Kilkenny County Council has just released a new Wiki on which it invites collaboration with members of the public on the development of Local Area Plans for townlands in Kilkenny.
(I am an IS project manager for Kilkenny County Council and this wiki is one of my current projects.)
We believe that this project represents the first use of a Wiki by a government organisation in Ireland as part of a public consultative process.
The aim of this wiki is to enable interested and engaged members of the public to participate online in a collaborative discussion around the development of future Local Area Plans (LAPs). Any interested parties can register themselves on the wiki and can then make changes or additions to articles within the LAPs. Comments can also be made on any of the content of the wiki. When a change, addition or comment is made on the wiki it enters a queue for moderation by a member of Kilkenny County Council Staff. Contributions will be moderated for defacement or for improper use; all contributions made in good faith will be approved and will become visible on the wiki for all visitors to read. During office hours all contributions will be reviewed as soon as possible following their addition. All contributions made outside of office hours will be reviewed as soon as possible on the next working day.
It is intended to leave all valid contributions online and following the close of the consultative period to leave this wiki online (but locked) as a document of record.
We believe that this wiki will help to enable enhanced transparency within the consultative process and will also permit a wider group of interested parties to participate in the process.
A comment on or contribution to an article on the wiki does not constitute a submission to the local area plan, rather the wiki is intended as a mechanism to enhance collaboration and debate with the public and any interested parties and also as a mechanism to enhance transparency.
All contributions to this wiki will however, be considered by the Planning Department in the formulation of the plans.
The Draft Plans of Callan and Castlecomer are being used to pilot the use of a wiki as part of a consultative process. If successful it is intended to use the system with all future local area plans.
You can visit the wiki here: http://wiki.kilkennycoco.ie/
7 responses so far ↓
1 Mark Elliott // Aug 18, 2008 at 4:43 am
Well done with the planning wiki! My company http://collabforge.com consulted for and built the http://futuremelbourne.com.au planning wiki here in Melbourne – perhaps you’ve seen it? The wiki was not only open for one month of input to anyone in the world (about 6,500 unique visits and 200 contributions to the wiki between mid May & mid June ’08), but it was also used as a core platform for the internal collaborative development of Melbourne’s ten year plan. Happy to discuss further as I’m sure are the City of Melbourne’s Future Melbourne team.
Kind regards,
Mark
2 Heather Koop // Oct 17, 2008 at 5:06 pm
I’m researching the use of wikis in the planning process and am wondering if you could direct me to any academic literature on this topic. Many thanks.
3 mark // Oct 29, 2008 at 10:54 am
Hi Heather,
I am not aware of any academic literature on this topic. As far as I know the Melbourne and Kilkenny wiki’s are the first two uses of wikis for this purpose.
Below is the link for the Melbourne Wiki
http://www.futuremelbourne.com.au/wiki/view/FMPlan
Howard Rheingold has also interviewed Mark Elliott, project manager for the Melbourne Wiki project about the use of wikis in city planning.(link below)
http://e.blip.tv/scripts/flash/showplayer.swf?file=http%3A%2F%2Fblip.tv%2Frss%2Fflash%2F1081372%3Freferrer%3Dhttp%25253A%25252F%25252Fskilfulminds.com%25252F2008%25252F07%25252F16%25252Ffuturemelbourne-wikis-in-city-planning%25252F%26source%3D3&showplayerpath=http%3A%2F%2Fblip.tv%2Fscripts%2Fflash%2Fshowplayer.swf&feedurl=http%3A%2F%2FHowardRheingold.blip.tv%2Frss%2Fflash&brandname=blip.tv&brandlink=http%3A%2F%2Fblip.tv%2F%3Futm_source%3Dbrandlink&enablejs=true
See also:
http://www.techpresident.com/blog/entry/30371/future_melbourne_can_a_civic_wiki_redistribute_power_or_is_it_one_more_place_to_vent
Mark
4 Mark Elliot talks with Howard Rheingold about the Melbourne Planning Wiki // Oct 29, 2008 at 11:22 am
[...] http://www.rialtas.net/blog/2008/07/31/kilkenny-county-council-planning-wiki-first-use-of-a-wiki-by-... [...]
5 James Abel // Mar 26, 2009 at 3:17 am
Hello Mark,
We at Spire Consulting are working with a large (for NZ) regional council to help them improve the update & subsequent submission processing of their 10 year regional plan. I am really interested in what you have done in Melbourne. Can I ask what the time frame was to develop the wiki, what software you used and on a different note whether they have decided how it will be used long term?
The site looks great by the way.
James
6 mark // Mar 26, 2009 at 9:24 am
Hi James, thanks for your comment. It was Mark Elliott that implemented the Melbourne Wiki. You can contact him via http://mark-elliott.net/blog/
7 Kilkenny County Council Launches Collaborative Website for Local Area Plans // Jun 24, 2010 at 3:38 pm
[...] site represents an evolution of our planning wiki project , the new site is easier to use and to navigate than the wiki site and allows interested [...]
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