Does social media mean the world of Mad Men style persuasion is really over? Think twice before you answer. Illustration: Dyna Moe.
Last month, a really cool video on the impacts of social media got updated. I’m referring to this video, produced by Eric Qualman at Socialnomics:

I’m a big fan of the video, and often use [...]

Picture this. You, Average Q. Planner, are at an open house for a public project, to help people learn more. You are asked by a citizen for more information on something, and you state, “oh, go look on the project web site, your answers are all there.” You are then asked a few more specific [...]

Attendance at the IAP2 Cascade Chapter workshop on hostile public meetings was exceptionally high, with over one hundred public participation practitioners in the audience for the afternoon event.
Last Thursday, the Cascade Chapter of the International Association for Public Participation (IAP2) hosted its Public Meetings SOS workshop at the Kennedy School in Portland. The event exceeding [...]

“This newsstand closed due to overwhelming theft.”
Over last weekend, I attended the We Make The Media conference at the University of Oregon’s Turnbull Center. The purpose of the conference was to discuss the future of journalism, both in general, and in the Portland metropolitan region. I have already commented on the experience of attending the [...]

Government-citizen relations have always had a high degree of tension. It’s inevitable. Citizens feel they lack power to control their lives and perceive the government as monolithic, while government workers feel that citizens are loose canons that can control the process of their work. This mutual misjudgment is the cause of many, many disputes, as [...]

As the CNU Transportation Summit winds down on its last day, I’d like to go over some thoughts I’ve been having about how communications were employed throughout the event. My focus will be heavy on how new media was employed, both good and bad, throughout the conference.
First off, lets start with the trendiest of all [...]

Should cities grow and adapt using lessons from the high tech industry? Image: Merger HDR New York, from Flickr user diceliving.
Stan Curtis from IBM Smart Cities presented what was likely the most challenging presentation given today.
Curtis first laid out some key concepts. First, the Earth, as Thomas Friedman pointed out in his book, is [...]

The Willamette Shore Trolley’s ex Portland Traction car 813 is seen here in Riverwood (near Dunthorpe) in 2003. This old railroad line may become an extension of the Portland Streetcar.
Last week, there was yet more grumbling about the Lake Oswego-Potland transit project, this time from Jack Bogdanski. The complaints were, in effect, that the use [...]

I am a strong advocate for government transparency. As I have written before, one of the greatest causes of conflict between citizens and their governments has been, in my estimation, a lack of clear communication between these two integral parties. Transparency can help to change that dynamic by improving the ability of citizens to know [...]

Will 21st century public meetings law in Oregon be bound by 20th century definitions? The City of Lake Oswego seems to hope so.
Oregon has a reputation as a state with a high degree of transparency, thanks largely to its open meetings laws (see ORS 192.610, or the Oregon Department of Justice’s Public Meetings Handbook). Yet [...]