Traditional community planning goes something like this: bring together officials, residents, business executives and others to a stuffy city conference room and hold a meeting. Ed Manlove, founder and president of the SCJ Company, wants to change that. Manlove is pitching an online software program – Design. Collaborate. Build. – that provides a platform for people across the world to comment on a proposal. One could even comment in their pajamas at 1 a.m.
PBN: Can you tell us a little about Design. Collaborate. Build., what it does, and who might use it?
MANLOVE: Our product, Design. Collaborate. Build., is a software tool for online collaboration around a map. Design. Collaborate. Build. brings together Web-based mapping and Web-based discussion forums, giving community members simple tools to comment on a map and discuss those ideas with their community.
Towns and cities revising their master plan can use it as an online town planning tool or online charrette. Neighborhood organizations discussing ideas about the local community can use Design. Collaborate. Build. For student planners it can be used within a classroom setting or design studio as a teaching tool. Think of a situation where you need to plan a physical space and our tool can assist you in that process.
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PBN: What are some of the advantages of planning online?
MANLOVE: One of our major goals is to help break down barriers to communication. Time can be a barrier. Having a discussion online over an extended period of time gives an opportunity to those who might not be able to come to a one-time meeting. Sometimes scheduling all the necessary stakeholders to meet together can be a nightmare and thus moving online relieves those scheduling constraints.
Another barrier is having a dispersed group of stakeholders. Again, being online helps eliminate the physical distance between participants.
We are working on bringing language translation into Design. Collaborate. Build. Being able to diminish the barrier of language is an exciting possibility.
PBN: Do you see this kind of software someday replacing traditional community meetings?
MANLOVE: Not replacing, but supplementing. Having face-to-face communication and interaction is very important. When planning is the primary goal of a community meeting, like a town revising its master plan, having an online charrette adds value to the physical charrette and can be used in conjunction with a tradition community meeting. In other situations where planning is just one of many tasks, then having discussions online can be valuable.
PBN: You recently showed the software at the Power of Place Summit. What was the reaction?
MANLOVE: It got a lot of interest, especially from nonprofit community groups and professional planners. I think they saw how using Web-based tools such as Design. Collaborate. Build. might help them to be more successful.
PBN: How did you come up with the idea for the software?
MANLOVE: A few years ago my alma mater, the University of Dayton, was going through a master campus planning process. I thought the university, having recently purchased some land, could create a community garden for both the adjacent neighborhood and the university community. And what better way is there to share my idea than by visually with a map.
Thinking other alumni, some living far from campus like I, might have ideas to share with the community, I sketched out the concepts for a Web-based collaborative mapping tool. I formed The SCJ Company in 2008 to bring Design. Collaborate. Build. to communities, helping them to communicate with a wider audience and break down barriers to communication.
