Process Framework

Local Community Engagement 1, 2, 3 & 4

[Update: Part 5 expands on our aim toward a community engagement.]

Three I's of County Planning

A recent Senior Executive Seminar at Esri UC 2019 nailed some governing principles behind our type of work. This talk from Vihiga County, Kenya highlighted "Three I's of county planning":

We looked at three important principles, and these are the principles of rational decision-making. First is the information, we need information for planning. From there you can come up with the initiatives that will bring about the development within our areas of jurisdiction. And finally we need to monitor the impacts of those initiatives. 

Our initiative is based on newly available open data that help map out the infrastructure so that residents and visitors can find businesses and facilities on one hand, and the local council and business can advertise where they are and what they offer on the other hand.

We work with Sustainable Cottenham (SusCott),  a volunteer group of residents under the aegis of Cottenham Parish Council, and provide a touch-stone, a talking point that could engage both local council and the public: provide an ecological infrastructure assessment template.

Lastly we propose to monitor the impact of such efforts: we can use OS Greenspace and other open data to depict current status, interview stakeholders what their desired status is, and use an environmental assessment workflow to discuss how all can move to desired status.

Top Ten tips for Policy Mapping

This Esri white paper spells out what we started doing in the story map mentioned previously:

1. ask questions
2. find the data you need
3. make the opportunities to intervene clear
4. visualize , overlay & analyze
5. understand the power of color
6. use numbers that matter
7. create compelling charts and statistics
8. consider your audience
9. create a call to action
10. ask more questions

Smart cities are decades away: but open cities are within reach

This Digital Leaders blog promotes Open Data Institute's idea of mapping data ecosystems by creating a visual map that illustrates how data is being accessed, used and shared by a variety of organisations.

Our first step is to rationalise the current disparate datasets spread out among, say, Cambridgeshire.net (under construction), Cambridgeshire Insight, Cottenham Wikipedia etc., and make them accessible through a common portal not unlike EsriUK ArcGIS Hub.

"Think globally, act locally"

OpenActive offer comprehensive resources online. They are "a set of standards allowing activity organisers to publish open data about their activities, and data consumers to take that data and incorporate it into their applications". They recently sent an open call to "[w]ork with [them] to open up or use data about outdoor opportunities". We plan to do just that also with GeoVation (Ordnance Survey outreach arm) and with Ordnance Survey's own open data as mentioned before to help achieve the goals summarised in the closing Elevator Pitch.

In addition to this broad view, we've been talking locally to our village's Cottenham Parish Council, Histon Impington and Royston (Herts.), as well as local County Council and Cambs. Insight already mentioned. Watch this space for developments, as for example we offer platforms for villages to plan their future developments for business and environmental sustainability.

Elevator pitch

• Cottenham Open proposes to address: How can we foster local business and community engagement, by providing open access to local geographic and environmental data that are time stamped? We're working with Cottenhham Parish Council (CPC) subgroups into Wellbeing, and talking to others in surrounding Councils.
• We're attempting to provide a framework for rational decision-making, in order to foster inter-agency cooperation that promote the well-being for CPC inhabitants. That includes:
  - environment as the host
  - infrastructure in that environment to sustain initiatives, and
  - businesses that make the wheel go 'round by offering needed goods&services
• Our initiative is based on newly available open data that help map out the infrastructure so that visitors can find businesses and facilities on one hand, and on the other hand, so that CPC businesses can inform where they are and what they offer.