Wikiplanning San Jose

Description

"In San Jose, Calif. — the heart of Silicon Valley — city officials are attempting to bring the wiki concept to city planning. The city went live Aug. 1 with its Wikiplanning project, part of the city’s Envision 2040 general plan exercise. The project has been designed to incorporate Web 2.0 applications in order to create a new and better avenue for citizens to provide input on the city’s future.

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At the heart of the wikiplanning project is a 19-question survey, the results of which will guide city officials as they make development decisions under the Envision San Jose 2040 plan. The survey is open to anyone with a Web browser at www.wikiplanning.org. Once there, all that’s required is an e-mail address and a not-so-secret password, which a San Jose press release said was “2040.” By completing the survey, users are eligible to win prizes offered by local cultural organizations.

“That was a twist that we put on this project that I think was unique with San Jose,” Walesh said. “Ryan Harris told us, from their experience, how important it is to offer incentives to drive participation in the first place. So instead of offering cash, we wanted to use it as an opportunity to promote our arts and culture organizations here. We asked them if they would donate tickets, subscriptions and passes — and they all did. They get a little promotion, and hopefully some people who are winning these tickets might not be regular patrons. So they might go see a concert or come to a festival that they might not have normally.” (http://www.govtech.com/dc/articles/719878)