June is Public Participation in Urban Planning Month

In the introduction to the innovative series on Public Participation in Urban Planning, Robert Goodspeed writes: "Although there may be no such thing as 'Public Participation in Urban Planning Month' that I know of, I've decided to declare one on this website at least. That's because I've decided to use June to publish a series of posts describing the research and recommendations contained in my final paper for graduate school, titled 'Citizen Participation and the Internet in Urban Planning.' "

From the first articles in the series:

"Despite innovations in many areas of governance, the use of the information technology in general and the Internet specifically to facilitate citizen involvement in urban planning has been limited"...

"Government planners have not readily adopted Internet tools to engage the public in urban planning processes partly because of a lack of appropriate technologies. The work of creating plans is not limited to individual communications with the general public, but involves working with groups of people to identify problems and build consensus. In creating their plans planners must engage multiple distinct stakeholders, and often reach out to specific communities, organizations, and government agencies."

Goodspeed's four-part series is adapted from his graduate school urban planning thesis: Citizen Participation and the Internet in Urban Planning. The paper received the University of Maryland Urban Studies and Planning Larry Reich Award for Best Final Paper.