Tag: best practices

Categories : UncategorizedTags : Leave a comment

Even with social media, ideas still travel slowly

On By jamesinclair

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. Click to read more!

Categories : UncategorizedTags : 2 Comments

In internet age, ideas still travel slowly

On By jamesinclair

We’re all very familiar with the idea that if a volcano blows in Indonesia, a plane crashes in Paraguay or a riot breaks out in Helsinki, news of the event will reach every corner of the globe in a couple of hours. The world is of course connected and news can travel quickly.

Theoretically, ideas can travel as quickly as news, and yet it seems that it isn’t the case. Indeed, new ideas, which may be fantastic, well-proven concepts, can take years to be spread and accepted.

When it comes to adopting proven best-practices, that’s a huge roadblock.

Two things inspired me to write this post. One, is the announcement that the New York City bike-share system will launch this summer and be sponsored by Citibank. What caught my eye was the parade of articles about the concept that followed the press releases. The second thing that inspired me to write this post are the songs I heard on the radio today. Those two concepts might seem unrelated, but they both show how ideas still spread slowly. Click to read more!