolidating data from different sources, the question that needs to be asked is whether the data can be easily obtained and at affordable cost? And does it come from reliable source? This important task in designing a cultural mapping project suggests the need of a unified framework for information partnership among different people and organizations involved in cultural development in the community (Creativity Network of Canada, 2008; Colin, 2005; Baeker, 2010). Equally important, the partner organizations should have a sense of why they are involved. Potential partners in cultural mapping may include municipal partners, community partners as well as private partners (Ontario Municipal Cultural Planning, 2010). The diagram below illustrates these potential partners.

Basic Guideline for Data Partnership

Participatory cultural mapping projects pay attention to the fact that equity should be a guiding principle in building a data partnership between organizations in the community. Political, human and financial resources are also needed as part of the collaboration process. One critical step in any partnership attempt is to make sure that the different people and the agencies involved know what the partnership is about, what are the common goal, who is doing what, and which outcomes are expected (Jana Machačová et al. , 2006; Creative City Canada, 2008). Therefore, first communications with potential partners should revolve around building the basic understanding of what can be achieved through PCM. Generally, building a successful data collaboration requires agreement on the following elements:

As suggested by the Municipal Cultural Planning Inc. (2010), the first momentum can be either locally driven, or bottom-up, where the need for better collaboration is recognized; or policy driven, or top-down, when someone at the central level considers the partnership approach to be the right one for the solution to a certain type of problem. Whatever the motive to initiative a partnership for mapping and planning the cultural assets in the community, there are key factors to bear in mind. First, it is important to get all the relevant actors to join in the partnership. Failure to invite or attract some of these key actors might turn out to be an ongoing weakness limiting options (Jana Machačová et al. , 2006).

Once all potential partners agreed on the principles, it is important to get formal commitment though “data sharing agreement” which sets out the terms for all parties involved in data partnership, including what information can be shared, for how long, and what it can be used for”. To have an agreement on these elements, partners have to share a vision and they also have to take part in articulating a strategy to realize that vision. This is an essential part to establishing a commitment to action from the different partners involved in the partnership (Ontario Municipal Cultural Planning Inc., 2010).

Next Steps in Design Process

• Get a programmers to consider feasibility of technology
• Find out if companies would subsidize service for marketing and branding opportunities
• Build more technical prototype and physical design to test on different users
• Investigate methods to combine all different layers of information extracted from each user

Additionally, a project work plan should address project goals and scope. The following first questions are also important to consider:

• Who should lead?
• Where will the database be housed?
• Who are some likely partners?
• What data already exists within the community?
• What will this cost?
• What funding sources exist that can help make the case for and support Cultural Resource Mapping?

Assessing Costs

• To begin the budgeting process, you will want to assess the level of effort and costs associated with:
• Technical resources (GIS software, GIS and IT staff or consultants).
• Primary data collection that may be required (should be minimal).
• Checking, inputting and consolidating data.
• Regular meetings with your project partners.
• The cost of community engagement workshops to inform your project and build support.
• The cost of time allocated for consultant and staff.
• Ongoing costs including maintaining data and performing analysis and making maps to illustrate findings.

Glossary of Terms

Captology Design

The field of captology and persuasive technology is growing quickly. Captology is a method with related tools for solving problems. As BJ Fogg, Ph.D. Director, Persuasive Tech Lab at Stanford University, puts it, captology is a way of thinking clearly about target behaviors and how to achieve those goals by using technology for the purpose of changing people’s attitudes or behaviors. BJ Fogg derived the term captology in 1996 from an acronym: Computers As Persuasive Technologies = CAPT.

Cultural Mapping

Cultural Mapping is a process of identifying cultural assets, developing an initial database and maps that illustrate the scope and location of cultural assets. The focus is on laying the foundation for continued mapping efforts by capturing the “breadth” of cultural resources across the community, which in itself can be an extensive endeavor. As a result, the “depth” of information captured in a baseline database – or the level of detail included in each category – may not be as extensive as it could be.

Cultural Resources

Cultural resources encompass both tangible and intangible cultural assets that fuel local cultural vitality and contribute to defining the unique local cultural identity and sense of place. Intangible cultural assets are types of cultural expression that are not necessarily manifest in physical form.

Cultural Resources Framework

While this broad understanding of culture is important, the focus of cultural mapping is focused more concretely on a specific set of cultural resources illustrated in the diagram. The followings are the set of categories and disciplines categories of Cultural Resource Framework outlined in the Statistics Canada Canadian Framework for Culture Statistics.

Community Resources: Categories and Disciplines

Data architecture

Data architecture is the format chosen to organize a dataset. It involves choosing the names and order of data fields (categories of information), and the hierarchy within which they will be organized in a GIS database.

Data-set

A dataset is a collection of data, organized into a table where each column represents a category of information. A Cultural Resource Database is composed of several datasets, since it is assembled from various sources of existing data.

Geo-coding

Geo-coding is the process of linking resource data to locations in space for the purpose of geographic mapping. Resource data can be linked to GPS coordinates, street addresses or postal codes.

Works Cited

Creativity Network of Canada. 2008: Creative City Planning Framework. Toronto: PCA Associates.

Crawhall, Nigel. 2008: The Role Of Participatory Cultural Mapping In Promoting Intercultural Dialogue. UNESCO.

Creativity Network of Canada. 2008: Cultural Mapping Toolkit. Toronto: PCA Associates.

Cultural Digital Maps. UNESCO. http://www.unesco.org/culture/en/masterpieces

Cultural Resource Mapping: A Guide for Municipalities. www.ontariomcp.ca Patricia Peters (2007). Chathem-Kent Cultural Planning Project. Authenticity, Ontario, Canada http://www.chatham-kent.ca

Fogg, BJ. 2010: Thoughts on Persuasive Technology. Persuasive Tech Lab at Stanford University http://captology.stanford.edu/resources/thoughts-on-persuasive- technology.html. Retrieved: May 19, 2011.

Greg Baeker (2011).Building a Creative Community: A Cultural Plan for North Bay. Presentation-Video Recording http://vimeo.com/21982122

Greg Baeker (2010 ) Place Vantage: Putting Cultural Mapping Principles into Practice. Video Recorded Interview. http://vimeo.com/11847853

Greg Baeker (2010) South Georgian Bay Cultural Mapping. Video Recorded Interview. http://vimeo.com/13713949

Jana Machačová et al. (2006). Successful Partnerships: A Guide. OECD-LEED Forum on Partnerships and Local Governance. Centre forSocial Innovation, Vienna. www.oecd.org/cfe/leed/forum/partnershipsKarolina Ociepka(2011).

Laurel, Brenda (Editor). 2003: Design Research: Methods and Perspectives, MIT.

Mercer, Colin. Engwicht, David. and Grogan, David. 1995: Cultural Planning Handbook. Queensland Australia: Allen and Unwin.

Mercer, Colin (2005). “Cultural Capital and Capabilities.” Paris: Cultural Capital Ltd.UK.

Municipal Cultural Planning Incorporated (2010): Cultural Resource Mapping: A Guide for Municipalities. http://www.ontariomcp.ca/news/cultural-resource-mapping%3A-guide-municipalities-7. Retrieved: May 20, 2011.

Nathan Yau(2011). Visualize This: The Flowing Data Guide to Design, Visualization, and StatisticsWiley Publishing, Inc, IN. Ontario-MCP (2010).