Community Remarks™

Use Street View to see in context

goddess — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 16:59:39 +0000

Street view helps you to transition from map view. Drag the orange avatar to the map, the streets will highlight blue where street view is available. When it loads, you will be able to walk down the street to view the existing conditions and citizen comments from a different perspective.

Put citizen comments on a map

goddess — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 16:43:38 +0000

Now there is an easy way for citizens to share ideas and opinions about places in their neighborhood. Discover what works and what doesn’t in the initial planning process. Re-purpose the application to illustrate your recommendations and receive valuable feedback throughout the planning process.

Commuity Remarks is Affordable

goddess — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 15:24:32 +0000

Commuity Remarks™ is affordable and fits within most project budgets. It is scalable to fit your needs, modifications to functionality and layout are easily and quickly accommodated. Upgrade your community engagement strategy in a matter of hours with this application!

Share ideas to reach a wider audience

goddess — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 15:17:10 +0000

Community Remarks™ drives traffic because it provides an opportunity for users to share comments collectively on a map. Users share links to the application with their networks to gain even more exposure.

Drag and drop on a map

goddess — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 14:43:55 +0000

Comments are added to the map by selecting the placemark and dragging it to the desired location. Users then fill out the form and submit it. They have an opportunity to edit their comment before it is visible on the site.

Users are not required to create an account which reduces the barrier to entry.

Add a community map to your website

goddess — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 14:12:39 +0000

Featured Project: Ann Arbor Transit Authority

goddess — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 13:28:49 +0000

The Ann Arbor Transportation Authority (The Ride) has set out with a bold, shared vision for connecting Washtenaw communities through public transportation. The Moving You Forward Transit Master Plan for Washtenaw County identifies the transit challenges and needs of County residents over the next 30 years, and provides options and scenarios to address them. As part of the planning effort, The Ride hired Carlisle/Wortman to lead a public outreach effort to gather feedback on the Plan. Given the need to reach a wide and diverse group, Carlisle/Wortman realized that traditional community outreach had to be complemented with unique community engagement techniques.

One such technique is the Community Remarks™ tool. The Community Remarks™ tool is a customized web mapped-based program built on Google Map software. It provides an alternative method to attract and engage a larger audience by allowing participation from the comfort of home or office.

Citizens want to be more engaged. They want to highlight assets, issues, and concerns and show you what works and what doesn’t in their community. This interactive mapping tool makes that possible.

Features include:

Ability to post geographic-specific comments
Ability to load maps
Ability to load pictures
Ability to “Like” or “Dislike” comments

In a period of 2 months, The Ride site generated 762 comments, from hundreds of unique users. These comments have assisted The Ride in their ongoing efforts to tailor the Moving You Forward Transit Master Plan to meet the transit needs of county residents. For more information about The Ride’s Community Remarks tool, please visit www.communityremarks.com/theride.

Use the right technology to better engage your community

goddess — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 02:17:48 +0000

Community Remarks™ is an easy-to-use comment map on a website to facilitate dialog about land use such as redevelopment opportunities, the preservation of historic structures, community character, and zoning. Use it as an asset map, informal preference survey, and feedback platform to reach a larger audience and provide a fun platform for citizens to communicate about their neighborhood.

“The Community Comments tool has been a great way for AATA to gather community feedback quickly and systematically. Because all of our services have a geographic component, the ability to PLOT comments has been extremely valuable – comments come to us ‘pre-sorted’ by location. It is also nice for those making the comments, because they can see what others have said about the areas they care about.”

Michael Benham,
Ann Arbor Transit Authority
Special Assistant for Strategic Planning

Collaborate

Citizens can help you create more livable communities; they are begging for a way to share their insight about their neighborhoods with planners. Now, a collaboration map application expands your project website’s capabilities.

Real-time Email Updates

You want to provide the flexibility for people to submit their ideas without jumping through hoops, right? Let’s face it, we love instant results! Citizens will be able to see their remarks live but you will be notified instantly in case something offensive is submitted.

Easy Mapping

You want to highlight a community’s assets: development, historic districts, and main streets. The public wants to show you what works and what doesn’t in their community. An interactive map makes it possible.

Images

Photographs provide context and can be very helpful in showing location-based information. Image files in gif, png, and jpeg can be uploaded and viewed inside the map balloon as well as enlarged to full size.

Comment Voting

Each comment can be voted up or down allowing good ideas to rise to the top. Comments are arranged on the page based on the number of votes it has received allowing you to differentiate feedback.

Community Feedback

Comments are collected around map topics you setup. For instance, your map could have a recommendations section, redevelopment section, and historic district section to collect specific types of information.

Now is the time to do more with available technology.

Garner valuable feedback
Increase turnout at public meetings
Aid in the development of plan-making
Attract media coverage
Be user-friendly and hip
Let us support the technical details

Share Place-based Comments

goddess — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 19:14:08 +0000