Publication Type: Invited Paper
Abstract: The incorporation of citizens in the urban planning process in Boston has the good intentions of soliciting community input. In the spirit of this participatory decision-making and as a reaction to the wholesale renewal of many of the Boston’s neighborhoods in the 1950s and 1960s, the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA) now holds regular community meetings to gauge neighborhood reaction to development projects. The problem is, when six-dozen locals gather in a room with a few professional architects and planners, the willingness of the locals to speak is hindered by the power differential designated by the difference in expertise. In an effort to facilitate more direct involvement by a greater number of people in city planning, I turned to the multi-user virtual environment (MUVE) Second Life, which allows multiple users to build and interact in photo-realistic environments in real-time. In Fall 2007, I worked with academic and community partners to create a program called Hub2, which provides a social design for this virtual technology. Our first task was to teach two classes at Emerson College, which brought together college students, city officials, and local activists to conduct fieldwork studies and experiment with virtual worlds as a means of engaging the design process. As a result of that class, we have begun working with the BRA to pilot the Hub2 methodology in actual capital projects throughout Boston. In this presentation, I will discuss our experiences with these pilot programs. More specifically, I will explain how the collaborative design process made possible by Second Life offers alternatives to accepted notions of community participation.