A few weeks ago, I set up an IdeaScale web site to gather suggestions for ways to improve Pedestrian and Bicycle Safety in Westwood. It has turned out to be an effective, easy way to collect ideas and our challenge now is to do something about those ideas.
The site is simple to use–that is its principal virtue. I have experimented with other online tools to help improve communication and/or organize things before, with mixed results:
- The WestwoodWiki went nowhere–I think mainly because it requires a great deal of participation, awareness, and faith that one’s investment of time will be meaningful. A wiki is a website anyone can edit–allowing group collaboration in drafting documents, etc.–and although I believe it can be a great tool to foster civic engagement, and there are great examples of this in larger cities like Melbourne, Australia or Davis, California, it is hard to get the ball rolling, so to speak.
- WestwoodBlog has been successful, but inconsistent. It totally depends on my effort to stir up news and events and is most valuable when there are “hot” issues in town. If I post something about Westwood Station–the controversial development project that is now stalled due to the economic slowdown–it generates a ton of activity. If I encourage and solicit candidates for Town Election to post their ideas, this generates some commentary. And the topic I created for Walkable Westwood, has been a good place for me to publicize our efforts on Ped/Bike Safety…but the blog is a very general purpose, news-oriented site that many read, but few contribute.
The IdeaScale Site has generated 44 ideas and included several hundred people participating by voting those ideas up or down.
- I seeded the site with many of the ideas our group had already been talking about. This gave us a place to document and discuss those ideas. We had talked about circulating spreadsheets and drafting a group report, but I found publishing the ideas moved us forward more effectively.
- The site was relatively easy to use. I had a few reports of difficulty…and very few people went to the trouble of creating a login account–but as anonymous, guest users, they were able to quickly submit ideas and comments (60-plus comments so far).
- The “discussion” has stayed on track. On the blog, things can go off on tangents since there is no overall purpose, but on the IdeaScale site, it is so focused on a single purpose, I think this has avoided some of the community management problems that could result from just posting a blog item and asking for feedback.
The big question is “what next?” I believe our committee has had great discussions so far and is building an increased awareness of active transporation issues in Town, but I want us to start creating some “small victories”–little accomplishments that demonstrate we are putting ideas to work.
At our last meeting, we began to work through the ideas submitted. I exported the ideas into an Excel spreadsheet and, based on suggestions from other members of the group, created scoring columns for urgency, population impact, and relative effort–summing a 3-point scale so that when addedd together, each idea received a score ranging from 3 to 9. Then, we can sort the ideas and identify the most urgent (immediate safety issues) ideas affecting the largest number of people with the fewest obstacles to implementation as projects we should form subcommittees or working groups to address.
We began by sorting the ideas by their IdeaScale vote score and then working down through the list. The process of discussion itself was valuable–given this framework for approaching it. I projected the spreadsheet on a wall from my laptop and edited it in real-time. For each idea, I clicked on the hyperlink from the spreadsheet to a web browser that allowed us to read the full idea submitted and see the comments. In another browser window, we used google maps to view satellite imagery of the specific locations involved.
As a group, we then reached a consensus on the 3 ratings for each item. Unfortunately, our meeting was already running very late, so we only managed to review the first ten ideas–but along the way we have already begun to identify some projects and priorities and talk about solutions with people in the room who can make a difference–e.g. the Town Engineer, Safety Officer, Town Planner, Planning Board members, PTA representatives, DPW representatives, and other interested people. At our previous meetings, we have had a lot of discussion, but I believe this more structured approach is leading us towards a more methodical review of ideas.
It’s early. This was just one meeting and as it approached 10pm, I was torn between the desire to get things done versus the reality that everyone needed to get home to their families. It was not a simple, “that’s a 1, this is a 3,” kind of discussion as people have many perspectives on each idea and it is incredibly valuable to hear that input as a group. But we began to get into a rhythm of discussion and then a conclusion that, ok, that sounds like it affects the whole town…or, ok that will require work, but it is not impossible…”
I’ll report more as we progress.
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