Since the advocacy planners of the 1960s first brought widespread public participation to the planning process, there have been innovations and improvements. However, the participation practices in the real world, with its face-to-face politics of difference and unequal power relations, are flawed. Today, technology allows for an entirely new generation of forms and practices of public participation that promise to elevate the public discourse in an unprecedented manner while providing an interactive, networked environment for decision-making. This is occurring with asynchronous communities interacting with one another on a variety of planning subjects, which allows for more democratic planning and more meaningful participation. In this paper, we review the ways in which today's web-based virtual worlds, like Facebook and Second Life, provide platforms for public participation in planning in a manner distinct from previous formats. We explore the different ways that citizens and communities are using web-based technologies for citizen participation, including the use of Facebook for community organizing around planning issues and of Second Life for virtual workshops. We include case studies of communities that are using these tools. The paper concludes by exploring the contribution that virtual participation can make to planning and examines the challenges that it poses.

No abstract

No abstract

IntroductionPlanners have been striving to enhance meaningful citizen involvement in planning processes for over forty years. Theories on collaborative planning highlight the benefits of citizen participation in strengthening public support for policy initiatives, in identifying previously unforeseen concerns, and recognizing potential conflicts (Healey, 1992;Innes and Booher, 1999). However, the search for methods for achieving meaningful collaborative planning has been challenging. Traditional participation venues such as public meetings can be inefficient and ineffective means of activating citizen interest; the timing and form of these venues is often to blame for low participation levels by the general public. Work and family responsibilities often mean that few adults have or make the time to be civically engaged with their government. This lack of active participation has created a challenge for planners who are responsible for engaging citizens in making decisions about the future of their community.The incorporation of technology into public planning processes represents an area of great promise in which better relationships between governments and their citizenry can be built. The use of information and communication technology (ICT) relaxes the time and geographic constraints faced by citizens who want to participate (Kwan and Weber, 2003). Citizens who participate using ICT can do so in the locations and at the times of their own choosing. Governments which can harness ICT e-government tools potentially expand opportunities for citizen participation. Many local governments across the USA, in conjunction with their planning departments, have begun to institute e-governmentöthe government's use of the Internetöas well as other forms of technology for enhanced information and service delivery to citizens.The purpose of this work is to answer two research questions which will enhance our understanding of the use of ICT e-government tools in planning. First, what is the state of planning-based e-government in United States municipal government in terms of availability of participation-related tools? Second, what influence do endogenous community factors have on the availability of e-government tools? Our analyses are based on local government websites for every US city with a 2000 Census population of at least 50 000 persons. Websites were evaluated based on the availability of sixteenAbstract. E-government tools provide municipal planning departments with an alternative means to inform and engage their citizenry. We examine the use of information and communication technology e-government tools to promote citizen participation in the planning process. The analysis is based on an examination of municipal planning-related websites for the 590 US cities with a 2000 Census population of 50 000 or more. We also explore the influence which demographic contextual factors have on what tools are provided. Principal findings highlight the dominance of simple, informationbased, e-government tools. The analyses also s...

Transportation planning processes may be enhanced and plans improved by engaging the community through social media technologies. “Microparticipation” means the engagement of the public with social media methods for the purpose of maximizing the information going into a planning process while minimizing the plan's development time and the cost to the public. Twitter, Facebook, and other microparticipation media have been used for planning but have not been extensively evaluated for that purpose. This study examined more than 49,000 posts on Twitter and other social networking sites tracked by the Social Networking and Planning Project to determine public engagement in the Austin Strategic Mobility Plan. With the use of a mixed methods approach, relevant posts were examined to determine sentiment, extent of engagement, and impact on the decision-making process. The study found methods that could be used to analyze microparticipation. The report concluded that microparticipation could be effective in generating participation but faced substantial technical, analytical, and communication barriers to influencing decision making.