Even with social media, ideas still travel slowly
This is a continuation of the post “In internet age, ideas still travel slowly” in which I discussed how hard it is for cities to adopt best design practices because ideas are still slow to travel. It doesn’t matter how connected we’ve become, it seems like every city must “discover” an idea for themselves to be able to implement it, delaying the process immensely.
Can social media play a role in speeding up the process? You’d think so, based on the amount of hype that concept has had over the past couple of years.
There are definite advantages. Theoretically, people can see photos their friends took in NYC, London, Tokyo or Mexico City of innovative road treatments or transit methods that don’t exist back home. They can then jump over to the facebook page of a council-member, city department or mayor-outreach page and post the picture with a comment asking for the same to be done at home. That should get the ball rolling and have the city be more responsive to the idea when it’s raised at a community meeting.